The impact of container transport on economic growth in Turkey: An ARDL bounds testing approach

• Published in: Research in transportation economics 2021-09, Vol.88, p.101002, Article 101002
• Main Authors: Özer, Mustafa, Canbay, Şerif, Kırca, Mustafa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ARDL bounds Testing approach; Economic growth; Intermodal transport; Maritime container transport; Railway container transport
• ISSN: 0739-8859; 1875-7979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2020.101002

This study aims to analyse the effects of maritime and rail container transports on the economic growth in Turkey with annual data for the period 1991–2016 using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) based bounds testing approach. The empirical findings of the study show the existence of a cointegration between the variables. Additionally, according to the results of the analysis, there was no significant relationship between economic growth and rail container transport. On the other hand, maritime container transport has a positive and statistically significant impact on economic growth both in the short- and long-run. These findings could be used to develop an extensive and efficient container transport system which contributes more to international trade, thus to economic growth of Turkey. •The maritime container transportation system makes significant contribution to economic growth in both short-and long-run.•The railway container transportation fails to contribute to economic growth neither short-run nor long-run.•Turkey needs new container transportation policy to increase the contribution of maritime and railway container transportation to economic growth.