Convergence in Per-Capita GDP Across Turkish Provinces: A Spatial Econometrics Approach

The basis of convergence between economies to test the validity of modern economic growth theories reveals the importance of income distribution of provinces. The inter provinces distribution of income per capita data calculated by the night lights of studies to compare Turkey with GDP data was made using data calculated by conventional methods. City based investigations were conducted. Spatial analysis was applied in model estimation. Spatial Durbin, spatial autoregressive and spatial error models created under the absolute and conditional convergence hypotheses were estimated by the maximum likelihood (ML) method. Wald test was preferred to determine the appropriate model. In line with the basic findings; according to the results of the analysis of both datasets in terms of income distributions, it is determined that there is convergence between provinces.