Spatial disparities across the regions of Turkey: an exploratory spatial data analysis

The aim of this paper is to perform an exploratory spatial data analysis on the growth and development level of the 76 Turkish regions over 1995-2001. While our choropleth maps indicate that the Western part of the country is significantly more developed than the East, the tools of spatial statistics reveal the presence of spatial dependence across provinces. The presence of heterogeneity is reflected in the distribution of Local Indicators of Spatial Association statistics. Overall, our results shed new light on the distribution of growth across Turkish regions and its relation with public investments and human capital, two indicators of development.