Abstract:

Regional income distribution, which shows the proportion that people living in different regions of a country take from income, is one of the important criteria reflecting the developmental differences between regions. The disappearance of interregional differences over time means that the regions are converging. Convergence will point to the development process in the whole country if the undeveloped regions are catching the advanced ones. However, if convergence arises as a result of the retroaction of the developed regions, the opposite is the case. One of the issues highlighted in literature is that the development levels of the regions can also be explained by neighborhood relationships. Therefore, it is of particular importance that neighborhood effects are taken into account in convergence analyses. In this study, income distribution convergence for NUTS 2 regions in Turkey is analyzed for the period of 2003-2014, 2003-2015 and 2003-2016, by using cross-sectional data. Within the scope of the analysis, which also included spatial effects, for the period 2003-2014 both beta convergence and spatial dependence were determined. For 2003-2015 and 2003-2016 periods while beta convergence were realized but no spatial effect was observed. As of the research period the findings indicate that the NUTS 2 regions in Turkey are converging at the deteriorating national income distribution level.