Government Quality and Regional Development in Turkey

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of government quality on regional development differences in Turkey. First set of results obtained from spatial data analysis show that individuals’ perception on government services is spatially non-random. Moreover this spatial pattern is subject to substantial level of clustering behavior; as there are different spatial regimes shaping regions’ perception. Second set of analysis underline that ties among government quality and regional development are relatively weak. Specifically for certain public services, level of perception and regional wellbeing is even inversely related. More interestingly further spatial variability analysis shows that, relationship between government quality and regional development is positive among some mid-developed northern regions, while for less developed eastern regions as well as developed metropolitan areas individuals level of satisfaction and regional development witness either negative or relatively weak association. These results suggest the existence of sizeable local instabilities in explaining spatial distribution of government quality in Turkey. Moreover results also underline that individuals and regions from different socio-economic background tend to perceive level of government services as less satisfactory albeit they enjoy different level of development. This reminds that there are different motives behind negative perception of government quality among less developed and developed regions of Turkey.