EVALUATION OF COUNTRY RISKS ON FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS (DEA): A CASE STUDY

Emirates, Yemen (parts of the Asian continent), Egypt (part of African continent), and Cyprus (part of European continent).Turkey, like Cyprus, is a transcontinental state, but in general the countries of the Middle East form a cluster that has as a point of reference the geographical position.The World Bank provides a representative classification in the following main categories according to income such as: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, high income based on World Bank Atlas method.According to World Bank official reports, in the case of the current 2022 fiscal year, low-income countries (economies) are defined as those with a GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method, of $1,045 or less in 2020.Moreover, lower middle-income countries (economies) are those with a GNI per capita between $1,046 and $4,095, while upper middle-income countries (economies) are those countries characterized by a GNI per capita between $4,096 and $12,695.In addition, high-income countries (economies) are represented by those with a GNI per capita of $12,696 or more.Meldrum 7 analyzed the relationship between country risk and foreign direct investment.It was stated that the country risk as a result of political, economic and social factors reflects the general risk map of the country.Within the scope of determining and preventing deficiencies and imbalances that will create a risk factor in the expected return of the investment, it has divided the risks into groups in six main categories (economic risk, transfer risk, exchange rate risk, location or neighborhood risk, sovereign risk, political risk) based on the harmony of local economic policies and international politics.and described prevention methods.As a result, it was classified the risk effects of foreign direct investors according to the investment type.Moreover, Birau et al. 8 examined interesting aspects of the investment perspective and argued that higher volatility obviously implies the opportunity for greater but also much rapid financial returns.Mohanty and Sahoo 9 examined how the government policies to reduce environmental pollution will affect the economic performance of India.It aimed to create a qualified macroeconomic performance (MEP) and eco-macroeconomic performance (Eco-MEP) index for the Indian economy, using the time series data from 1980-81 to 2015-16, with the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method.The structure of the DEA model while calculating these indices; It was established in the direction of maximizing economic growth, employment rates and trade terms, minimizing the inflation rate, fiscal deficit and pollution.According to the index scores; The best and worst performing years have emerged in the Indian economy and it has been concluded that these years are in parallel with the negative events in the economy.In the last part of the study; ARDL Bounds Testing method was used to test the consistency of the indices.Shoko 10 presented a macro-scale risk classification for the twelve countries in the South African region to Turkish investors who want to invest.For this purpose, which will ensure 7 Meldrum, D. (