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on MENA - Middle East and North Africa |
| By: | Nelly El-Mallakh (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Mathilde Maurel (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, FERDI - Fondation pour les Etudes et Recherches sur le Développement International - FERDI); Biagio Speciale (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of the 2011 Egyptian protests on the relative labor market conditions of women using panel information from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS). We construct our measure of intensity of the protests – the governorate-level number of “martyrs” (i.e., demonstrators who died during the protests) - using unique information from the Statistical Database of the Egyptian Revolution. We find that the 2011 protests have reduced the gender gap in labor force participation by increasing women’s unemployment and private sector employment. The political change has mostly affected the relative labor market outcomes of women in households at the bottom of the pre-revolution income distribution. We link these findings to the literature showing how a relevant shock to the labor division between women and men may have long run consequences on the role of women in society. |
| Keywords: | Egyptian protests, women’s labor market outcomes, “martyrs”. |
| Date: | 2016–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-01309651&r=ara |
| By: | NURULLAH CALIS (HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY); SIRIN TARGAN CALIS (YBU EGITIM VE ARASTIRMA) |
| Abstract: | Social policies generally refer to the social welfare interventions aimed to resolve social problems on employment, housing, education, health and social services. Education, as a major field of welfare system, is quite significant for social policy framework. Hence, social welfare state has important responsibilities on providing education facilities and services for whole society. At this point, there is a strong need for effective policies which can resolve problems in education settings and optimise education processes for best learning and teaching. When examining the case of Turkey, it can be seen that there are some social policy practices in education which mainly consist of social assistance programs and social responsibility initiatives. Stipends, course materials and other supports for students, food and housing services of schools, preventive health services are some of welfare practices for education. There are also some education policies pursued by National Education Ministry to increase schooling rates at all education levels, decrease drop-out rates, bring more special education facilities into service and provide technical and material support for all government schools. Besides, some civil initiatives and private institutions conduct various projects to improve vocational education, promote school attending and provide needed equipments for schools. Unfortunately, all these efforts can not be an effective and holistic framework towards solution of school problems. It is obvious that there has been various ongoing social problems in school settings in Turkey such as violence, harassment, substance abuse, family-related problems, mental health problems. There is a remarkable lack of social policy in this field. This actually indicate a need for enhanced social services and social work in schools. In this regard, this study suggests some effective social policies for education and refers to the significance of school social work services in Turkish school settings. |
| Keywords: | Social policy in education, education in Turkey, government policy in education, school social work |
| JEL: | I28 I28 I29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3606152&r=ara |
| By: | Rostom,Ahmed Mohamed Tawfick |
| Abstract: | Money demand is critical for defining monetary policy options and is not driven necessarily by developed country standards of transaction demand, speculation motive, and opportunity costs grounded by fully functioning financial markets. However, market imperfections in less developed economies can also play a critical role in the dynamics of demand for money. This paper estimates a vector equilibrium correction model to investigate the nature of short-term and long-term interactions for money demand in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The paper concludes that real money demand in Egypt during (1958-2013) is stable and can be considered confidently by monetary authorities to adjust for long-term growth in the real economy. The rate of devaluation of the official exchange rate and inflation have a serious effect on the public's trust in the national currency in the long term. Money is not neutral for long-term portfolio decisions, because of the increase in real income in the economy that couples with an uptrend in monetization as the ratio of money stock over output also uptrends. The paper also provides quantitative evidence that the devaluation within the parallel market is negatively related to the change in demand for real money balances in the short term. Economic agents hold more domestic currency if the official exchange rate slides, and arbitrage opportunities are sought in the parallel market. |
| Keywords: | Currencies and Exchange Rates,Debt Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Emerging Markets,Fiscal&Monetary Policy |
| Date: | 2016–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7679&r=ara |
| By: | SALAH ALHAJ (University of Sharjah) |
| Abstract: | ISO 9000 (2008) is a quality management system with a high reputation all around the globe. It is a set of requirements used by organisations to attain customer satisfaction. The number of organisations implementing the ISO 9000 (2000) are increasing rapidly worldwide.The influence of the trend to raise quality has reached the Middle East through the efforts of organisations to implement the ISO 9000 (2008) quality management system. In the United Arab Emirates there are more than 1400 (one thousand four hundred) organisations registered with the ISO 9000. Private companies have made great efforts to implement the system in the country. Additionally government departments have started quality initiatives by implementing the ISO 9000 (2008). In particular, the Sharjah Government Departments in the United Arab Emirates were one of the leading government departments that gained ISO 9000 certification. Although a good many government departments have got the certification and have followed it, others have not yet done so. Therefore the aim of this research is to identify and analyse the barriers to implementing ISO 9000 (2008) in some government departments in the United Arab Emirates.In order to achieve the research aim, an empirically based system ratio analysis of four case studies covering organisations in the Sharjah government was carried out. Substantial field work was undertaken using a predominantly qualitative approach. Data was collected through semi structured interviews, to explore the implementation of ISO 9000, and to provide a more holistic understanding using triangulation techniques. The primary contribution of this research is an in-depth understanding of the barriers to implementing ISO 9000 (2008) in some government departments in the United Arab Emirates. This study identified unique barriers affecting the ISO 9000 (2008) implementation in the Government Departments. They were divided into four main categories: social barriers, external barriers, Governmental barriers and organisational barriers. The key findings of the research indicate that the departments covered by the case face considerable numbers of barriers affecting the implementation of ISO 9000 (2008), taking into consideration the culture which plays a major role in the departments concerned. |
| Keywords: | iso9000, quality, change |
| JEL: | A00 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3606114&r=ara |
| By: | Perihan Hazel Kaya (Selcuk University); Mustafa Göktuğ Kaya (Ministry of Finance of Turkey) |
| Abstract: | In recent years domestic savings rate has shown a marked decline in Turkey. Such falls are effective in the growth of savings-investment gap and so the emergence of large current account deficit. In this context, changes are made in the private pension system in order to increase household savings. The new system aims to increase the savings and sawing owners. Many developing countries, with their reforms in the social security field, put into practice the private pension system in addition to the compulsory public pension system.The purpose of this is to deal the development of the private pension system in Turkey and its contribution to savings. In this direct, firstly, the development of the private pension system in the world is being addressed and later mentioned about development in Turkey. Finally, information is given about impact to savings. |
| Keywords: | Private Pension System, Savings, Banking, Turkey |
| JEL: | E21 D10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3606078&r=ara |
| By: | Dürdane Şirin Saracoğlu (Department of Economics, METU); Deniz Karaoğlan (Visiting Scholar, Department of Economics, METU) |
| Abstract: | Drawing on cognitive science, child psychology, and economics literature, this paper investigates the significance of early child development and the environmental factors that affect early child development. Earlier literature has established that the child’s brain development is almost complete in the first three years of life, and this development is critically affected by the child’s environment, including the family’s socioeconomic status and the availability of early child education and care. The young child requires adequate psycho-stimulation for the optimal development of the brain in the first few years of life, which subsequently helps her accomplish at school and achieve in adulthood. It has been emphasized in the literature that in order for all young children start life at an equal footing, governments should provide equal opportunities for early childhood education and care where families are not able to provide. In this paper, we compare and contrast the current status of early child education in Turkey with that of selected developed countries, which have advanced far in early childhood education. Despite the striking evidence on the affirmative effects on the individual as well as the individual’s contributions to social and economic development, early childhood education (particularly up to age three) is not considered to be a priority in the education system in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Early Childhood Development, Pre-Primary School Attendance, Government Policy, Turkey |
| JEL: | I25 I26 I28 H52 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:wpaper:1605&r=ara |
| By: | Dawid Jabkowski (Poznan University of Life Sciences); Ewa Stawicka (Poznan University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The European Union is an economic and politician union that currently comprises 28 member states. Turkey's accession to the EU may be a key factor leading to changes in trade system and socio-economic situation of the EU. The purpose of this article is to present the prospects of Turkey's accession to the EU. It explores the genesis and evolution of Turkey's accession negotiations to the EU. Furthermore, it examines the benefits and risks of the potential accession of Turkey to the EU. The research problem formulated in this article has been solved on the basis of the statistical data from Eurostat. The method of analysis used in this work is both descriptive and comparative. We analyzed the basic indicators of the macroeconomic situation of Turkey and the EU before and after the potential accession of Turkey to the EU, such as population, GDP, GDP per capita, inflation, unemployment and trade balance. |
| Keywords: | regional economic integration; Turkey; European Union; macroeconomic situation; benefits and dangers |
| JEL: | B22 F15 F50 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2016:no25&r=ara |
| By: | Meschi, Elena (Ca Foscari University of Venice); Taymaz, Erol (Middle East Technical University, Ankara); Vivarelli, Marco (UNU‐MERIT, Maastricht University, IZA, Bonn and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the interlinked relationship between globalisation and technological upgrading in affecting employment and wages of skilled and unskilled workers in a middle income developing country. It exploits a unique longitudinal firm-level database that covers all manufacturing firms in Turkey over the 1992-2001 period. Turkey is taken as an example of a developing economy that, in that period, had been technologically advancing and becoming increasingly integrated with the world market. The empirical analysis is performed at firm level within a dynamic framework using a model that depicts the employment and wage trends for skilled and unskilled workers separately. In particular, the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) procedure is applied to a panel dataset of about 15,000 firms. Our results confirm the theoretical expectation that developing countries face the phenomena of skill-biased technological change and skill-enhancing trade, both leading to increasing the employment and wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers. In particular, a strong evidence of a relative skill bias emerges: both domestic and imported technologies increase the relative demand for skilled workers more than the demand for the unskilled. "Learning by exporting" also appears to have a relative skill- biased impact, while FDI imply an absolute skill bias. |
| Keywords: | Skill-biased technological change, international technology transfer, GMM-SYS |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2016–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016026&r=ara |
| By: | Türkcan, Kemal |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the role of vertical differentiation linked with global production networks in increasing the chance of export survival using highly disaggregated machinery exports data from Turkey for the 1998-2013 period. Results obtained from descriptive statistics analysis suggest that duration of Turkey’s machinery exports is remarkably short with the median duration of merely one year. In addition, the likelihood of the survival of exports widely varies across product types (total machinery products, finished machinery products and machinery parts and components) and across trade types (horizontally differentiated products and vertically differentiated products). Based on discrete-time duration models, the empirical results demonstrate that vertical differentiation as well as product and market diversification are associated with a higher export survival rate, particularly for parts and components linked with global production networks. The evidence hence supports the hypothesis that global production sharing activities greatly increases the chances of survival in export markets. |
| Keywords: | Export duration, Survival analysis, Vertical Differentiation, Global production networks |
| JEL: | C41 F10 F14 |
| Date: | 2016–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71023&r=ara |