Innovation or Commercialization? Evidence from Firm-Level Staggered Entry into Technology Development Areas in Türkiye

This paper evaluates the causal impact of Technology Development Areas (TDAs) on firm-level innovation and commercialization in Türkiye. Exploiting staggered firm entry into TDAs and rich microdata from the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology’s 2012 Impact Evaluation Survey, treatment effects are estimated using the cohort-specific Difference-in-Differences framework of Callaway and Sant’Anna (2021), which is robust to heterogeneous treatment timing. The study examines multiple stages of the innovation process, including project completion, product development, patenting, and domestic and international sales. The results show that entry into a TDA has no statistically significant effect on patenting activity in the short run. In contrast, TDA participation leads to sizable and economically meaningful increases in applied innovation and commercialization outcomes, particularly completed projects, developed and sold products, and turnover. These effects emerge quickly after entry and are robust to alternative specifications and controls. The findings suggest that TDAs primarily enhance the efficiency with which existing innovative capabilities are translated into market outcomes, rather than immediately expanding firms’ upstream inventive capacity. JEL Codes : O31; O38; R58; C23