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In this paper, we examine the college major choice decision in a risk and return framework using university entrance exam data from Turkey. Specifically we focus on the choice between majors with low income risk such as education and health and others with riskier income streams. We use a unique dataset that allows us to control for the choice set of students and parental attitudes towards risk. Our results show that father's income, self-employment status and social security status are important factors influencing an individual in choosing a riskier career such as business over a less risky one such as education or health. (Contains 6 tables.)

This paper investigates the impact of increased education, due to an exogenous education reform, on time spent in religious activities by utilizing the Turkish Time Use Survey data. The education reform significantly rises individuals' years of schooling. We also document that for women, increased education has a negative causal impact on the allocation of time to religious activities. However, there are no significant effects of education on men's time spent in religious activities. As a result, we suggest that education plays an important role in altering individuals' religious behaviour through its effects on preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the impact of household head's involuntary job loss on young person's (15–24 years old) likelihood to transition from non‐employment to employment. We construct twelve two‐year pseudo‐panels based on previous year's labour market outcomes using Turkish Household Labor Force Surveys (THLFS) from 2005 to 2016 and then pool the twelve pseudo‐panels for analysis. We examine youth's labour market responses according to education levels and gender. We show that a female with at least a high school degree is about 8.7 percentage points more likely to transition to from non‐employment to employment in the group where the head experienced an unexpected job loss than a female in the group where the head remained employed. Furthermore, for females, the probability of transitioning to employment increases by education level. For males, although we find positive and statistically significant effect of head's job loss on the transition probability, we do not find any differences according to education level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the extension of compulsory education from five to eight years in Turkey as an instrument for educational attainment to investigate the causal effects of education on voluntary work by utilizing Turkish Time Use Survey data. Existing studies use ordinary least squares regressions and establish a positive and significant association; however, such correlation may be induced by the endogeneity problems such as omitted variable bias and reverse causality. In line with the previous studies, our OLS results also show that there is a positive association between schooling and men's voluntary work. However, when we use the education reform as an instrument for education, a different picture emerges. The exogenous education reform increased the education levels of individuals significantly. Using the education reform as an instrument for education level, we find that increased education of compliers has a negative but insignificant causal impact on the probability and hours of voluntary work for men. Our results suggest that omitted individual factors such as ability and intelligence, and unobservable family characteristics such as values and social norms are likely to have played a role in the positive association of education with voluntary work found in OLS studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using nationally representative data on individual subjective views on gender roles, we examine the gender gap in educational achievement in Turkey and show that the cultural bias against the education of girls is a fundamental factor behind their low educational attainment in socially conservative societies. The 1997 education reform in Turkey extended compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years. Using the reform as a natural experiment, we investigate the impact of the reform on the effects of mothers' traditional views in determining children's educational attainment. We find that the reform helped reduce school dropout rates across the country. Nevertheless, regardless of the mother's view on gender roles, the reductions in school dropout rates were similar for boys and girls, failing to eliminate the gender gap against girls. Turkey is an excellent environment to study the effects of societal gender roles since it combines modernity with traditionalism and displays a wide spectrum of views on gender roles. It is also one of the few developing countries where a gender gap to the detriment of females still exists in educational achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We analyze the determinants of university entrance using nationally representative data of university exam applicants in Turkey. [•] Public university entrants come from lower income families than private university entrants. [•] Among public university entrants, those who come from higher income families are placed in better publicly subsidized universities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]