Public investment and regional politics: The case of Turkey

The determinants of the regional allocation of transportation and communication investments are analysed for the twenty-six statistical regions of Turkey for the years 1999 through 2011. A unique regional GVA series covering this period is constructed for this purpose. We specifically account for the possibility of dependence between allocation decisions for different infrastructure types. Estimation results strongly suggest that political bias has been present in the allocation decisions of regional transportation and communication public investments in Turkey.

Keywords: Public Infrastructure, Regional Policy, Investment Allocation.

JEL Classification: P16, R1, R42, R58, H54.