Turkish strongEconomicstrong Development An Overview.pdfVIP

This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Volume 3: Country Studies - Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Turkey Volume Author/Editor: Jeffrey D. Sachs and Susan M. Collins, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-226-30455-8 Volume URL: /books/sach89-2 Conference Date: September 21-23, 1987 Publication Date: 1989 Chapter Title: Turkish Economic Development: An Overview Chapter Author: Merih Celâsun, Dani Rodrik Chapter URL: /chapters/c9057 Chapter pages in book: (p. 617 - 629) 1 Turkish Economic Development: An Overview This monograph is an analysis of the interactions between external debt and internal adjustment in Turkey since the early 1970s.As an oil-importing, middle-income economy, Turkey experienced a series of external shocks after 1973.Correspondingly, it went through a cycle of foreign borrowing and a sequence of sharply altered policy phases. Two important questions arise from Turkey’s experience in this period. First, what were the underlying reasons for Turkey’s debt debacle in the late 1370s?Our interest here centers on the puzzling fact that Turkey entered its debt crisis considerabIy earlier than most other middle-income countries. Secondly, how can we interpret the adjustment experience of the Turkish economy in the early 1980s?This question is of obvious comparative interest as it has become commonplace by now to point to Turkey’s example as a successful case of “life after debt.” In what follows we will attempt to provide synthetic answers to both of these questions. Since this requires a fairly broad view, however, our monograph can also be read as an analytical macroeconomic history of the Turkish economy during the last two and a half decades. We should stress at the outset that our emphasis is on macroeconomic pheno