Intertemporal Poverty in Turkey

AbstractPoverty is generally considered as a static fact. Economics literature caters us several poverty indexes that measure aggregate poverty from cross-sectional data sets. These cross-sectional data sets and poverty indexes would not provide any information about the dynamic side of poverty. Some households/people might stay poor longer than others, some households/people might move to certain poverty line from the bottom part of income distribution while the others might stay at the bottom part of income distribution forever. Early poverty indexes are insensitive to these aspects of poverty. Taking into account these all, in this study, we have investigated about the intertemporal poverty in Turkey. We have used newly developed intertemporal poverty indexes and estimated the determinants of staying poor in Turkey by using panel data set Income and Living Conditions Survey for 2006-2009. In accordance with the final results, some economic policy recommendations are given to solve the poverty issue in Turkey