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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Emel Memis; S. A. Kaya Bahce |
| Abstract: | This paper provides estimates of the impact of the recent economic crisis on paid and unpaid work time in Turkey. The data used in this study come from the first and only time-use survey available at the national level. Infrequency of collection of time-use data in Turkey does not allow us to make a direct comparison of pre- versus postcrisis time-use patterns. We introduce a tractable way for estimating these possible effects by measuring the impact of an increase in unemployment risk on time-use patterns of women and men living in couple households. The method developed here can be applied to other developing-country cases where there is a lack of longitudinal data availability. Our findings support the argument that economic crises reinforce the preexisting gender inequalities in work time. |
| Keywords: | Economic Crisis; Gender Inequality; Time Use; Unemployment Risk; Unpaid Work; Turkey |
| JEL: | B54 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_686&r=cwa |
| By: | Gözde Yilmaz |
| Abstract: | The Helsinki Summit in 1999 represents a turning point for EU–Turkey relations. Turkey gained status as a formal candidate country for the EU providing a strong incentive to launch democratic reforms for the ultimate reward of membership. Since 2001, the country has launched a number of reforms in minority rights. Many controversial issues, such as denial of the existence of the Kurds, or the lack of property rights granted to non-Muslim minorities in the country, have made progress. Even though the reforms in minority rights may represent a tremendous step for the Europeanization process of Turkey, the compliance trend in minority rights is neither progressive nor smooth. While there is a consensus within the literature about the acceleration of reforms starting in 2002 and the slow down by 2005 in almost all policy areas, scholars are divided into two camps regarding the continuing slow down of the reform process or the revival of the reforms since 2008. I argue, in the present paper, that the compliance process with minority rights in Turkey is puzzling due to the differentiated outcome and the recent revival of behavioral compliance. I aim to shed light on the empirical facts in the least-likely area for reform in the enlargement process. Through a detailed analysis of minority-related reform process of Turkey being an instance of ongoing compliance, the paper contributes to the literature divided on the end result of Europeanization in the country recently. |
| Keywords: | Turkey; enlargement; minorities; Europeanization; Europeanization |
| Date: | 2011–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:kfgxxx:p0023&r=cwa |
| By: | S. Mustafa Durakoglu |
| Abstract: | Turkey has been going through a liberalization process in its electricity market over the last decade. So far, the regulatory content of the market reforms has been in the center of attention in the literature, to the negligence of regulatory governance. However, recent studies, which applied the theoretical insights of new institutional economics to utilities regulation, have demonstrated that political endowments of the country draw the boundaries to which extent such regulatory content can be effectively implemented. In line with these studies, this paper adopts an institutional approach and attempts to identify the political endowments of Turkey in order to further analyze whether the market reforms succeeded in bringing about sufficient checks to cure the institutional problems. In other words, the paper takes a picture of the overall regulatory arena. The results show that the current regulatory structure, especially government-regulator relations, fails to meet good regulatory governance criteria. The paper also provides some policy suggestions. |
| Keywords: | electricity regulation; regulatory governance; institutions |
| Date: | 2011–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2011/08&r=cwa |
| By: | Beken Saatcioglu |
| Abstract: | What explains the EU compliance of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)? Since it came to power in 2002, AKP has launched legislative reforms in order to meet the European Union’s political membership criteria (i.e., democracy, rule of law, human rights and minority rights). These reforms are puzzling since they happened in the absence of the two conditions of compliance argued in the literature: (1) credible EU political conditionality, (2) liberal ruling parties in EU candidate states. I argue that AKP’s pro-EU reform agenda is explained by neither a belief in the possibility of membership via democratization (credible conditionality) nor liberal political identity. Rather, democratic measures under AKP are instrumentally induced. Two broad political motivations have guided AKP’s reform commitment: (1) the electoral incentive to please Turkey’s pro-EU membership electorate as well as AKP’s conservative/religious constituency eager to see freedom of religion expanded under EU conditionality, (2) the motive to use reforms to weaken domestic secular forces (i.e. the military and high courts) and survive as a party with Islamist roots in Turkey’s secular political system. The paper supports the argument with evidence gathered from original coding data for both conditionality and compliance as well as process-tracing. |
| Keywords: | Turkey; democracy; Europeanization; Europeanization |
| Date: | 2011–06–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:kfgxxx:p0014&r=cwa |
| By: | Fabrizio Cafaggi; Olha Cherednychenko; Marise Cremona; Kati Cseres; Lukasz Gorywoda; Rozeta Karova; Hans-Wolfgang Micklitz; Karolina Podstawa |
| Abstract: | Since its creation, European Union (hereinafter: ‘the EU’) has experienced various enlargements. In 1973, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the EU. Greece became a Member in 1981 and was followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986. Austria, Finland and Sweden accessed the EU in 1995. In 2004, ten Central and Eastern European Countries (hereinafter: ‘the CEECs’) became EU members. Finally, another two CEECs, i.e. Bulgaria and Romania, joined the EU on 1 January 2007. What impact did previous enlargements have on national systems of private law? It is an important question since there are ongoing accession negotiations with Croatia and Turkey and also other countries (Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine and Moldova) are interested in adhering to the EU. Not only these countries but also Russia has developed specific relationships with the EU which affect its private law system. Learning from previous experience may help structuring better pattern of Europeanization. But the broader question is whether the process of Europeanization of private law in CEECs can be considered concluded with membership or ‘regional policies’ are needed to contextualize the implementation of EU law and to govern its spillovers. |
| Keywords: | European law; harmonisation; East-Central Europe |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:euilaw:p0138&r=cwa |
| By: | Carlo Cambini; Laura Rondi |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the implications of “modern” regulatory governance - i.e. the inception of Independent Regulatory Authorities (IRAs) - for the investment decisions of a large sample of EU publicly traded regulated firms from 1994 to 2004. These firms provide massively consumed services, and this is why governments are highly sensitive to regulatory decisions and outcomes. We therefore analyse and empirically investigate if: i) the inception of IRAs reduces the time-inconsistency problems that lead regulated firms to underinvest, and ii) governments’ political orientation and residual state ownership interfere with investment decisions. To control for potential endogeneity of the key institutional variables, we draw our identification strategy from the political economy literature. Our results show that regulatory independence has a positive impact on regulated firms’ investment while private vs. state ownership is not significant. We also find that, under executives at the extreme of the political spectrum, government interference in the functioning of the IRA is likely to re-introduce instability and uncertainty in the regulatory framework, thus undermining investment incentives. |
| Keywords: | Institutions; Firm Investment; Private and State ownership; regulatory independence; government's political orientation |
| Date: | 2011–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2011/42&r=cwa |
| By: | Daniele Gallo |
| Abstract: | With this paper I maintain that the regulation of social security and healthcare in EU law revolves around the quest for a right balance between conflicting interests, involving the issues of social rights, State and Market, distribution of competences. In particular, the analysis of the way in which the ECJ legally frames the so called public/private divide permits to underline the emergence of relevant dissonances in the jurisprudence concerning the three sectors of competition, free movement and State aids. The rationale behind some of such divergences pertain to the existence of natural asymmetries on which evolve and take shape the constitutive elements of the European economic and social constitution. In this sense, the lack of convergence is not undesirable per se. On the contrary, it depends on the different role and function exercised by the solidarity principle on one hand and on the relevance of the public financing of social services on the other hand, in their interplay with the choice between abandon or revaluation of a (more or less) idealtpic public/private dichotomy. At the centre of the analysis is the full incorporation or, alternatively, attenuation, in the field of social security and healthcare, of the functional approach adopted in relation to the notion of economic activity. Some other divergences, however, are not justifiable. That is to say that in some cases there seems to emerge a need for a rapprochement between competition, free movement and States aids. This concerns the concept of general (economic?) interest and its potential intervention as a method of positive market and rights integration. Finally, the paper intends to highlight that at the core of the EU discourse is the pursuit of (and the quest for) a “healthy” interaction and relationship between individual free movement rights, social rights and State redistributive autonomy for the management of national social security and healthcare systems. In this respect, I will underline role, function and potentialities of Art. 106.2 TFEU as the appropriate sedes materiae to balance public interest’s aims and values with market principles and demands, both considered as constitutive elements, respectively, of the EU social and economic constitution. |
| Keywords: | EU Law; ECJ; social security; health services; competition law; free movement; state aid; social solidarity |
| Date: | 2011–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2011/19&r=cwa |
| By: | Daniele Gallo |
| Abstract: | With this paper I maintain that the regulation of social security and healthcare in EU law revolves around the quest for a right balance between conflicting interests, involving the issues of social rights, State and Market, distribution of competences. In particular, the analysis of the way in which the ECJ legally frames the so called public/private divide permits to underline the emergence of relevant dissonances in the jurisprudence concerning the three sectors of competition, free movement and State aids. The rationale behind some of such divergences pertain to the existence of natural asymmetries on which evolve and take shape the constitutive elements of the European economic and social constitution. In this sense, the lack of convergence is not undesirable per se. On the contrary, it depends on the different role and function exercised by the solidarity principle on one hand and on the relevance of the public financing of social services on the other hand, in their interplay with the choice between abandon or revaluation of a (more or less) idealtpic public/private dichotomy. At the centre of the analysis is the full incorporation or, alternatively, attenuation, in the field of social security and healthcare, of the functional approach adopted in relation to the notion of economic activity. Some other divergences, however, are not justifiable. That is to say that in some cases there seems to emerge a need for a rapprochement between competition, free movement and States aids. This concerns the concept of general (economic?) interest and its potential intervention as a method of positive market and rights integration. Finally, the paper intends to highlight that at the core of the EU discourse is the pursuit of (and the quest for) a healthy interaction and relationship between individual free movement rights, social rights and State redistributive autonomy for the management of national social security and healthcare systems. In this respect, I will underline role, function and potentialities of Art. 106.2 TFEU as the appropriate sedes materiae to balance public interest’s aims and values with market principles and demands, both considered as constitutive elements, respectively, of the EU social and economic constitution. |
| Keywords: | European Court of Justice; free movement |
| Date: | 2011–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0284&r=cwa |
| By: | Vassilis Tselios (University of Groningen); Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (IMDEA Social Sciences Institute); Andy Pike (Newcastle University); John Tomaney (Newcastle University); Gianpiero Torrisi (Newcastle University) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the relationship between decentralisation, regional economic development, and income inequality within regions. Using multiplicative interaction models and regionally aggregated microeconomic data for more than 100,000 individuals in the European Union (EU), it addresses two main questions. First, whether fiscal and political decentralisation in Western Europe has an effect on within regional interpersonal inequality. Second, whether this potential relationship is mediated by the level of economic development of the region. The results of the analysis show that greater fiscal decentralisation is associated with lower interpersonal income inequality, but as regional income rises, further decentralisation is connected to a lower decrease in inequality. This finding is robust to the measurement and definition of income inequality, as well as to the weighting of the spatial units by their population size. |
| Keywords: | Income inequality; income per capita; fiscal and political decentralization; interaction; regions; Europe |
| Date: | 2011–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2011-16&r=cwa |
| By: | Shaikh, Salman Ahmed |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the ethical void in Capitalism which does not look prominent in welfare societies and states. But, its effects become more eminent in tough economic conditions. Unbridled pursuit of self interest, moral relativism, incentive-led economic choices and apathy to communal responsibilities would lead to a society where economic interests become the sole basis of maintaining and sustaining relationships. This inner void of identity and purpose at individual level and social void in the form of a stratified society bound together only for economic interests can be better filled with incorporating religion. Humans are much more than utility driven species, they are capable of using both instrumental and critical reasons to differentiate right from wrong and need reinforcement to adopt virtues influenced by an inner urge other than material interests as in Capitalism. This inner urge can be rekindled by looking beyond utility maximization to re-acknowledge the fundamental identity that humans are moral being than just an instrument for material advancement. Other sections of the paper provide an outline and salient features of Islamic Economics on different economic themes and perspectives for a comparative study. These provide a unique introduction to Islamic Economics in a mainstream framework. |
| Keywords: | Islamic Microeconomics; Institutional Economics; Islamic Economics; Islamic Ethics; Islamic Morality; Secular Ethics; Moral Relativism; Ethical Relativism |
| JEL: | Z12 A13 A14 |
| Date: | 2011–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:20289&r=cwa |
| By: | Shaikh, Salman Ahmed |
| Abstract: | Financial intermediation serves a valuable purpose, but it can also be structured using equity modes of financing. This can relieve the financee and increase diversity of entrepreneurial undertakings as in debt based commercial financing, there is little room for diversity with obligatory and stipulated servicing of debt. Using Islamic equity modes of financing poses the challenge of the agency problem and moral hazard. The extent of this agency problem in Mudarabah and its impact on economic payoffs between counterparties is analyzed in this study with a simulation model. Based on review of alternate solutions proposed, the author presents two possible covenants which could make Mudarabah mode of financing more acceptable and widely usable in financial intermediation. This would also further the egalitarian objectives of an Islamic economic order. |
| Keywords: | Interest free economy; Islamic Economic System; Mudarabah; Agency Problem; Moral Hazard; Adverse Selection |
| JEL: | L38 I31 O10 |
| Date: | 2011–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19697&r=cwa |
| By: | Michele Fratianni (Indiana University, Kelly School of Business, Bloomington US, Univ. Plitecnica Marche - Dept of Economics, MoFiR); Francesco Marchionne (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Faculty of Economics "Giorgio Fu…") |
| Abstract: | We test the hypothesis of the circular causality between trade costs and degree of economic development using data on Italian provinces. Using different methods to control for multilateral resistance, we apply a gravity equation to estimate sectoral exports to 188 countries over the period 1995-2004. Provincial trade costs are constructed as the sum of five province-specific elasticities, including distance, adjacency, and common money. We find that Italian provinces are heterogeneous with respect to trade costs. These costs are influenced by lagged provincial per capita income and industrial structure. In turn, trade costs influence future provincial per capita income. This two-way relationship between trade costs and income is broadly consistent with the cumulative causation process emphasized by the New Economic Geography. |
| Keywords: | economic development, gravity equation, heterogeneity, trade costs |
| JEL: | F10 F14 O52 R12 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:54&r=cwa |
| By: | Sarker, Debnarayan; Das, Debraj |
| Abstract: | This paper is an attempt to present the disparities of state-level performance of manufacturing industry on some key variables and tries to examine as to why the poorer states loose in relation to the richer ones. The study suggests that Indian states which could contribute to higher economic and administrative reforms during reform period by various fiscal measures did gain the boon of industrial achievements. So, in order to gain industrial uplift, the fiscal reforms of a state must help raising the income level of the particular state reflecting thereby to develop her economy by receiving the fruits of industrial development |
| Keywords: | Profit efficiency; Major Indian States; Fiscal Reforms; Strikes and Lockouts; Foreign Direct Investment; Electricity; Telephone |
| JEL: | E22 H76 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33645&r=cwa |
| By: | Thomas Roca (GED, Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | While methodologies and survey techniques recorded progress over the years, corruption measurement remains a many-headed monster. Since 2003 and the first publication of Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer, researchers have access to population’s feeling about the corruption scourge across institutions. Thereby, wider room emerged for populations’ perceptions in the field of corruption quantification. In this paper, we analyze the gulf separating perceived corruption from experienced bribe situations using global household surveys in a Panel dataset. We show that the gap between these two types of data can be wide and unevenly distributed across countries. Introducing further objective and subjective data we try to puzzle out perception mechanisms. Bien que les techniques d’enquête et les méthodologies se soient améliorées au fil des années, la mesure corruption demeure problématique. Depuis 2003 et la première publication du Baromètre Mondial de la Corruption par Transparency International, les chercheurs ont dorénavant accès aux perceptions des populations pour évaluer l’étendue de la corruption au sein de différentes administrations. Dans cet article, nous analysons l’écart entre les perceptions de la corruption et l’expérience concrète de celle-ci en utilisant des données de panel issues d’enquêtes ménages menées à une échelle mondiale. Nous comparons ainsi, au sein même des populations, les écarts entre expériences et perceptions de la corruption, afin d’isoler au mieux les mécanismes à l’oeuvre dans la construction des perceptions. Nous montrons alors que les écarts entre ces deux types de donnée peuvent être importants et inégalement distribués.(Full text in english) |
| JEL: | O11 O19 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mon:ceddtr:167&r=cwa |
| By: | Sarker, Debnarayan; Das, Debraj |
| Abstract: | This paper theoretically tries to explore the impact of politically motivated policy certainty of a government guided by the norm of equality of income on economic growth and also tries to examine its empirical validity on major Indian states. This paper lends credence to the fact that politically motivated policy uncertainty among most of the major Indian states under this study has positive impact on their economic growth. This study suggests that the policy of attaining inclusive growth for Indian states should be formalized in such a way that equality in income distribution and economic growth should be attained simultaneously. |
| Keywords: | politically motivated policy certainty; major Indian states; income distribution; reproducible capital |
| JEL: | D31 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33499&r=cwa |
| By: | Oleksandr Shepotylo (Kyiv School of Economics, Kyiv Economic Institute) |
| Abstract: | Cities in transition face a unique set of challenges that came forth due to interplay of the legacy of socialist urban policies and transition to the market economy. The socialist urban policies restrained growth of the largest cities and distorted the spatial equilibrium towards more uniform distribution of urban population. The transition to the market economy reduces distortions but the convergence is slow. Housing market rigidities, inadequate urban infrastructure, and inconsistent government policies prevent people from moving to the largest cities. |
| Keywords: | urban development, transition, cities, Zipf's law, local governance, housing market |
| JEL: | P25 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kse:dpaper:42&r=cwa |
| By: | Claude Ménard (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on how to deal with environmental problems, through the lenses of the New Institutional Economics. The emphasis is on the intertwined role of organizational solutions and their institutional settings. This is not to say that technological solutions to environmental problems should be dismissed. However, it is argued that 'environmental innovation' is often of organizational nature, deeply embedded in institutions that adapt very slowly, making 'societal transitions' particularly challenging. The New Institutional Economics provides some key concepts to explore these dimensions and their interactions, thus shedding light on alternative solutions and the conditions of their implementation. Most examples come from the water sector. |
| Keywords: | Organizations, Institutions, Property Rights, Contracts, Regulation, Transaction Costs, Water |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00624307&r=cwa |