The Validity of Cost Stickiness in Turkey: A Panel Data Analysis in Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE)

The goal of this study is to test the cost stickiness for some firms in Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) by panel data analysis. The study is based on 2023 observations of 119 firms whose stocks were in process uninterruptedly in the period of 1995-2011 in ISE. As a result of the study, it is proven that proportional increase in sales resulted in proportional increase in costs to some extent, but proportional decrease in sales resulted in less proportional decrease in costs when compared to the case hereinabove. Thus, it is argued that the relationship between sales and costs is not linear for the firms analyzed. To put another way, cost stickiness is valid for the whole costs modeled in current term but it is valid for the costs of the sales in consecutive periods.