THE MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REGIONAL INCOME AND DEFORESTATION: A STUDY ON TURKEY/BOLGESEL GELIR VE ORMANSIZLASMA ARASINDAKI KARSILIKLI ILISKI: TURKIYE UZERINE BIR CALISMA

This paper addresses the bilateral relationship between growth and environment. It aims to show how regional economic growth causes environmental deterioration, while the environmental resources function in turn as a supply factor for economic development. A simultaneous-equations model is developed and applied to test this two-way relationship statistically, where economic growth is measured by regional income, and environmental deterioration by deforestation. Using data from 26 NUTS 2 regions in Turkey between the years 2004 and 2014, the results of the two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression analysis reveal strong evidence on the presence of a mutual relationship between deforestation and regional income, while lagged deforestation is a statistically significant positive determinant of income growth, and vice versa. Keywords: Economic growth; simultaneous-equations; deforestation; two-stage regression. Bu calisma, buyume ve cevre arasindaki iki tarafli iliskiyi ele almaktadir. Calismanin amaci, bolgesel ekonomik buyumenin cevresel bozulmaya (ormansizlasma) nasil etki ettigini ve ayni zamanda cevresel kaynaklarin ekonomik kalkinma icin bir arz faktoru olarak islevini gostermektir. Bu iki yonlu iliskinin istatistiksel olarak test edilmesi icin eszamanli denklemler modeli gelistirilmeli ve uygulanmalidir. Bu ampirik uygulamada, ekonomik buyume bolgesel gelir, cevresel bozulma ise ormansizlasma ile olculmekte ve Turkiye'de 26 IBBS 2 bolgesinin 2004 ve 2014 yillari arasindaki verileri kullanilmaktadir. Iki asamali en kucuk kareler (2SLS) regresyon analizi sonuclari, ormansizlasma ile bolgesel gelir arasinda karsilikli bir iliski olduguna dair guclu kanitlar ortaya koyarken, gecikmis ormansizlasmanin gelir artisinin istatistiksel olarak onemli ve olumlu bir belirleyicisi oldugu gozlemlenmistir. Anahtar Sozcukler: Ekonomik buyume; es zamanli denklemler; ormansizlasma; iki asamali en kucuk kareler.