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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Tansel, Aysit (Middle East Technical University); Dalgic, Basak (Hacettepe University); Güven, Aytekin (Abant Izzet Baysal University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates wage inequality and wage mobility in Turkey using the Surveys on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). This is the first paper that explores wage mobility for Turkey. It differs from the existing literature by providing analyses of wage inequality and wage mobility over various socioeconomic groups such as gender, age, education and sector of economic activity. We first present an overview of the evolution of wages and wage inequality over the period 2005-2011. Next, we compute several measures of wage mobility and explore the link between wage inequality and wage mobility. Further, we compute the transition matrices which show movements of individuals across the wage distribution from one period to another and investigate the determinants of transition probabilities using a multinomial logit model. The results show that overall the real wages increased over the study period and wage inequality exhibits a slight increase. Wage inequality is one of the highest among the European Union (EU) countries. The wage mobility in Turkey is lower than what is observed in the European Union countries although it increases as time horizon expands. Wage mobility has an equalizing impact on the wage distribution, however; this impact is not substantial enough to overcome the high and persistent wage inequality in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | wage inequality, wage mobility, heterogeneity, Turkey |
| JEL: | D31 D63 J31 J60 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8669&r=cwa |
| By: | Ahmet Tanju Gültekin |
| Abstract: | In today's cities of Turkey, central as well as local urban administrations cannot succeed in attaining the power for planning the developmental trends and/or controlling the future along with bringing solutions to socio-cultural and economic problems. The root cause for this issue lies in the political and economic policies that support the urban expansion which is focused on the ultimate target of increasing urban value. Specifically, massive, secure residential compounds and shopping-centers built during the last couple of decades, private educational facility complexes and business centers constructed during the last two years - all of which are located in areas at the farthest edges of the city - coupled with the urban regeneration implementations initiated on the basis of the arguments foreseeing to increase the quality of life in the areas which promise high profitability, indicate the disownment of the integrated and sustainable planning concept. This situation is kept on-going, through taking refuge in the described objectives of attaining success in urban competitions during the process of globalization, ascension to the European Union, democratization. Such objectives, enforced by laws as of the year 2004, are simultaneously put into implementation partially through the mediation of the existing public bodies and partially through the mediation of new investors in the form of urban sprawl and shrinkage that mostly remain inert and unproductive. This, eventually, is an extension of the deindustrialization trends of neo-liberalism movements dating back to the 1980s. The persistent attitudes of the new political and economic power, backed up by legal, of the subject matter, legitimize the disintegrated planning system that slides over to the vision of increasing the urban value rather than public benefit and the concept of imperative management style, or, in other words, urban management is being handed over to the prioritized profitability concerns. This paper will evaluate this circumstance which the urban management in Turkey has been undergoing and which shapes urban development (or-non-development) through implementation examples realized in Ankara, the Capital city of the country. |
| Keywords: | urban management; urban sprawl and urban shrinkage; Ankara-Turkey |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p652&r=cwa |
| By: | Zühal Çelebi Deniz |
| Abstract: | Disparities across regions and provinces are on the agenda of both developed and developing countries. Differences in terms of development and income between regions are becoming more important policy challenge particularly in developing countries. As a developing country, inter-regional disparities are seen intensively at east-west direction in Turkey. In recent years with the process of harmonization with the European Union policies, inter-regional disparities problem and regional development policy issues came to the fore in Turkey. In this paper, Diyarbakir-Sanliurfa region, located in Southeast Anatolia, the largest region with respect to population identified as regional growth poles by Ministry of Development, is discussed in the framework of regional economic development and competitiveness. Diyarbakir-Sanliurfa Region is the seventh largest region in Turkey according to population, but socio-economic development rank of the region is 23 between 26 NUTS 2 regions in Turkey. According to economic base model, local economy shapes regions' size and welfare level. "Information about an area's future population is incomplete without a parallel understanding of the local economy that largely shapes its future.' (Klosterman, 1990) In this context, the aim of this paper is two-fold. First is to analyze the regional economy of Diyarbakir-Sanliurfa using the economic base approach to identify main sources of regional economic growth and the driving forces of the local economy. Second is to identify competitiveness of the region by comparing the regional economy with the national economic growth. As method of the study; in order to determine the basic and leading sectors of regional economy, location quotient technique was used. Then shift-share analysis was used to examine competitiveness of the region and to see economic projection of region. Finally findings and results of the two analyses were compared. The findings showed that the region has a rapidly growing economy depend on "agriculture", "construction", "mining", "transportation and storage" and "human health" sectors and also for manufacturing industry "food products", "textiles", "non-metallic products" and "wood products" are basic sub-manufacturing sectors. But results of shift-share analysis showed that regional economy offers competitive advantages especially in "agriculture", "transportation and storage", "trade and wholesale" and sub-service sectors related to "urbanization economies" and "tourism" sector. Although the region has some basic/exporter manufacturing sectors increasing their concentration, the regional economy have low competitiveness for attracting investment in manufacturing. Therefore, in this period many of the manufacturing industry investments have shifted to other more competitive regions. |
| Keywords: | Regional development; economic growth; competitiveness; economic base; shift-share analysis |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p167&r=cwa |
| By: | Aldashev, Alisher; Danzer, Alexander M. |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the economic returns to language skills and bilingualism. The analysis is staged in Kazakhstan, a multi-ethnic country with complex ethnic settlement patterns that has switched its official state language from Russian to Kazakh. Using two newly assembled data sets, we find negative returns to speaking Kazakh and a negative effect of bilingualism on earnings while Russian was the official state language in the 1990s. Surprisingly, the Kazakh language continues to yield a negative wage premium 13 years after it has been made official state language. While we do neither find evidence for an ethnically segmented labor market nor for reverse causality, the low economic value of the Kazakh language can be explained by the comparatively poor quality of schools with Kazakh as language of instruction. Based on PISA data, we illustrate that scholastic achievements are substantially lower for pupils taught in Kazakh, despite the official support for the titular language. Our results suggest that switching the official state language without appropriate investments in school resources is unlikely to cure the economic disadvantage of a previously marginalized language. |
| Keywords: | Bilingualism; returns to language skills; wage premium; language policy; language of instruction |
| JEL: | J24 I21 P23 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:21875&r=cwa |
| By: | KIZILCA, F. Kemal |
| Abstract: | Using information in the household consumption data as a signal of secularity, this study explores the effect of religion on female labor force participation (FLFP) in a Muslim-dominated country, Turkey. A household is categorized as secular if its members report that they consume goods that contradict the conservative interpretations of Islam. This information is then used in FLFP estimations. The analysis is carried out for married and single women, separately. The results show that living in a secular household has a positive and highly significant effect on the probability of labor market participation of married women in urban areas. Secularity is also associated with a reduced probability of unpaid work, which is the most widespread form of female employment in rural areas in Turkey. For single women, most of whom are in the school age, the estimations provide some weaker evidence regarding the positive effect of secularity on the probability of educational participation and paid work. |
| Keywords: | Consumption, female labor force participation, religion |
| JEL: | J16 Z12 |
| Date: | 2013–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60134&r=cwa |
| By: | Mehmet Akif Sag; Sami Guven Bilsel |
| Abstract: | The importance of entrepreneurship in a social structure results from the characteristics of entrepreneurs in determining the needs of a society and making investments in that area. Therefore, entrepreneurship is one of the most important factors of the progress for any social structure. On the entrepreneurship, the economics gives increasing importance to the characteristics of social structure. This situation has similar importance on the requirements of entrepreneurship. Two points should be considered in this context while analyzing entrepreneur behaviors. The first one is that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs works with which social perception. The second one is that whether entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs use social environment they are in with different social groups. Beginning the transitional period from the industrial society to knowledge society in the world, the view of small enterprises can ensure competition efficiency and harmonization in especially social production area has become common. Therefore, ?small and medium enterprises' (SME) are started to be seen as enterprises that can accommodate changing conditions and fill demand gaps in the society quickly because of their dynamic structures. The importance of SMEs that involve great flexibility and productivity together at the international scale increases gradually. Thus, every country creates its own SME. Accordingly, this subject should be considered in terms of social culture since the SME-society relation involves originality for every society. Existing SME literature deals with SMEs independently from cultural structures of societies and considers them under the dominant economic theory. Thus, a standard SME and entrepreneur model approaching to all SMEs in all societies of the world with the same point of view occurs. Within the scope of the study, Turkey's process of social change was separated into mainly three terms starting from 1960 when the industrialization and urbanization rate increased. The effects of social structure characteristics of the terms on entrepreneurship are discussed. The discussion analyzes the policies of 9 different national development plans prepared by the governments and tried to be implemented in the terms between the years of 1963-2013 called as planned period and started at the same years in Turkey. This presentation is aimed at described the reflection of these policies, which are tried to be evaluated with social, economic, and spatial dimensions, on the local entrepreneur and local production spaces. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; SME; development; policy analysis; Turkey |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p1557&r=cwa |
| By: | Ayda Eraydin |
| Abstract: | The importance of endogenous capacities and government support in the resilience of regions The paper aims to discuss the major determinants that make a region more resilient than the other regions and the role of government policies in building resilient regions. It aims to explore both the endogenous factors and government policies and support for regional resilience that enable regions to respond and recover from economic crisis conditions. Therefore, the paper focuses three major questions: How do different regions react to economic crises? Why do some regions manage to overcome the negative conditions created by the economic volatilities and adapt to new conditions, recover or even make use of the new conditions for innovative restructuring, while the others do not? What is the importance of government policies that enables regions to cope with and recover from economic crisis? The paper presents theoretical argumentation on these questions and the case study that identifies the different levels of resilience of Turkish regions and the compares the importance of endogenous capacities and government support both in recession and recovery periods of the economic crisis in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | resilience; adaptive capacity; government policies |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p1308&r=cwa |
| By: | Ianchovichina, Elena; Ivanic, Maros |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a global computable general-equilibrium framework with new detail on six Levant countries -- the Arab Republic of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Turkey -- to quantify the direct and indirect economic effects of the Syrian war and the advance of the Islamic State on the Levant. Syria and Iraq bear the brunt of the direct economic costs, while the other Levant countries lose in per capita but not in aggregate terms. The fact that the Islamic State's spread has undermined regional trade adds to varying degrees to the direct costs in all Levant economies and in the case of Syria and Iraq doubles the welfare losses. All these countries are foregoing opportunities to expand intra-Levant trade and the associated gains in economic efficiency and diversification. The average welfare effects are not indicative of within-country incidence, which varies among workers, landowners, and capitalists. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Trade and Services,Free Trade,Trade Policy |
| Date: | 2014–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7135&r=cwa |
| By: | Pomfret, Richard (University of Adelaide, Australia); Sourdin, Patricia (University of Adelaide, Australia) |
| Abstract: | An increasingly important part of international trade consists of fragmentation of the production process, with differing tasks in the global value chain (GVC) being undertaken in different locations. The paper traces the origins of the GVC phenomenon, attempts to measure the significance of GVCs, and analyzes why some countries participate in GVCs while others do not. GVCs rely on timely delivery of parts and components at every stage, with no unnecessary costs to crossing borders. West and Central Asian countries have been nonparticipating because their economies are characterized by high costs of doing business, obtrusive border controls, and other obstacles. Governments may be reluctant to undertake necessary reforms, and wary of the potential for increased volatility and inequality that sometimes accompany GVC participation. However, the cost of non-participation is falling behind in economic prosperity. Import-substituting industrialization is no longer a serious option, because no country with an integrated car or computer industry can hope to be competitive with goods produced along efficient GVCs. |
| Keywords: | global value chains; Central Asia; connectivity |
| JEL: | F14 O53 |
| Date: | 2014–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbrei:0142&r=cwa |
| By: | Markus Hanisch; Tuba Inal-Çekiç |
| Abstract: | Turkey´s economy increasingly benefits from privileged trade, low wage levels and the steady influx of foreign direct investment. Capital accumulation produced by this rapid economic development has increased the land prices and triggered the reallocation of industry and trade. The effects of this tremendous transformation process are manifested mostly in larger cities of the country. In the megacity of Istanbul, government and financial investors realize ambitious infrastructure and commercial projects while in the so called centers of urban transformation centrally-located neighborhoods are becoming increasingly threatened by dispossession. This has led to criticism about the role of central government in urban development and about the lack of citizen involvement in decision-making culminating in the Gezi Park demonstrations in June 2013. In this paper we claim that in the process of urban transformation finding a compromise between commercial and community interest affords the redefinition of citizen and property rights accompanied by the emergence of a politically strong and tightly organized civil society. After a quick survey over contemporary theories of urban transformation and civil society development, we will analyze and explain current processes by which citizens organize their claims about customary, economic and political rights related to participation in planning. By means of case studies and interviews with leaders of neighborhood associations we analyze the instruments and potential of these types of civil society organizations for the inclusion of traditional and customary forms of neighborhoods into the planning and decision making in the process of urban transformation. We find that new types of neighborhood organizations aim at defending their members against forced eviction. Moreover, they organize voice thereby linking residents and local politicians. Our paper highlights the importance of securing both, economic property rights and customary residential rights of citizens for successful and sustainable conflict resolution. Our paper ends with recommendations for the development and further formalization of urban resistance movements' organized efforts to participate in the process of urban transformation. Likewise we give recommendations for the better integration of these organizations in future processes of politics and planning. |
| Keywords: | Urban transformation; neighborhood association; housing cooperatives;movement; Istanbul; |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p228&r=cwa |