Gülden Erkut, Mete Başar Baypinar, ITU Urban and Regional Planning Deparment Regional Planning Section, Istanbul, Turkey
Diversification of Human Capital and Regional Development in Turkey (assigned to theme
Concentration of human capital and diversity of economic sectors within a region are believed to be a major determinant of development performance. A high concentration of highly skilled workers usually refer to a more innovative region, and thus an increasing level of productivity, leading to better regional development performance. This is also true for Turkey where three metropolitan centres which employ much higher shares of scientific, technical and related workforce also posses above-the-average GDP levels than the country. Almost 43% of all these workers were employed in these three regions at 2000. However, the size of these metropolitan areas might hide different patterns of development in other regions, especially like new growth centres which have emerged since 1980 following the decentralisation of manufacturing industries within the country, or like border regions which represent new opportunities of development. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the relationship between the development performance of NUTS III level regions and the diversification of human capital in Turkey in the post 1980 period.
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(copyright Gunther Maier) |