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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Hayatullah Ahmadzai |
| Abstract: | Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), this paper centered on analysing the impact of Crop Diversification (CD) on farm level technical efficiency in Afghanistan. Data from a household level survey conducted in 2013-2004 by the Central Statistic Organization (CSO) is used in the analysis. The results revealed that adoption of a diversified portfolio of crops by the farmers significantly improves technical efficiency. In addition, access to extension services, farm size, cattle, oxen and tractor ownership by the farm households, and regional variables were other important factors that significantly affect technical efficiency. It is evident from the results that the estimated technical efficiency indices from the preferred truncated normal distribution range from 1.5% to 99.29%, with a sample mean of 71.9%. The basic SFA model was investigated for potential endogeneity in crop diversification. Instrumental Variable (IV) method was employed to correct for endogeneity in crop diversification. The results of the IV estimation reveal that failing to account for endogeneity in the basic model leads to a downward bias which is consistent with attenuation bias (measurement error in CD implies that OLS coefficients are biased towards zero, so one would predict IV coefficients greater in absolute size). The results of crop diversification index showed the presence of a relatively low level of crop diversification. Maximum likelihood estimation of translog stochastic frontier model shows that land, labour, and other purchased inputs (fertilizer, seeds, pesticides usage) have positive impact on farm revenues. The results show an evidence of constant returns to scale. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural economics, Afghanistan, applied econometrics, technical efficiency, crop diversification JEL Classification: O12, Q12, O13, Q18, D24 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcre:17/04&r=cwa |
| By: | Oyvat, Cem; Tekgüç, Hasan |
| Abstract: | This paper examines two structural factors that have restricted educational development in Southeastern Turkey: land inequality and ethnic fractionalization/conflict. Until recently a semi-feudal structure persisted in the region with politically and economically powerful tribal leaders and large landowners called ağas. At the same time, the region has been the site of an ethnic conflict, which has been ongoing as an armed insurgency for over 30 years between Kurdish insurgents and the Turkish State. Using a province-level data set, we test the impact of land inequality, conflict and ethnicity on education investment and school enrollment for the period 1970-2012. We find that higher land inequality reduces the school enrollment rates due to budget constraints imposed on poorer households. However, the economic and political power of ağas in the region does not block education investments. Moreover, we find that although the armed conflict in the region did not directly hinder education investments, it did reduce school enrollment rates at middle and high school levels, while increasing enrollment at the primary school level. Finally, we find that provinces with higher percentages of Kurdish population received less education investment even after controlling for conflict and land inequality. These results suggest that high land inequality and the Turkish State’s neglect of Kurdish areas were the important factors behind Southeastern Turkey’s educational underdevelopment, while the conflict had mixed effects on the education in the region. |
| Keywords: | land distribution; agrarian structures; conflict; development; education |
| JEL: | D74 I24 O17 Q15 |
| Date: | 2017–04–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gpe:wpaper:16812&r=cwa |
| By: | Makpal Assembayeva; Jonas Egerer; Roman Mendelevitch; Nurkhat Zhakiyev |
| Abstract: | Kazakhstan envisions a transition towards a green economy in the next decades which poses an immense challenge as the country heavily depends on (hydro-)carbon resources, for both its economy and its energy system. In this context, there is a lack of comprehensive and transparent planning tools to assess possible sustainable development pathways in regard to their technical, economic, and environmental implications. We present such a tool with a comprehensive techno-economic model of the Kazakh electricity system which determines the hourly least-cost generation dispatch based on publicly available data on the technical and economic characteristics of power plants and the transmission infrastructure. This modeling framework accounts for the particularities of the Kazakh electricity system: i) it has a detailed representation of combined heat and power, and ii) line losses are endogenously determined using a linear approximation. Model results are examined for a typical winter week (with annual peak load) and a typical summer week (with the hour of lowest annual load) presenting regionally and temporally disaggregated results for power generation, line utilization, and nodal prices. In an application to market design, the paper compares nodal and zonal pricing as two possible pricing schemes in Kazakhstan for the envisioned strengthening of the day-ahead market. In general, the model can be readily used to analyze the least-cost dispatch of the current Kazakh electricity system and can be easily expanded to assess the sector's development. Among others, possible applications include investment in transmission lines and in the aging power plant fleet, scenarios and policy assessment for emission reduction, and questions of market liberalization and market design. |
| Keywords: | Kazakhstan; Central Asia, Electricity sector, Techno-economic modeling, Transmission net- work, ELMOD |
| JEL: | C61 D47 Q41 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1659&r=cwa |
| By: | Durmus Ozdemir; Mustafa Kemal Gündoğdu |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the Marshall–Lerner condition under the simultaneity of exports and import flows in the Turkish economy. Due to the high interdependence between ratios of export and import flows to GDP, the traditional version of the Marshall–Lerner condition is not sustained. In the case of Turkey, the long-term estimations of the price elasticities of exports and imports, and the respective cross elasticities, lead us to conclude that currency devaluation would, in the long run, improve the balance of trade. Macroeconometric modeling Currency devaluation improve the the balance of trade in Turkish economy |
| Keywords: | Turkey, Macroeconometric modeling, Growth |
| Date: | 2016–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ekd:009007:9803&r=cwa |
| By: | Yilmaz Kilicaslan (Anadolu University, Department of Economics); Ilhom Temurov (Anadolu University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relation between import substitution, labour productivity and industrial competitiveness. More specifically this paper tests if the import substitution enhances both labour productivity and competitiveness in Korean and Turkish manufacturing industries. The data used in the analysis are obtained from UNIDO Industrial Demand Supply (2013) and UNIDO Industrial Statistics (2013) databases and cover the period of 1981-2001. Our results show that Turkish economy has really left import substitution after 1980. However, we found significant share of import substitution in total production in professional and scientific equipment, transportation equipment, electrical machinery, miscellaneous petroleum products, industrial chemicals industries and petroleum refineries in Korea especially in the 1990s. The results based on unbalanced dynamic panel data estimations showed that import substitution did not enhance labour productivity in manufacturing industry of both Korea and Turkey. However, we found that import substitution affects industrial competitiveness positively in both Korea and Turkey. Apart from the positive impact of import substitution on competitive-ness, we also found in this study that while Korean manufacturing industry competitiveness is closely associated with labour productivity, competitiveness of Turkish manufacturing industry depends on the factors such as exchange rates, wage differentials rather than labour productivity. |
| Keywords: | productivity, competitiveness, import substitution, manufacturing, Turkey, Korea |
| JEL: | L60 O12 O25 O47 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ana:wpaper:15002&r=cwa |
| By: | Burcay Erus (Bogazici University) |
| Abstract: | Turkish health care reforms brought about significant changes regarding the way physicians practice. Dual-time practice, which was very common among public hospital physicians, was gradually banned. While public insurance coverage has been extended to private hospitals, private practices have been left out. The resulting system rendered physicians more attached to the hospitals, public and private, and decreased their independence. This study explores the change in out-of-pocket payments to physicians and hospitals from 2003, the year reforms started, to 2013. We use a finite mixture model to examine changes in small and large expenditures. Our findings show a steep drop in payments to physicians both for small and large sums of payments. For hospitals, the drop in the size of the payments appear to be compensated by an increase in the number of households making a payment. |
| Date: | 2017–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1088&r=cwa |
| By: | Ali, Ashfaque |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the possible impacts of Pakistan-Turkey free trade agreement (Pak-Turk FTA) on various sectors of the economy in the two countries under four different possible FTA scenarios by using computable general equilibrium model GTAP. Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model has been extensively used in FTAs and other Trade related studies to evaluate the economy-wide potential impact of economic policy reforms. Current study uses the GTAP database7 which includes; 57 tradable commodities and 113 regions across the world. Our findings suggest that; Turkey is more beneficial from Free Trade Agreement as compared to Pakistan .Overall impact of trade liberalization is favorable for both economies, but liberalization of protected sectors may prove to be unfavorable for the economy in case of Pakistan. And there is a huge potential for bilateral trade in textile and chemical sector. |
| Keywords: | Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Analysis, Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Pakistan, and Turkey. |
| JEL: | F10 F14 F17 |
| Date: | 2017–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:78318&r=cwa |
| By: | Elmas Yaldiz Hanedar (Yeditepe University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey); Avni Önder Hanedar (Sakarya University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Sakarya, Turkey and Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Business, Izmir, Turkey); Ferdi Çelikay (Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Eskisehir, Turkey) |
| Abstract: | Inefficiencies in fiscal and monetary systems of the Ottoman Empire led to higher debt burden over time and the bankruptcy for the Ottoman state in 1875. To deal with these inefficiencies, reforms were implemented, as supervisory organizations were established during the default period. We ask how investors traded at the Istanbul bourse evaluated the outcomes of these reforms and organizations. We manually collect data on price of the General Debt bond from 1873 to 1883. Using the GARCH methodology, we examine the volatility jumps in return of the bond due to the reforms and supervisory organization in the Ottoman Empire. The volatility changes are indicators for risk perceptions of the investors. Our empirical results support that investors positively responded to foundation of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration and the acceptance of gold standard, heralding the persistent decrease in the risk premia over time. The Ottoman case is instructive for the understanding of today’s economic situation in emerging markets such as Greece, while we could argue that long-lived and comprehensive measures with foreign creditors’ supervision on fiscal and monetary systems matter more for investors’ perceptions. No empirical research studies the impacts of the reforms and supervisory organizations on the Istanbul bourse, as this large dataset has never been used before. |
| Keywords: | Reforms, Financial control organizations, Moratorium, the Istanbul bourse, Crises, GARCH. |
| JEL: | G1 N25 N45 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0112&r=cwa |
| By: | Asali, Muhammad; Pignatti, Norberto; Skhirtladze, Sophiko |
| Abstract: | We provide experimental evidence about ethnic discrimination in the labor market in Georgia. We randomly assign Georgian and non-Georgian, male and female, names to similar resumes and apply for jobs as advertised in help-wanted web sites in Georgia. We find that gender has no effect on the probability of callback, but a job applicant who is ethnic Georgian is twice more likely to be called for a job interview than an equally skilled ethnic non-Georgian (Azeri or Armenian). The almost 100% gap in callbacks is statistically significant and cannot be abridged by having more experience or education. Both taste-based discrimination and statistical discrimination models are consistent with the evidence provided in this study. Labor market discrimination tends to aggravate in economic busts. |
| Keywords: | Field Experiment; Discrimination; Employment; Recession; Ethnicity |
| JEL: | C93 J15 J71 P23 |
| Date: | 2017–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:78230&r=cwa |