The Effects of Labor Market Reforms on the Labor Market Dynamics in Turkey

The global economic crisis of 2008 had great repercussions on labor markets around the world. In order to mitigate the adverse effects of the crisis on employment, Turkey introduced a number of measures in the last quarter of 2008 and during the first half of 2009, such as a general reduction of social security contributions, targeted reductions for hiring youth and women, an increase in unemployment insurance payments and a more active use of the short-time working compensation program. Using the Income and Living Conditions Survey panel data for 2006-2010, this study aims at examining the role of labor market reforms in shaping the labor market performance in Turkey. To this end, we compute the Markov transition probabilities of individuals moving across three different labor market states: employment, unemployment and not in labor force. The results of the study reveal that the policy measures, in general, helped in alleviating the adverse effects of the crisis on the Turkish labor markets. The measures specifically targeting youth and women were effective in promoting the employment of these disadvantaged groups, the beneficial effects being more pronounced for women. However, the results show that after the coverage of these measures was broadened to include all workers, the advantage of young and female workers disappeared. Finally, the transition probabilities calculated for different education groups reveal that the probability of remaining in employment increases significantly with education

The Effects of Labor Market Reforms on the Labor Market Dynamics in Turkey

The global economic crisis of 2008 had great repercussions on labor markets around the world. In order to mitigate the adverse effects of the crisis on employment, Turkey introduced a number of measures in the last quarter of 2008 and during the first half of 2009, such as a general reduction of social security contributions, targeted reductions for hiring youth and women, an increase in unemployment insurance payments and a more active use of the short-time working compensation program. Using the Income and Living Conditions Survey panel data for 2006-2010, this study aims at examining the role of labor market reforms in shaping the labor market performance in Turkey. To this end, we compute the Markov transition probabilities of individuals moving across three different labor market states: employment, unemployment and not in labor force. The results of the study reveal that the policy measures, in general, helped in alleviating the adverse effects of the crisis on the Turkish labor markets. The measures specifically targeting youth and women were effective in promoting the employment of these disadvantaged groups, the beneficial effects being more pronounced for women. However, the results show that after the coverage of these measures was broadened to include all workers, the advantage of young and female workers disappeared. Finally, the transition probabilities calculated for different education groups reveal that the probability of remaining in employment increases significantly with education

An analysis to detect exuberance and implosion in regional house prices in Turkey

The aim of this paper is to find out whether there is exuberance in regional house prices in Turkey. For this purpose, we analyze real hedonic house prices and price to rent ratios countrywide as well as for 26 geographic regions at the NUTS2 level from January 2010 to January 2019. We perform the right-tailed unit root testing procedures developed by Phillips et al. (2015) and Phillips and Shi (2018) and use their real time date-stamping strategy to determine periods of explosiveness and implosion. Our empirical findings indicate that there were exuberance episodes in house prices in Turkey for multiple periods, where an important contributor to these dynamics was the largest housing market, İstanbul. We also detect exuberance in some other regions, particularly in the neighboring NUTS2 regions of İstanbul and in İzmir after around 2014. However, we find out that explosive price behavior turned into implosion in many regions starting from 2018

Male-female Labor Market Participation and the Extent of Gender-based Wage Discrimination in Turkey

A gender differential in wages is considered to be discriminatory if the differential cannot be explained by gender differences in productivity. Numerous studies have been performed to measure the extent of gender wage discrimination in countries across the world, and most report a substantial amount of wage differential after adjusting for productivity differences. This differential has been attributed to labor market discrimination against women. Using data from 2003 and 2010 Household Budget Surveys conducted by Turkish Statistical Institute, this study examines the male-female earnings differentials and measures the extent of pay discrimination in Turkey. To analyze the components of the earnings gap, two methodologies are employed: The standard Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method and the Juhn–Murphy–Pierce decomposition method. The results of the study indicate that in both years, a significant portion of the observed wage differential is attributable to wage discrimination which records a rise over the period

Consequences of a Massive Refugee Influx on Firm Performance and Market Structure

This study combines an administrative dataset of the full population of Turkish firms and the setting of the sudden mass migration of Syrian refugees to Turkey to identify the effect of migrants on firm performance and market structure. We find that economic activity increases in hosting regions, but negative implications exist for long-term productivity. As a result of the migrant shock, exiting firms expand and new firms are established; however, the resulting market structure shows less concentration. Quantitatively, a 10 percentage-point rise in the migrant-to-native ratio increases firm sales by 3.8% and the number of active firms by 5.8%, but reduces firms' average market share by 4.1%. We further document an increase in the export volume and variety of exported products to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In addition, a decline in export prices is observed, implying a rise in the competitiveness of exporting firms. We also uncover evidence for an effect of migrants' skills and networks on exports, as the export value and variety of products to the MENA region increase more than those to the EU region while the prices of products exported to the two regions show similar changes

Facts on business dynamism in Turkey

In this paper, we investigate various trends on competition and business dynamism in the Turkish manufacturing sector. More specifically, using micro level administrative data sets of firm balance sheets, credit registry, and social security records, we focus on moments such as firm entry, profitability, worker reallocation, labor share, labor productivity, and credit distributions, among several others. Our results indicate that business dynamism in the Turkish manufacturing sector was relatively stable and even improving until 2012 but has been declining since then. We find that market concentration rates have started to rise, yet new business creation and economic activities of young firms have declined. We find suggestive evidence that the decline was due to the decline in access to global liquidity. Next, we use a model with endogenous market competition to identify the mechanisms and to perform a policy exercise. Our analysis suggests that providing support (e.g., R&D subsidy) to immediate followers, who can credibly challenge industry leaders, can foster competition and lead to faster sustainable growth