Analysis of Capital Flight in Developing Countries: A Study on Turkey between 1980 and 2010

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between Capital flight and some macroeconomic variables by using anual data between 1980 and 2010 in Turkey. Capital flight measured by World Bank (1985) method, was used as dependent variable and external debt, foreign direct investment, uncertainty, real GDP growth, exchange rates, trade balance and consumer price index were used as independent variables. Ordinary Least squares estimation method, Johansen-Jeselius cointegration test, Granger causality test and variance decomposition results produced by VEC model were used in the study. After those econometrics and economics analysis, this paper put forward that there is a long run relationship between some macroeconomic variables and capital flight.The results show external debt, foreign direct investment inflows, and foreign reserves to be the major effector of capital flight.