Does Trade Openness Affect Energy Security? Empirical Evidence from Türkiye

Trade openness can create advantageous and disadvantageous situations for national economies. The impacts of trade openness on energy security are also crucial for policymakers, especially in countries dependent on fossil resources. This study aims to identify the link between trade openness and energy security and to prove that trade openness is one of the determinants of energy security for the Turkish economy. In the study, long-run analysis was carried out using cointegration analysis based on time series analysis. We used Türkiye's annual data for the period 1980-2018. Empirical findings point to a long-run relationship between the variables. According to the estimation results, trade openness increases the energy security risk. This result shows that increasing trade openness increases energy security risk due to the scale effect. We can say that the scale and composition effects dominate the relationship between openness and energy security for Türkiye. As can be seen from the study's empirical results, there is a significant relationship between trade openness and energy security in Türkiye, both in the short and long run. In this context, policymakers need to implement energy policies and trade policies simultaneously and with consideration for each other.