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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Cihat Sobaci; Ahmet Sensoy; Mutahhar Erturk |
| Abstract: | With unique daily short sale data of Borsa Istanbul (stock exchange of Turkey), we investigate the dynamic relationship between short selling activity, volatil- ity, liquidity and market returns from January 2005 to December 2012 using a VAR(p)-cDCC-FIEGARCH(1,d,1) approach. Our findings suggest that short sellers are contrarian traders and contribute to ecient stock market in Turkey. We also show that increased short selling activity is associated with higher liquidity and decreased volatility. However this relation weakens during the financial turmoil of 2008. Our results indicate that any ban on short sales maybe detrimental for financial stability and market quality of Turkey. |
| Keywords: | short selling, contrarian trading, nancial stability, market quality, dynamic conditional correlation |
| JEL: | C51 G11 G14 G18 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bor:wpaper:1417&r=cwa |
| By: | Karartı, Tuncay |
| Abstract: | This study investigates human resource management (HRM) practices in SME sector Turkey vis-à-vis economic system, history and culture. It attributes to discussion on convergence and divergence by appraising traditional values’ impact on shaping HR practices. The study has been conducted under certain journals, articles, and thesis and conference proceedings addressing major human resource functions, specifically training, job analysis, performance-management, recruitment and selection in Turkey. The paper suggests directional convergence’s presence, which means corporations in Turkey follow constant trends prevailing in the USA or Europe; however the presence patterns take issue with relevance Turkish firms’ understanding and implementation of these trends. Collectivism, mental attitude, and uncertainty turning away appear to deeply impact HRM practices in Turkey, decreasing the likelihood of full convergence. HR practices and literature is dominated by U.S. and European-oriented analysis. As this study provides a close, tho' not comprehensive literature review regarding HR practices in Turkey, its conclusions additionally could also be cypher to countries with the same socio-cultural dynamic, more to suggesting avenues for future analysis. |
| Keywords: | Convergence, Divergence, HR Practices, SME, Traditional and Modern HR Application |
| JEL: | M12 M19 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:54389&r=cwa |
| By: | Yüksekbilgili, Zeki |
| Abstract: | Guerrilla marketing is defined as an advertising strategy, in which low-cost unconventional means are used, employs various techniques which keep costs at a minimum, and is often adopted by small companies. In this research, 100 SME’s that are working on different sectors in Istanbul have been reviewed to understand if these companies are aware of this marketing strategy and if they have ever used these tactics in their marketing. Although in former studies guerilla marketing is said to be adopted by small companies, this research shows that most of the Turkish SME’s had never used or willing to use guerilla marketing in their past or future marketing plans. |
| Keywords: | guerilla marketing, turkish SME guerilla marketers, SME |
| JEL: | M31 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:54385&r=cwa |
| By: | Ozkaya, Ata |
| Abstract: | A fiscal rule imposed when the budget is not transparent yields more creative accounting to circumvent it and less fiscal adjustment, generating hidden deficits/debts in public sector. This study focuses on creative accounting practices of governments and adds to the literature by measuring hidden debts of the Turkish public sector ranging from the period 1989 to 2010. Accordingly, the author shows that the IMF has been misinformed, indeed has been misled by the Turkish authorities regarding the magnitude of public debt stock at the late 90'. The lacking information deteriorated the IMF' forecasts, which might be one of the main reasons for the failure of the IMF' planned fiscal consolidation at the outset of 2000-2001 crisis. The author' methodology can easily be adapted to any other country in order to identify the different margins on which governments can cheat and manipulate the Government Finance Statistics. -- |
| Keywords: | fiscal rules,creative accounting,contingent liabilities,hidden public debt,IMF policies |
| JEL: | E62 H61 H63 H83 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201410&r=cwa |
| By: | Petreski, Marjan |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to test the exchange rate regime – growth nexus in transition economies by looking if and how some inherent characteristics of the transition process might have affected the de-facto classifications of exchange rate regimes. 28 transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States are investigated over 1991-2007 and three de facto classifications of exchange rate regimes are considered. As usual in the empirical literature, initially, the exchange rate regime effect on growth differs across classifications. However, further investigation suggests that the three classifications usually disagree around some inherent characteristics of the transition process, like the higher trade openness of the countries, the episodes of high inflation and the bank system reform and interest rate liberalization. Results indicate that high inflation likely determined disagreement in early transition, while trade openness and interest rate liberalization in late transition. After classifications have been cleaned of the disagreeing points, the final results, corrected for the potential selectivity bias, suggest that both pegs and intermediate regimes of all three classifications significantly outperform floats in terms of economic growth, the average effect being slightly lower for pegs. |
| Keywords: | exchange rate regime classifications; economic growth; transition economies |
| JEL: | E42 F31 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:54473&r=cwa |
| By: | Hirshleifer, Sarojini; McKenzie, David; Almeida, Rita; Ridao-Cano, Cristobal |
| Abstract: | A randomized experiment is used to evaluate a large-scale, active labor market policy: Turkey's vocational training programs for the unemployed. A detailed follow-up survey of a large sample with low attrition enables precise estimation of treatment impacts and their heterogeneity. The average impact of training on employment is positive, but close to zero and statistically insignificant, which is much lower than either program officials or applicants expected. Over the first year after training, the paper finds that training had statistically significant effects on the quality of employment and that the positive impacts are stronger when training is offered by private providers. However, longer-term administrative data show that after three years these effects have also dissipated. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Access&Equity in Basic Education,Primary Education,Education For All |
| Date: | 2014–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6807&r=cwa |
| By: | Dabalen, Andrew; Parinduri, Rasyad; Paul, Saumik |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the association between the intensity, timing, and persistence of personal history of mobility on individual support for redistribution. Using both rounds of the Life in Transition Survey, the paper builds measures of downward mobility for about 57,000 individuals from 27 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The analysis finds that more intensive, recent, and persistent downward mobility increases support for redistribution more. A number of extensions and checks are done by, among others, taking into account systematic bias in perceived mobility experience, considering an alternative definition of redistributive preferences, and exploring the severity of omitted variable bias problems. Overall, the results are robust. |
| Keywords: | Housing&Human Habitats,Roads&Highways,Teaching and Learning,Science Education,Scientific Research&Science Parks |
| Date: | 2014–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6803&r=cwa |
| By: | Cesur, Resul (University of Connecticut); Mocan, Naci (Louisiana State University) |
| Abstract: | Using a unique survey of adults in Turkey, we find that an increase in educational attainment, due to an exogenous secular education reform, decreases women's propensity to identify themselves as religious, lowers their tendency to wear a religious head cover (head scarf, turban or burka) and increases the tendency for modernity. Education reduces women's propensity to vote for Islamic parties. There is no statistically significant impact of education on men's religiosity or their tendency to vote for Islamic parties and education does not influence the propensity to cast a vote in national elections for men or women. The impact of education on religiosity and voting preference is not working through migration, residential location or labor force participation. |
| Keywords: | education, religion, Islam, Muslim, voting, modernity, head scarf, burka, Islamic party |
| JEL: | I2 Z12 D72 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8017&r=cwa |
| By: | Çakir, B. |
| Abstract: | Place is a social site of meaning and memory. The critical appreciation of place and its link to power in toponymic studies involve the identity politics of place naming. This paper discusses the relationship between the naming of places and identity construction in Turkey. First, conceptualized as a hegemonic practice, the Turkification of toponyms in the Kurdish region of the country is argued to be part of a broader system of assimilation. Supported by the imposition of particular ethno- nationalist narratives on the past, and conducted with concomitant processes of linguistic and demographic design, top-down and centralized engineering of the country’s toponymic order has two sides; the construction of symbolic Turkish spaces and the cultural erosion of Kurdishness. Later, the research examines the act of naming places as a Kurdish strategy of resistance and a cultural right. As an attempt to remove spatial and linguistic injustice, Kurdish toponymic practices aim at re-asserting the ‘self’ and reclaiming memory, space and identity through the re-introduction of former place names or new alternatives that are conducive to the reparation of the Kurdish identity. The discursive and material struggle over space and the clash between the Turkish and Kurdish discourses on naming places reflect the overall structure of social and political power relations in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | critical human geography, toponymy, Kurdish assimilation in Turkey, identity politics |
| Date: | 2014–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:50631&r=cwa |
| By: | Vasily Astrov (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Rumen Dobrinsky (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Vladimir Gligorov (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Doris Hanzl-Weiss (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Peter Havlik (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Mario Holzner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Gabor Hunya (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Michael Landesmann (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Sebastian Leitner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Olga Pindyuk (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Leon Podkaminer (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Sandor Richter (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Hermine Vidovic (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) expects GDP in Central, East and Southeast Europe (CESEE) to pick up speed and grow on average by 2-3% over the forecast period 2014-2016 a major driving force rooted in an upward reversal of public and private investment. The question remains, however, whether investment-led growth in the CESEE countries is merely a statistical base effect of a few replacement investments or an indication of a profound paradigmatic shift. Increasing evidence suggests the latter for a number of reasons. During the ongoing economic crisis, public investment was severely reduced. However, in times of extreme uncertainty, the private sector is hesitant to invest. Hence, the public sector has to take the lead. It seems that the time for action has now come. This holds especially true for the New Member States, where towards the end of the previous year additional efforts were made to raise the absorption rate of the funds allocated within the context of the EU multiannual financial framework for 2007-2013 that was about to come to a close. Over the remaining disbursement period of the biennium 2014-2015 substantially higher amounts of EU-funded investment are to be expected. Given that, in practically all cases, national co-financing is also required, CESEE public capital investment will increase, with private investors likely following in its slipstream. Apart from a number of transport infrastructure projects, a host of thermal power plant projects are in the pipeline, as are several major investments in the construction and expansion of nuclear power plants across the region. Apart from public and semi-public infrastructure investment initiatives that have the potential to spur subsequent private investment, improving growth prospects in the euro area, the CESEE economies’ main trading partner, are likely to encourage export industries in the region to modernise and increase their capital stock. This should help avert a lapse into a deflationary spiral and foster a shift towards better equilibrium with lower unemployment rates over the medium term. However, substantial downward risks include possible effects from the current Russia-Ukraine conflict; in particular the interruption of energy supplies, potential trade embargoes or additional interest rate risk premia. All this could adversely affect investment-led growth in CESEE. |
| Keywords: | Central and East European new EU Member States, Southeast Europe, financial crisis, Balkans, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkey, economic forecasts, employment, foreign trade, competitiveness, debt, deleveraging, exchange rates, fiscal consolidation |
| JEL: | C33 C50 E20 E29 F34 G01 G18 O52 O57 P24 P27 P33 P52 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:fpaper:fc:spring&r=cwa |