REVISITING COST STICKINESS: THE CASE OF TURKISH MANUFACTURING FIRMS QUOTED ON ？STANBUL STOCK EXCHANGE

Cost behavior studies revealed that costs increase more with activity increases than they decrease with activity decreases, i.e. increases and decreases in costs are asymmetrical. This reveals the opposite of the thesis that "costs react equally to the increase and decrease in activity" in the traditional cost approach. This situation is called cost stickiness in the literature. This study also aims to test whether 116 manufacturing firms trading in ？stanbul Stock Exchange show cost stickiness behavior for 2008-2016 period. For this purpose, three different models with (1) sales and cost of sales; (2) sales and marketing, selling and distribution expenses; (3) sales and general administration expenses were established and tested with panel data analysis. Results of the analyses revealed that cost stickiness exists for all three models, supporting previous studies