Income distribution and poverty studies in the Turkish labor market

Includes bibliographical references (pages [230]-233).This study attempts to contribute to the research in income inequality and poverty in the Turkish labor market. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between various income types and demographic, sociologic, and economic factors that have impact on individual and household income. Previous studies have indicated the existence of correlation between labor market earnings and some numerous quantitative and qualitative factors such as education, age, experience, gender, industry type, occupation, education, experience, and geographic region. How the labor market earnings and various income types may be affected from the changes in such factors is the main research question in this study. The purpose of this study is also to investigate the relevant factors that have an impact on poverty and explain the changes in such factors on poverty. The Probit regression analysis will enable us to estimate the likelihood of an employee being in poverty compared to the control groups. The labor market income basically consists of wages and salaries from fulland part-time jobs in cash and in-kind and employer earnings. Non-labor market income can be divided into different categories such as property income, investment income, government transfers, transfers from abroad and private sources, and imputed income. The data is constructed based on the 1994 Household Income Distribution Survey conducted by the State Institute of Statistics of the Prime Ministry Republic of Turkey. The survey was conducted in selected 62 urban and 174 rural areas by interviewing the selected 26,256 households who are Turkish citizens and live in Turkey. The 18,264 households who live in urban areas and 7,992 households who live in rural areas are surveyed in a total of 236 settlements in seven regions in Turkey. Finally, the raw data at this substance prepared by the State Institute of Statistics, Prime Ministry, Republic of Turkey would make such an attempt to study the income distribution and poverty worthwhile. We hope that the findings of this study would be useful for local and national public administrators as well as policy makers.Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy