Trade Policy Determinants and Trade Reform in a Developing Country

In this paper, I start out with a standard political economy of trade policy model to guide the subsequent estimation of the determinants of trade policy in a developing country. I carefully test the model with Colombian data from 1983 to 1998 accounting for endogeneity and omitted variable bias concerns and then expand it empirically in several directions. I show that it is important to control for the impact of a drastic trade reform shock that affects all sectors and disentangle its effect from preferential trade agreements (PTAs). I find that protection is higher in sectors that are important exports for preferential partners which may be seen as a stumbling block effect of PTAs for Colombia. I also relax the assumption of fixed political weights that measure the extra importance of producers' welfare relative to consumers in the government objective. I measure the impact of sectoral characteristics on tariffs indirectly through political weights as a novel alternative to nonstructurally estimating them as determinants of protection. Accordingly, I obtain more realistic estimates for the political weights further contributing to the literature.Political economy of trade policy, trade liberalization, preferential trade agreements, empirical trade

Turkey: Temporary Trade Barriers as Resistance to Trade Liberalization with the European Union?

Turkey has been an active user of antidumping since the 1990s and more recently added safeguards and countervailing duties to its temporary trade barriers (TTBs). Turkey is a founding member of the World Trade Organization and formed a customs union with the European Union (EU) in 1996. It has also signed numerous preferential trade agreements the EU has been involved in as part of its EU candidacy. The drastic intra and extra-group trade liberalization brought by the relations with the EU seems to be important determinants in the rise of Turkey’s contingent protection over the last decade. Moreover, apart from an increase in the number of initiations, the higher rate of initiations finding support and sluggishness in the removal of TTBs over time appear to have played a role in their build-up. Turkey has been significantly affected by the 2008-9 global economic crisis and at the same time kept increasing the use of TTBs. The increase as of 2009 was in line with the recent upward trend but the response to the crisis may come with a lag. In general, Turkey does not target established EU members with TTBs although there is no restriction. Turkey mainly targets developing countries, especially China, at rates disproportional to their import market share.Temporary trade barriers, antidumping, safeguards, countervailing duties, Turkey

The clash of liberalizations : preferential versus multilateral trade liberalization in the European Union

There has been an explosion in the number of preferential trade agreements in the past decade. Preferential trade agreements are characterized by liberalization with respect to only a few partners and thus they can potentially clash with and retard multilateral trade liberalization. Despite this important concern with preferential trade agreements, there is almost no systematic evidence on whether they actually affect multilateral trade liberalization. The authors model the effect of preferential trade agreements on multilateral trade liberalization and show that preferential trade agreements slow down multilateral trade liberalization unless they havea common external tariff and allow for internal transfers. Next, they use detailed data on product-level tariffs negotiated by the European Union in the past two multilateral trade rounds to structurally estimate their model. The authors confirm the main prediction-the European Union's preferential trade agreements have clashed with its multilateral trade liberalization--and find that the effect is quantitatively significant. Moreover, they also confirm several auxiliary predictions of the model and provide new evidence on the political economy determinants of multilateral liberalization in the European Union.Economic Theory&Research,Rules of Origin,Export Competitiveness,Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Trade and Regional Integration,Trade Policy,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT

Access to Finance in Turkey

Abstract. Access to finance is essential for a successful development and growth of the private sector. In the absence of finance, enterprises cannot develop, innovate, and compete with other firms in other countries which offer more favorable access to finance. This paper makes use of the Enterprise Survey conducted with a representative stratified random sample of 6,006 Turkish firms for the 2015 fiscal year to evaluate the access to finance conditions in the nation. Moreover, data from the Enterprise Surveys Database for a comparison group of countries and 2013 survey for Turkey are employed to put the current survey in perspective.Keywords. Business environment, Financial constraints, Access to finance, Turkey.JEL. G10, G30, O12

Crises, terrorism and restraints on the media : comparing freedoms and key controls in the United States and Turkey

This study compared key aspects of freedom and control of the press in two nations: the United States and my native country of Turkey. Three major media control areas were examined: prior restraint, seditious libel, and broadcast licensing. These control areas were compared in the United States and in Turkey in both historical context and as matters stand in 2002. One useful book underlying this study was Fredrick S. Siebert\u27 s Freedom of the Press in England, 1476-1776, which brilliantly discusses the ancient enemies of freedom-- framework for repression -- that were struggled against in England and in England\u27s North American colonies from the late fifteenth century through the late eighteenth century. In his book, Siebert offered two propositions that characterized governmental control of the press: Proposition I. \u27\u27The extent of government control of the press depends on the nature of the relationship of the government to those subject to the government. Proposition Il. \u27\u27The area of freedom contracts and the enforcement of restraints increases as the stresses on the stability of the government and of the structure of society increase. Using the framework suggested by Siebert, this study attempted to determine the nature of relationship between governments and the media throughout histories of both Turkey and the United States. In this context, illustration of international terrorism proved a significant point. Both in Turkey and the United States, governments have limited freedoms as a result of incidents of terrorism, in line with Siebert\u27s Proposition II, which asserted that the more insecure the government, the more restraints are put on freedoms. Although these two countries are geographically apart and the development of the media is quite different from each other, there are still some similarities between them. The most important similarity is that both countries, under pressure of terrorism, justified their actions in limiting freedoms by asserting the imperative need to make their nations secure by eradicating terrorism

SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SCIENTIST IMAGE: IS IT SENSATIONAL OR TRADITIONAL?

It can be said that the positive perception that the students will develop against science and the scientist from childhood is so effective that it can direct their perception in their future lives. Therefore, determination of students’ perceptions of science and the scientist is very important for educators. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to determine secondary school students’ images of the scientist. Moreover, the study also looked at the classroom factors affecting students’ images of the scientist. The study was carried out with the participation of 240 secondary school students in a city located in the western part of Turkey in the fall term of the 2017-2018 school year. In the study, the DAST scale adapted by Farland (2003) was administered to the secondary school students. Within the context of the current study, the secondary school students’ images of the scientist were explored in terms of the appearance, working area and works of the scientist.   Article visualizations

Analysis of the Hydrogen-rich Magnetic White Dwarfs in the SDSS

We have calculated optical spectra of hydrogen-rich (DA) white dwarfs with magnetic field strengths between 1 MG and 1000 MG for temperatures between 7000 K and 50000 K. Through a least-squares minimization scheme with an evolutionary algorithm, we have analyzed the spectra of 114 magnetic DAs from the SDSS (95 previously published plus 14 newly discovered within SDSS, and five discovered by SEGUE). Since we were limited to a single spectrum for each object we used only centered magnetic dipoles or dipoles which were shifted along the magnetic dipole axis. We also statistically investigated the distribution of magnetic-field strengths and geometries of our sample.Comment: to appear in the proceedings of the 16th European Workshop on White Dwarfs, Barcelona, 200

Licensed sports merchandise perceived value components and their relationship with purchase intention: Investigation of top three soccer clubs of Turkey

Lisanslı ürünler futbol kulüplerine hem düzenli bir gelir kaynağı, hem de taraftarlarıyla olan duygusal bağlarını geliştirme imkânı sunmaktadır. Araştırmanın amacı; taraftarların takımla özdeşleşme düzeyleri ve lisanslı ürünlerin algılanan değeri arasındaki ilişkileri incelemek, bu faktörlerin satın alma niyeti üzerindeki etkilerini araştırmaktır. Türkiye’nin üç büyük futbol kulübünün taraftarlarından toplam 953 kişiyle anket çalışması gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre, taraftarların takımla özdeşleşme düzeyi ile lisanslı ürünleri satın alma niyeti arasında doğrudan ilişkinin olmadığı, algılanan değerin etkisi aracılığıyla takımla özdeşleşmenin satın alma niyetine etkisi olduğu belirlenmiştir. Kulüpler temelindeki farklılıkların görülmesi için yapılan analizler, her kulüp için lisanslı ürünlerin öne çıkan algılanan değer boyutlarının farklılaştığını göstermektedir.Licensed products provide clubs with regular income source and opportunity of developing emotional ties with their fans. Purpose of this research is to examine the relationships between team identification and perceived value components of licensed club merchandise, and explore the effects of these factors on purchase intention. An online questionnaire was applied to 953 soccer fans. The results revealed that there is no direct relationship between levels of team identification and purchase intentions of team licensed merchandise; team identification affects purchase intentions of team licensed merchandise through perceived value components. Analyses carried out to ascertain differences on team basis revealed that ratings of the perceived value components differ among teams

Productivity matters for trade policy : theory and evidence

There is a growing literature that investigates the effect of trade liberalization on productivity. Nearly all such studies assume that trade policy is determined independently of productivity, hence it is exogenous. The author shows that this assumption is not valid in general, both theoretically and empirically, and that researchers may be underestimating the positive effect of liberalization on productivity when they do not account for the endogeneity bias. On the theory side, he demonstrates that under a standard political economy model of trade protection, productivity directly influences tariffs. Moreover, this productivity-tariff relationship partly determines the extent of liberalization across sectors even in the presence of a large exogenous unilateral liberalization shock that affects all sectors. The link between productivity and tariffs is maintained after the author includes in his political economy model a learning-by-doing motive of protection, which also serves as the source of liberalization. On the empirical side, he examines total factor productivity (TFP) estimates obtained at the firm level for Colombia between 1983 and 1998, and finds that more productive sectors receive more protection within this period. In estimating the effect of productivity on tariffs, he controls for the endogeneity of the two main right-hand-side variables-the inverse import penetration to import demand elasticity ratio and productivity-by using materials prices, the capital to output ratio, a measure of scale economies, and the TFP of the upstream industries as robust instruments. The author also accounts for the large trade liberalization between 1990 and 1992, and finds that the sectors with a higher productivity gain are liberalized less. Finally, he illustrates a system of equations estimation and shows that the positive impact of liberalization on productivity grows stronger when corrected for the endogeneity bias.Economic Theory&Research,Free Trade,Political Economy,Trade Policy,Trade Law

Investigation of adsorption of Basic Orange 2 dye on montmorillonite and error analysis

ABSTRACT. In this study, isotherm studies were investigated for the removal of basic orange 2 (BO2) dye on the montmorillonite surface. Two-parameter isotherm models such as Langmir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherms and Three-parameter isotherm models such as Sips, Toth, and Khan isotherms were calculated by non-linear analysis method. The adsorption capacity at equilibrium was calculated by adding 0.035 g of adsorbent at 10-300 mg/L concentrations to 100 mL of synthetic dyestuff solution at room temperature. According to the results obtained, it was determined that the isotherm data matched the Langmuir isotherm with a regression coefficient of 0.995 from the Two-parameter models, and the Sips isotherm with a regression coefficient of 0.998 from the Three-parameter isotherm models. In addition, according to the results of error analysis, it was determined that the lowest error value fit the HYBRID model. SNE values support the HYBRID model.   KEY WORDS: Adsorption, Basic orange 2, Isotherm models; Error analyses, Hybrid Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2023, 37(1), 47-58.                                                                DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v37i1.5                                                       &nbsp