How competitive is Turkey in meeting international labor standards and in international trade?

Abstract

Turkey has recently emerged as an economy with one of the highest growth rates in an otherwise dismal global environment. The country has become the world's fifteenth largest and Europe's seventh largest economy, with a decade-long economic boom and rising exports and imports. This chapter seeks to determine whether Turkey has been able to avoid, during this exceptional performance, the temptation to lower labor standards in the belief that it might provide greater comparative advantage in international trade. In this context, the study analyzes the competitiveness of the country in global trade in the last decade using the empirical measures of comparative advantage and determines the extent to which the country is conforming to international labor standards, on the basis of applicable data.