Unity in diversity : studies on micro and macro panel data sets

Thanks to the progress of information technology, keeping track records of a multitude of people or entities has become a matter of routine. For instance, marketeers keep files of potential customers, employers of employees, insurers of insured, investors of companies etc. The data concern a number of different but qualitatively similar units, which have been observed over some time. The topic of this dissertation is the methodology and practice of the analysis of such multi-unit or panel data. Two micro-economic and two macro-economic applications are presented and discussed; the micro-economic ones use a large sample of households or individuals, the macro-economic ones involve a small or less small number of countries, each observed for a few years. What our results show is that relationships that are often taken for granted are in reality very fragile and may be based largely on preconceptions

Can internet infrastructure help reduce regional disparities? : evidence from Turkey

This study presents novel evidence regarding the role of regional internet infrastructure in reducing regional per capita income disparities. We base our study on the assumptions that (1) the diffusion of information homogenizes regional economies through reducing the dissimilarities in institutions and culture, and (2) the telecommunication capacity, represented as the internet infrastructure of a region, facilitates this flow of information. Using the data from the 26 statistical regions of Turkey, we find evidence that internet infrastructure has contributed to regional convergence during the period 1999-2011. We also observe that the Turkish economic geography is defined by a strong core-periphery pattern and significant spatial clustering

Do weak institutions prolong crises? : On the identification, characteristics, and duration of declines during economic slumps

This working paper is part of the research programme on ‘Institutions, Governance and Long‐term Economic Growth’, a partnership between the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (Maastricht University - UNU-Merit). The research builds on the Institutional Profiles Database IPD, jointly developed by AFD and the French Ministry of the Economy since 2001

Public investment and regional politics: The case of Turkey

The determinants of the regional allocation of transportation and communication investments are analysed for the twenty-six statistical regions of Turkey for the years 1999 through 2011. A unique regional GVA series covering this period is constructed for this purpose. We specifically account for the possibility of dependence between allocation decisions for different infrastructure types. Estimation results strongly suggest that political bias has been present in the allocation decisions of regional transportation and communication public investments in Turkey. Keywords: Public Infrastructure; Regional Policy; Investment Allocation