IMPACTS OF EURO/USD VOLATILITY ON STEEL PRICES OF TURKEY

Steel sector is the driving force of industry as it provides raw or semi-finished materials for the majority of manufacturing industries. Turkey is an important steel producer, importer and exporter. 45% of steel imports are from EU-27 zone while only 24% of the exports are destined to the European countries. The study is concentrated on the effects of EUR/USD volatility on the steel prices of Turkey. VAR models, Impulse Response Functions, Granger Causality Tests and Variance Decomposition analysis are employed for the data covering the period of April 2008- January 2015. The study reveals that EUR/USD currency volatility has significant effect on steel prices explaining about 5-6% of the changes in the prices

Visa trial of international trade: evidence from support vector machines and neural networks

International trade depends on networking, interaction and in-person meetings which stimulate cross-border travels. The countries are seeking policies to encourage inbound mobility to support bilateral trade, tourism, and foreign direct investments. Some nations have been implementing liberal visa regimes as an important part of facilitating policies in view of security concerns. Turkey has been among the nations introducing liberal visa policies to support trade in the last decade and recorded significant increases in the volumes of exports. In this paper, we employed machine learning methodologies, Support vector machines (SVM) and Neural networks (NN), to investigate the facilitating impact of liberal visa policies on bilateral trade, using the export data from Turkey for the period of 2000–2014. The research disentangled the variables that have the strongest impact on trade utilizing SVM and NN models and exhibited that visa policies have significant impacts on the bilateral trade. More relaxed visa policies are recommended for the countries in the pursuit of increasing exports

Partilerin Bildirgelerinde Eğitim Yönetimi Denetimi ve Ekonomisine İlişkin Görüşleri

Bu araştırmanın genel amacı, 2015 genel seçimlerinde seçim barajını aşan partilerin seçim bildirgelerinde eğitim yönetimi, denetimi, ekonomisi ve finansmanı ile ilgili görüş ve vaatlerini değerlendirmektir. Çalışma, doküman analizi türünde bir araştırmadır. Araştırmaya konu edilen dört siyasi partinin seçim bildirgelerindeki eğitim boyutları, eğitimi yönetimi ve denetimi ile bütçe ve eğitim ekonomisi bağlamında iki tema altında değerlendirilmiştir. Kategoriler dört siyasi partinin görüşlerini kıyaslamaya olanak tanıyacak şekilde tablolar halinde verilmiştir. Bulgular araştırmanın amacı doğrultusundaki kategoriler çerçevesinde ele alınmış ve içerik analizi yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, Ak Parti daha muhafazakâr, piyasa yönelimli ve pratik öneriler ortaya koymaktadır. CHP’de istihdam, demokratikleşme, kamu yönetimin tarafsızlığı, bütüncül bakış ve “birey-yurttaş” yetiştirme konularını öne çıkmaktadır. CHP, özlük haklarının yasayla güvence altına alınmasını ve ‘kamusal’ eğitimi savunmaktadır. MHP’de ise millilik, milli bütünlük temaları daha çok öne çıkmakta ve eğitim dilinin Türkçe olmasını özellikle vurgulamaktadır. HDP ise yerelleşme ve demokrasi anlayışlarından sentez oluşturmaya çalışmaktadır. HDP ayrıca anadilde eğitim, eğitimin yerelden yönetiminin teşviki, eğitime ilişkin kararların yerel eğitim meclislerince alınması ve kamu tarafından finans edilmesini önermektedir. Araştırma sonuçlarına dayalı öneriler şu biçimdedir. Benzer temalar parti programlarında nitel araştırma ile incelenebilir. Parti yöneticilerinin eğitim politikalarına ilişkin görüşleri araştırılabilir. Partilerin bildirgelerde ağırlık verdikleri ya da değinmedikleri konulara, ağırlık verme ve değinmeme nedenleri araştırılabilir

Financial Integration into EU: The Romanian Case

The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of integration between stock market of Romania and other stock markets of European Union (EU) countries. Correlations between the stock returns represent the level of integration between the stock markets. Empirical analysis are performed with daily stock returns of 24 EU members including Romania for 2002-2012 period using panel data gravity models and correlations are investigated. Findings reveal that the following factors have significant and robust effects on the financial integration process of Romania with other 23 EU members; (i) EU membership, (ii) bilateral trade, (iii) GDP per capita, (iv) 2012 sovereign debt crisis and (v) East European location. The results emphasize that intensifying economic relations with EU members can contribute the integration of Romanian stock market with other EU members. designed & host

Discovering what makes a SME website good for international trade

The effectiveness of websites has an impact on the representation of a SME and can have an effect on foreign trade. Thus, developing a reliable and robust model to assess the effectiveness of SME websites is important for researchers and practitioners. The aim of the study is to propose a SME website efficiency evaluation methodology from an international trade perspective. Determining the effectiveness of websites is a multi-dimensional decision-making problem which encompasses the assessment of information quality, system quality, and service quality. The criteria and sub-criteria affecting website effectiveness were determined through literature research and expert panel assistance. AHP method was utilized to determine the relative weights of the evaluation criteria in the study. Then, fuzzy linguistic variables were adopted to rank the websites of SMEs engaged in foreign trade. The proposed evaluation model identifies key factors regarding the criteria and sub-criteria of a website effectiveness. The model can provide a helpful reference in designing useful websites which are an important task for SMEs involved in international trade

DISCOVERING WHAT MAKES A SME WEBSITE GOOD FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE

The effectiveness of websites has an impact on the representation of a SME and can have an effect on foreign trade. Thus, developing a reliable and robust model to assess the effectiveness of SME websites is important for researchers and practitioners. The aim of the study is to propose a SME website efficiency evaluation methodology from an international trade perspective. Determining the effectiveness of websites is a multi-dimensional decision-making problem which encompasses the assessment of information quality, system quality, and service quality. The criteria and sub-criteria affecting website effectiveness were determined through literature research and expert panel assistance. AMP method was utilized to determine the relative weights of the evaluation criteria in the study. Then, fuzzy linguistic variables were adopted to rank the websites of SMEs engaged in foreign trade. The proposed evaluation model identifies key factors regarding the criteria and sub-criteria of a website effectiveness. The model can provide a helpful reference in designing useful websites which are an important task for SMEs involved in international trade

Denetçi Rol ve Yeterlikleri Bağlamında 1999, 2011 ve 2014 Müfettişlik Yönetmeliklerinin Müfettiş Yardımcısı Atama ve Yetiştirme Anlayışlarının Karşılaştırılması

Bu araştırmanın amacı, 1999, 2011 ve 2014 tarihli müfettişlik yönetmeliklerini müfettiş yardımcılığına atanma koşullarını, yarışma sınavı ve müfettiş yetiştirme boyutlarını denetçi rol ve yeterlikleri açısından karşılaştırmaktır. Çalışma, doküman incelemesi türünde bir araştırmadır. Araştırmaya konu edilen üç yönetmelik denetçi rol ve yeterlikleri bağlamında değerlendirilmiş ve betimsel içerik analizi yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Bulgular araştırmanın amacı doğrultusundaki kategoriler çerçevesinde ele alınmıştır. Sonuç olarak, yönetmeliklerde merkezi yönetim anlayışının ve bürokratik işleyişin egemen olduğu görülmektedir. Bunun yanı sıra yirmi birinci yüzyılın değişim hızı göz önünde bulundurulduğunda, müfettişlerin rolleri giderek çeşitlenmekte ve yeterlik alanlarında genişleme söz konusu olmaktadır. Buna bağlı olarak yönetmeliklerin, eskiden yeniye doğru daha işlevsel ve bütüncül bir nitelik arz ettiği ve giderek küreselleşme ve neo-liberal dönüşüm eğilimi gösterdiği görülmektedir. Yönetmeliklerdeki denetçi rol ve yeterlikleri açısından gözlenen kısmi değişimin yanı sıra; içeriğin de, ağırlıklı olarak sosyo-ekonomik ve politik boyutlu gereksinimleri karşılayacak biçimde hazırlandığı görülmektedir

Denetçi Rol ve Yeterlikleri Bağlamında 1999, 2011 ve 2014 Müfettişlik YönetmeliklerininMüfettiş Yardımcısı Atama ve Yetiştirme Anlayışlarının Karşılaştırılması

The purpose of this study is to compare the dimensions of the appointment requirements for assistant inspectorship, competitive examination and inspector training in the inspectorship regulations dated 1999, 2011 and 2014 in the context of supervisor roles and adequacies. The study is a content analyzing type of research. These three regulations of the subject of the research is evaluated in the context of supervisor roles and qualifications then, analyzed by the help of qualitative content analyzing method. The findings are considered within the framework of categories in line with the research purpose. In conclusion, the dominance of the conception of centralized management and bureucratic process are observed. Besides this, when the rate of change in the 21st century taken into account, the roles of supervisors have becomevaried and an expansion in qualification areas comes into question. Accordingly, It is seen that the regulations show more functional and integrative qualifications, and show a globalization and neo-liberal change tendency from former to latter. Besides the partial change seen in the regulations in terms of supervisor roles and qualifications; it is seen that the content is predominantly prepared through fulfilling the socio-economic and political necessities

A Study on the Evaluation of Education Unions in Terms of Purposes and Activities Stated in their Constitutions

This study aims to determine how education unions that have the most members in Turkey include the aims and activities in their statutes in terms of the functions of the unions. Furthermore, it aims to identify how the determined purposes and activities are distributed according to unions and the functions of the unions. The study is a qualitative research in the type of document analysis. Purpose and functions of the unions; their perspectives on politics and democracy, labour relations, education and development have been studies on the dimensions of socio-economic and socio-psychological functions. In the study, 27 evaluators selected from four groups as academicians, union managers, education administrators, and teachers were asked to classify items related to goals and activities in five categories. Based on the evaluators’ classification, the Fleiss Kappa coefficient was found. At this stage, it was observed that the Fleiss Kappa value indicated a significant agreement. In the study, the constitutions of the four education unions with the highest number of members were examined in five dimensions. The data were analysed using the five-stage content analysis method. As a result, it is possible to suggest that education unionism in Turkey has an organisational mentality that emphasises social and political issues. It is concluded that it is necessary to conduct qualitative studies which aim to determine the purposes of unions, their determined goals, and which mission they have undertaken