Inequality of Economic Opportunity in Turkey

Abstract

Using information on asset ownership, housing quality, and access to services to construct an indicator of household wealth, we estimate the share of inequality among prime-age Turkish women that can be attributed to unequal opportunities. Both parametric and non-parametric estimation methods are used, and robustness to some sample redefinitions is verified. We find that at least one-third (one-fourth) of overall wealth (imputed consumption) inequality in Turkey is associated with morally irrelevant, predetermined circumstances. The circumstances that account for the largest share of the variance are rural/urban birth area and father's education. Controlling for rural birth, parents' education, language spoken at home, and number of siblings, a three-way regional breakdown of birthplace is not an important predictor of wealth. An opportunity deprivation profile reveals that more than two thirds of the most deprived group in Turkey consists of women born in the rural areas of the Eastern region, from mothers with no formal education.

The Influence of Internal Migration on Migrant Children’s School Enrolment and Work in Turkey

“…However, the effect on the schooling of male children is not statistically significant. As suggested by many previous studies (Ferreira and Gignoux, 2010;Kırdar, 2009;Smits and Hoşgör, 2006;Tansel, 2002), wealth index significantly and positively impacts the schooling of children, except for female children, using the ML estimation. The BP estimates suggest that wealth decreases the probability of working, but the effect is significant only for males.…”

“…The gender gap is also highest in the east region and lowest in the west. Studies investigating the relation between educational outcomes and economic conditions generally find that most regional gaps disappear, or sometimes reverse, if income or wealth, parents' educational attainment and other family characteristics are controlled in regression analysis (Ferreira and Gignoux, 2010;Kırdar, 2009;Smits and Hoşgör, 2006).…”

“…In Table 2, the wealth index is the first principal component of asset holdings and housing quality indicators. The validity of the use of this index as a proxy for household wealth in studies on education is shown by Filmer and Pritchett (2001); moreover, Ferreira and Gignoux (2010) and Ferreira et al (2011) apply the method to the TDHS (2003). Following Ferreira et al (2011), the wealth index is estimated on the basis of all TDHS (2003) households, and normalised so that the average is zero and the standard error is one.…”

Inequality of Opportunities of Educational Achievement in Turkey Over Time

“…We follow Ferreira and Gignoux (2010) and chose variance as the inequality of indicator since the standardized PISA scores follow the normal distribution with an arbitrary mean.…”

“…Such studies include for instance . The second most studied advantage is educational achievement such as those by Ferreira and Gignoux (2010) and Salehi-isfahani et al (2014). Finally, there are a few studies on the advantage of child health such as that by Assaad et al (2012).…”