Relationship between maritime transportation and economic growth: highest maritime transport European countries

Maritime transport is one of the most widely used transport channels used by countries in foreign trade. The development of maritime transport affects the economic growth levels of countries. In addition, the increase in the level of economic growth of countries increases their share in international foreign trade and this situation increases the importance given by countries to maritime transport day by day. In this context, the study aims to determine whether there is any causality relationship between maritime transport and economic growth variables in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom, which have the highest maritime transport among European countries. The bootstrap panel causality test was employed to examine the causality relationships between the variables over the time frame of 2008:Q1-2020:Q2. According to the findings, there is a causality relationship from economic growth to maritime transportation in all countries except Italy and the Netherlands. There is a causality relationship from maritime transportation to economic growth in Türkiye and the United Kingdom. As a result, the relationship between maritime transport and economic growth varies from country to country. This situation reveals the necessity of developing national policies for maritime transport by considering the economic structures of the countries.