The Effect of Economic Integrations in The European Union and ASEAN Framework on Turkey's Technology Transfer

For countries, economic integration is of great importance as it enables market and market integration, increase of national income, protection from economic polarization and technological diffusion. Another important issue for countries is to increase their technology capacities by providing technological transformation. There are two alternatives in the literature to increase technological capacity. The first alternative is to concentrate on R&D activities and to produce its own technology, and the second and most preferred method is to transfer technology. For this reason, determining the effect of economic integrations on technology transfer from the mutual relationship between economic integration and technological transformation, which is important for countries in today's international competitive environment, has been evaluated as a research topic. The aim of our study is to examine the effects of EU and ASEAN integrations on Turkey's technology transfer through integrations and high technology production within the country within the framework of the research subject. In the analysis part of the study, data from Turkey, European Union (EU) and ASEAN covering the years 1996-2021 were used. Peseran, Shin and Smith (2001) ARDL limit test approach was determined as the method suitable for the purpose of the study. As a result of the analysis, significant and positive results have been obtained in the short and long term for the European Union (EU) and ASEAN, and it has been determined that the EU has a greater contribution to increasing the technology capacity in Turkey among economic integrations. In addition, another result from the analysis is that foreign direct investments (FDI) and high technology imports from both integrations have contributed to the technology level of Turkey.