Technological Intensity, International Technology Transfer and Productivity in the Turkish Automotive Parts Industry Mehmet Cemil Simsek Department of Economics This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2017 To my family Declaration I confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources hasbeen properly and fully acknowledged. Mehmet Cemil Simsek March 2017 Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisors, Mr. Mark Casson and Mr. Nigel Wadeson for their invaluable guidance and support. I would also like to thank Ms. Nigar Hashimzade for initially supervising my PhD. Furthermore, I am indebted to Mr. Pascal Mossay, Ms. Uma Kambhampati, Mr. Simon Burke, Mr. Robert Pearce and Mr. Allan Webster for their comments and suggestions which helped me to improve my work. My great thanks also go to my colleagues at Reading Economics for their encouragement and support. I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of the Turkish Statistical Institute’s Adana Regional Office, where a substantial part of this research was carried outwith a special protocol to access confidential enterprise level datasets, for their hospitality. Generous financial support from the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Turkey is also greatly acknowledged. My studies in the UK would not be possible without constant encouragement, support and patience of every member of my family whom deserves the greatest gratitude. I would like to convey my apologies if I have failed to acknowledge any contributions, I hope my apologies will be accepted. Abstract This study investigates whether there are productivity effects through international tech- nology transfer in the Turkish automotive parts industry. Being at sector level, previous studies cannot account for heterogeneities across sectors and within sectors. Before con- ducting this investigation, this study develops a more accurate measure of technological intensity for individual automotive parts, namely patent counts enabling identification of technological and economic characteristics of the industry. Focusing mainly on the motor vehicle assembly section of the industry, previous case studies have not thoroughly examined the automotive parts supply section. Hence, this study does not only enhance the understanding of both motor vehicle assembly and automotive parts supply sections of the industry, but it also provides insights into technological and economic relations of the global automotive industry with a developing economy. This study reveals first that the Turkish automotive industry is a motor vehicle assem- bly hub integrated well with the European automotive value chain. Second, higher the technological intensity of an automotive part, greater the import of that automotive part becomes, whereas smaller the export of that automotive part becomes in Turkey during 2002-2013. On the other hand, there is not clear technological intensity concentration on automotive parts produced in Turkey during 2005-2012, to some extent, reflecting the recent R&D efforts pursued by the industry to build up technological capability. Third, automotive parts supplying enterprises with international linkages in Turkey are more productive, pay more and employ more during 2003-2011. Therefore, this study argues that the government should specifically promote design and R&D activities, and international economic interactions of automotive parts suppliers more that increasingly constitute a larger section of the industry. Keywords: Technological Intensity Measurement, Patent Counts, Imports, Exports, Production, International Direct Investment, International Technology Transfer, Productiv- ity, Motor Vehicles, Automotive Parts, Motor Vehicle Assembling Enterprises, Automotive Parts Supplying Enterprises, Automotive Manufacturing Industry, Market, Turkey, Global Table of Contents List of Figures xv List of Tables xvii List of Abbreviations xix 1 Introduction1 1.1 Motivation . .1 1.2 Objectives of the Study and Main Research Questions . .2 1.3 Methodology and Data . .4 1.4 Contributions of the Study . .4 1.5 Overview of the Study . .7 2 Descriptive Analysis of the Global Automotive Sector9 2.1 Introduction . .9 2.2 Structure of the Global Automotive Sector . 13 2.3 General Economic Characteristics of the Global Automotive Industry . 16 2.3.1 Total, Automotive and Motor Vehicle Imports across Regions and Major Countries . 17 2.3.1.1 Total Imports across Regions and Major Countries . 17 2.3.1.2 Automotive Imports across Regions and Major Countries 20 2.3.1.3 Motor Vehicle Imports across Regions and Major Coun- tries . 26 2.3.2 Total, Automotive and Motor Vehicle Exports across Regions and Major Countries . 29 2.3.2.1 Total Exports across Regions and Major Countries . 29 2.3.2.2 Automotive Exports across Regions and Major Countries 32 2.3.2.3 Motor Vehicle Exports across Regions and Major Coun- tries . 41 2.3.3 Motor Vehicle Assembly across Regions and Major Countries . 45 2.4 The Global Automotive Market . 51 2.4.1 Motor Vehicle Sales across Regions and Major Countries . 51 2.4.2 Motor Vehicle in Use across Regions and Major Countries . 57 xii Table of Contents 2.5 Findings on Automotive Sector Structures of Major Countries . 62 2.6 Summary . 68 3 Descriptive Analysis of the Turkish Automotive Sector 71 3.1 Introduction . 71 3.2 Structure of the Turkish Automotive Sector . 73 3.3 International Automotive Trade Characteristics . 79 3.3.1 Total, Automotive and Motor Vehicle Imports of Turkey . 79 3.3.1.1 Total Imports of Turkey . 80 3.3.1.2 Automotive Imports of Turkey . 82 3.3.1.3 Motor Vehicle Imports of Turkey . 88 3.3.2 Total, Automotive and Motor Vehicle Exports of Turkey . 90 3.3.2.1 Total Exports of Turkey . 91 3.3.2.2 Automotive Exports of Turkey . 93 3.3.2.3 Motor Vehicle Exports of Turkey . 101 3.4 Findings on Turkey’s International Automotive Trade Patterns with its Partners . 104 3.5 Summary . 108 4 Descriptive Analysis of the Turkish Automotive Manufacturing Industry 111 4.1 Introduction . 111 4.2 Significance of the Turkish Automotive Industry . 113 4.3 Descriptive Economic Analysis of Automotive Enterprises in Turkey . 117 4.3.1 International and Local Motor Vehicle Assemblers . 117 4.3.1.1 General Economic Characteristics . 118 4.3.1.2 Motor Vehicle Assemblers of the Status of Certified R&D Centre . 121 4.3.1.3 Characteristics of Channels of International Technology Transfer . 123 4.3.1.4 International Trade Characteristics . 125 4.3.1.5 Production Characteristics . 128 4.3.2 International and Local Automotive Parts Suppliers . 134 4.3.2.1 General Economic Characteristics . 134 4.3.2.2 Automotive Parts Suppliers of the Status of Certified R&D Centre . 138 4.3.2.3 Characteristics of Channels of International Technology Transfer . 140 4.3.2.4 International Trade Characteristics . 142 4.3.2.5 Production Characteristics . 147 4.4 Summary . 156 Table of Contents xiii 5 Measuring Technological Intensity at Automotive Parts Level 159 5.1 Introduction . 159 5.2 Developing a Technological Intensity Measure at Automotive Parts Level 161 5.2.1 Literature on Measures of Technological Intensity . 161 5.2.2 Data Sources of Measures of Technological Intensity . 167 5.2.3 Methodology of a New Technological Intensity Measure . 170 5.2.4 Comparison of Different Measures of Technological Intensity . 173 5.3 Modularisation in the Automotive Industry . 176 5.4 Automotive Parts Level Technological and Economic Analyses . 177 5.4.1 Automotive Parts Level Specifications . 177 5.4.2 Data and Summary Statistics . 179 5.4.3 Findings on Automotive Parts Level Specifications . 179 5.5 Summary . 185 6 Technology Transfer and Productivity in the Turkish Automotive Parts In- dustry 187 6.1 Introduction . 187 6.2 Literature on Channels of International Technology Transfer . 190 6.3 International Linkages and Economic Performance Measures . 199 6.3.1 Findings on International Linkages and Economic Performance Measures . 203 6.4 Link between Channels of International Technology Transfer and Produc- tivity . 207 6.4.1 Findings on the Link between Channels of International Technol- ogy Transfer and Productivity . 209 6.5 Summary . 216 7 Conclusion 217 7.1 Introduction . 217 7.2 Overview of Main Findings . 218 7.3 Recommendations of the Study and Policy Implications . 222 7.4 Limitations of the Study and Recommendations for Future Research . 225 References 229 Appendix A Data Sources 239 Appendix B Construction of Enterprise Level Variables 241 Appendix C Estimation of Production Function at Enterprise Level 247 Appendix D Lists 249 xiv Table of Contents Appendix E Tables 285 Appendix F Figures 291 List of Figures 2.1 The Value Chain of Automotive Sector . 15 F.1 Map of Statistical Regions of Turkey (NUTS 2) . 292 F.2 An Example Patent Document for Tire . 293 F.3 An Example Patent Search for Tires . 294 List of Tables 2.1 Total Imports across Regions and Major Countries . 18 2.2 Automotive Imports across Regions and Major Countries . 23 2.3 Motor Vehicle Imports across Regions and Major Countries . 27 2.4 Total Exports across Regions and Major Countries . 30 2.5 Automotive Exports across Regions and Major Countries . 38 2.6 Motor Vehicle Exports across Regions and Major Countries . 43 2.7 Motor Vehicle Assembly across Regions and Major Countries . 48 2.8 Motor Vehicle Sales across Regions and Major Countries . 54 2.9 Motor Vehicle in Use across Regions and Major Countries . 59 3.1 Motor Vehicle Assembling Enterprises in Turkey . 74 3.2 Total Imports of Turkey from Regions and Major Countries . 80 3.3 Automotive Imports of Turkey from Regions and Major Countries . 85 3.4 Motor Vehicle Imports of Turkey from Regions and Major Countries . 89 3.5 Total Exports of Turkey to Regions and Major Countries . 92 3.6 Automotive Exports of Turkey to Regions and Major Countries . 98 3.7 Motor Vehicle Exports of Turkey to Regions and Major Countries .