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Copyright of Turkish Studies - Economics, Finance, Politics is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Transnational tax information cooperation has the crucial role of empowering tax administrations to collect tax revenues in full and on time, thereby narrowing the tax gap created by international evasion and avoidance. However, the adequacy of established transnational tax information exchange systems in combatting international tax evasion and avoidance has been severely criticized and a new wave of progress on transparency has started after the 2008 global economic crisis. In this direction, Turkey set cross-border tax transparency high on its political agenda. Though, Turkey has operationalized new transnational tax cooperation agreements very slowly. Furthermore, Turkey's approach to exchanging information has displayed important deficiencies. This article demonstrates the reasons for the Turkish government's lack of urgency in making its cross-border tax affairs more transparent. It shows the ways in which cross-border tax transparency might be raised in the Turkish political agenda. The article concludes that the universal, rapid and consistent implementation of a coordinated response to cross-border tax evasion and avoidance through transparency efforts is bound by domestic public support and thus can only be obtained by the government in tandem with a popular mandate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a simulation on the short-, medium- and long-term aggregated economic contribution of Syrian refugees on the Turkish economy. The simulation is focused on two sources of impact: refugees' access to the Turkish labor market and the investment flow generated by Syrians inside the country. An input–output approach is used to compute economic effects considering the intersectoral linkages of the Turkish economy, thereby expanding the focus of a classic impact study. Our results show a positive economic impact of Syrian refugees of around 2 percent of GDP in the short term and 4 percent in the long term. Syrian immigration in Turkey is becoming a factor of economic dynamism that not only benefits the Syrian community itself but also the Turkish host communities. The direct and indirect contribution in terms of production and demand is very relevant and, properly channeled and promoted, can become a relative advantage for the country and not a burden of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the neoliberal restructuration of the Turkish welfare and banking systems in the 2000s, many veterans of Turkey's Kurdish war faced debt enforcement due to failed payments for prosthetic limbs. Veterans responded to debt collection by turning their own bodies into spectacles of debt and sacrifice by publicly removing and showcasing their debt-ridden prostheses. The media interest in these prosthetic spectacles further amplified the visceral threat of dismemberment evoked by veterans' embodied performances. The public debates surrounding "prosthesis repossession" cases extended well beyond veteran welfare issues, inscribing all sorts of social and political anxieties on the amputee veteran body, such as anxieties around the incommensurability between the value regimes of nationalism and neoliberalism or around the Syrian refugees. Providing a window into larger questions about the interconnections between disability, gender, nationalism, and neoliberal capitalism, prosthesis repossession cases show us how debt and disability coproduce each other at the nexus of consumer debt and nationalist welfare in Turkey. By homing in on the prosthetic re-membering and dismembering of veteran bodies in a rapidly changing health milieu, we see how the political economy of violence and the violence of political economy become complicit in the production of debt, dismemberment, and prosthetic rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented that discussed issues on topics economic and political changes around Turkey; Turkey's bilateral relations with both global and regional players; and various movements crises and progresses, from economy to culture.

This paper examines the link between healthcare access/utilization and health outcomes in Turkey within a spatial framework. Our initial set of findings highlight an overall duality in health indicators which is getting stronger once a spatial dimension is included. Specifically we find wider spatial dichotomy for health outcomes relative to access and utilization measures. Finally once we consider unobserved heterogeneity, spatial spillovers and spatial variability; our results pinpoint a non-robust link between healthcare access/utilization measures and health outcomes which works better among the already developed regions of Turkey. Overall, our combined results indicate an ongoing polarization of health-based human capital development which coincides with local variations of the relationship between healthcare access/utilization and outcomes in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract European Union is a project focused on the balanced distribution of the prosperity, established by the common market, to all regions. For this purpose, in order to collect comparable statistics, socio-economic zones have been established within the framework of certain criteria using the classification of Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS). These regions are formed in 3 levels, based on the countries that are members and candidates for membership. Supports provided within the framework of the EU in order to reduce regional socio-economic disparities and to ensure regional development are being made and measured on the basis of regions (development zones) established with Level 2 NUTS. As a candidate country to the EU, Turkey also tries to achieve harmonization and regional development through Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). In this study, the extent to which the development regions identified in the Turkish scale should benefit from such supports is assessed on the basis of specific criteria. How to distribute IPA support, which is a limited resource, to the regions according to framework agreements and regional development goals is a complex issue. In order to solve this problem, development zones are evaluated using two different Multi Criteria Decision Making methods: Fuzzy-PROMETHEE and Fuzzy-MULTIMOORA. As a result, a framework to provide specific distribution of funds to support regional development and to show the weaknesses of these regions is presented. Highlights • Evaluated the development regions of Turkey established according to Level 2 NUTS. • Aiming to give a decision support framework to distribute IPA supports to the regions. • Fuzzy PROMETHEE and FUZZY MULTIMOORA methods are used to evaluate. • Provided specic distributions of funds to regions objectively and showed the weaknesses of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trakya University, Economics & Administrative Sciences Faculty E-Journal / Trakya Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi E-dergi is the property of T.C. Trakya Universitesi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of voluntary climate change disclosures in the Turkish banking industry and explore the factors explaining the extent of such disclosures.Design/methodology/approach The research sample is based upon 24 banks that had been continuously operating in Turkey over the seven-year period from 2010 to 2016. The study uses a disclosure index to investigate the extent of voluntary climate change-related disclosures made in their annual and sustainability reports by banks. The study also investigates factors impacting the extent of disclosures by using multiple regression and fractional regression analysis.Findings The findings of the research reveal that while the number of banks providing voluntary information on their climate change-related practices substantially increased from 2010 to 2016, there remains a significant number of banks that have not incorporated climate change-related issues into their lending policies or corporate strategies. Further, with regard to the regression analysis, the study documents the significant and positive impacts of bank size, profitability, bank age and listing status upon the extent of the climate change disclosures, in line with political cost and legitimacy theory.Practical implications The banking sector crucially impacts climate change indirectly, since banks provide financial backing to companies operating in environmentally sensitive industries. This paper presents empirical evidence of the factors impacting the extent of climate change disclosures by these banks, which might then be referred to by regulatory bodies when developing policies to promote environmentally responsible business practices within the banking industry.Social implications Several parties, which include governments, companies, financial institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) must work together to fight climate change. In this sense, the NGOs and green activists have a crucial role in raising public awareness about climate change, which might then inspire financial institutions to incorporate climate change-related issues into their policies, operations and strategies.Originality/value The study extends the prior literature in two ways. This study has concentrated on environmental reporting practices in the banking sector which have been investigated in very few prior studies. Since prior research has focused on developed countries, this paper adds to the current literature by examining the environmental disclosure practices of commercial banks operating in Turkey, which is a rapidly developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many SMEs homed in newly industrialised countries are successful international players despite limited technological infrastructure and R&D resources. This study bridges a gap in the extant literature by examining the relationships between characteristics of partnership relationships, knowledge sharing and the effectiveness of technology transfer in partnerships between SMEs in developing countries and firms from developed countries. By studying data from Turkish SMEs and using partial least squares structural equation modelling, we find that explicit knowledge sharing forms the basis of technology transfer. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that explicit knowledge sharing is strongly contingent upon formalised technical support while trust and technical support seemed to be important antecedents of tacit knowledge sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the European Union (EU) countries constitute the largest trade partner and investor of the Western Balkan economies, economic exposure in terms of trade and investments to Turkey, Russia and China has been on the rise in the past decade. Turkey is among the top trading partners of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while its investments in the banking sectors in the rest of the Western Balkan economies is gaining also in importance. Going further, the trade volume with Russia is overall small except for Serbia, however, Russian investments are sizable in key sectors (e.g energy, real estate) in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Financial and economic ties with China have intensified particularly between 2015 and 2017, not least because the region is part of the New Silk Road and the so-called "16+1 format". China invests in regional infrastructure, such as ports, railroads and highways mainly in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Overall, the growing influence of non-EU global players poses an additional pressure on the EU to thoroughly follow its Western Balkan strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main problem of developing countries in today's economy is that they cannot increase their per capita income above a certain level. This situation is expressed as middle-income trap. Being stuck at a certain level of gross domestic product per capita for long years, raised the question of whether Turkey is caught in the middle-income trap. Aim: To assess the situation in Turkey in terms of middle-income trap concept and to provide recommendations. Method: The concept of middle-income trap will be defined, relevant literature will be presented, exit strategies brought in the literature will be presented in conjunction with Turkey's current data. Findings: Whether or not in the middle income trap, there are important steps to be taken by Turkey in order to become a developed country economy: These can be listed as increasing the savings rate and investment in R & D and innovation, improving the quality of education, ensuring fairness in income distribution and in particular raising the level of technology used in the manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study generates nowcasts and forecasts for the growth rate of the gross domestic product in Turkey using 204 daily financial series with mixed data sampling (MIDAS) framework. The daily financial series include commodity prices, equity indices, exchange rates, and global and domestic corporate risk series. Forecasting exercises are also carried out with the daily factors extracted from separate financial data classes and from the whole dataset. The findings of the study suggest that MIDAS regression models and forecast combinations provide advantage in exploiting information from daily financial data compared to the models using simple aggregation schemes. In addition, incorporating daily financial data into the analysis improves the forecasts substantially. These results indicate that both the information content of the financial data and the flexible data-driven weighting scheme of MIDAS regressions play an essential role in forecasting the future state of the Turkish economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Management & Economics Research is the property of Journal of Management & Economics Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The acceptance of mHealth (mobile health) apps has been on the increase throughout the world as well as in Turkey. There are two main indicators of mHealth success and acceptance, such as mHealth apps users' satisfaction level and intention to use mHealth apps. In this context, the factors, including ease of use, trust, privacy, usefulness, and information quality are critical to analyze how they affect the acceptance of the mHealth apps by the Turkish users, and their satisfaction level with mHealth apps. Thus, the main objectives of this study are to (1) to explain how users perceive and use mHealth apps with technology acceptance analysis, (2) investigate whether the usefulness or uselessness of mHealth apps depends on user feelings about mHealth apps, (3) analyze the impacts of ease of use, trust, privacy, usefulness and information quality on mHealth users' satisfaction and intention, and (4) identify users' attitudes towards mHealth apps and their satisfaction level with mHealth apps in Turkey. A total of 282 participants from Turkey completed a survey analyzing the ease of use, trust, privacy, usefulness and information quality of mHealth apps to specify the reasons for mHealth acceptance. Statistical techniques were employed for data analysis. This study provides some managerial implications and scholarly recommendations to increase the acceptance of mHealth apps as well as helping mHealth apps designers to recognize the factors that influence the intention to adopt mHealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This study aims to investigate the participation bankings’ financial services with the Islamic precepts in consideration of the doubts and questions in the minds of the public and religious people on this matter. The study further analyzes the differences between the conventional and Islamic financial services. The PBing, referred to as interest-free banking services, is analyzed in respect to Turkey and the public awareness on these practices are also surveyed empirically to offer some plausible findings and conclusions.Design/methodology/approach Data in this study are collected via survey method. The participants are picked randomly in the study. The priority of the study is the level of public awareness in terms of education level and financial preference. The findings are further empirically analyzed. The participants have been categorized based on their education level, income level and their religiosity. The significance between the Pearson’s chi-square test and the responses has also been tested. Only significant results have been included in the study.Findings The findings in the study suggest that the “Islamic” identity of the Islamic finance (IF) institutions has been hurt seriously and that a growing number of people now start considering these institutions as “non-Islamic.” The IF institutions which emerged to respond to the needs of the religious people who are keen to comply with the precepts of Islam have converged to their counterparts in the conventional banking system, particularly in secular countries like Turkey.Originality/value Some studies focusing on the consumers in Muslim countries reveal that the greatest expectation out of the Islamic Finance is that it will help the Islamic financial thought take root. One of the initial goals of it is to meet the financial expectations of the Muslims who are eager to follow the Islamic rules in their economic activities. But today, whether IF fulfills this major objective remains unclear. This study offers some empirical view on problem. Participation banks are also considered institutions of IF, which is part of the conventional banking system in Turkey. These institutions have been criticized because of the similarities to the banks in the conventional system, the proximities between the interest rates in the regular banks and the profit shares of these institutions and the unpopularity of the profit-loss sharing (PLS). Critics particularly argue that it is not proper to call these institutions “Islamic.” Currently, whether these banks are truly Islamic remains a controversy. This study analyzes the public perception of the IF as IF institutions by reliance empirical findings through survey. For the analysis, a diverse group of participants selected randomly (in terms of age, income, education and religiosity) in Turkey has been surveyed. The significance in the responses to the questions in the survey was measured empirically to draw conclusions based on the responses and the empirical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Turkey, as in most other societies without mature welfare states, social policy has acquired a novel significance in the context of the late twentieth century economic globalization and the social policy environment has gone through a major transformation especially under the AKP government, which has been in power since 2002. This article presents a discussion of this transformation and explores the relationship between social policy and different dimensions of inequality in contemporary Turkey. It is argued that the emerging social policy regime, although in some ways more inclusive than the former one, is laden with significant inequalities of class and gender, which are shaped by the flexible employment patterns associated with a market-oriented economic strategy and the culturally conservative outlook of the AKP government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests the long run relationship between remittances and misery index in Turkey over the 1975-2011 period, using bounds testing approach. The results indicate that remittances and misery index are co-integrated. The misery index appears to have positive impact on remittance inflows in both short and long run, supporting altruism theory in remittance sending behaviour in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey has long been depicted by Western circles as a 'model state' for the rest of the Muslim world on account of its secular modernity, level of democracy and economic advancement. The literature about Turkey as a model-state appears to neglect or treat lightly the three interrelated themes without which this debate is bound to remain superficial. In order to expand the contours of this discussion, this study seeks to shed light on the following questions, which also point to the arguments being made: First, to what extent is the Turkish model impregnated with Western secular modernity? Second, is the stress on the Turkish model part and parcel of the overall discursive asymmetry between the West and the Rest, which involves a strong tinge of imperialism and an orientalist narrative about the "underdeveloped" / "uncivilised" Arabs or Muslims? Third, is it not proper for the literature about the model state (Turkey) to employ a new terminology such as "exemplary state" which is less ideologically-charged and more reliably oriented towards the economic, social and political performance of a given state. In the latter case, state actors, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, could likewise qualify as possible exemplary states, alongside Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The content and impact of rent is increasingly seen as related with the historical period that shaped urban structure depending on the rent relations, changing of life requirements and the scientific and technological developments. The land speculation which is a result of private property is an important factor in the selection of land use decisions and defining the direction of urban development growth. As a natural result of urbanization and being urbanized, the specification of urban land and gainings to the owners are changing due to the increase of social, economic, political and spatial requirements. Attitudes and behaviors contrary to reconstruction (planning) decisions increase the land speculation. In this case, land can become a tool for the storage of wealth depending on the relative position of land in the urban area or being on the direction of urban development. In this study, it is aimed to determine the relationship between the urban, land and the rent in Turkey, and the role of land speculation that is influenced in this process is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008 global economic crisis galvanized the debate on neo-developmentalism as the pendulum of economic thinking began to swing away from neoliberalism. The current shift in the modalities of market governance mainly deals with the ways through which industrial policies can be crafted in a more open-economy setting. Accordingly, the post-crisis literature turns a keen eye on the state’s developmental role in the research and development (R&D) sector in an age of ‘bit-driven’ global political economy. On that note, the nature, properties, and limits of state policies of emerging powers in this particular realm are becoming increasingly central but remain an understudied theme. This article discusses the R&D policies of Turkey from a state capacity perspective and questions the rationale of those policies by linking the state’s transformative capacity to the discussions on distributive pressures. Drawing on 21 in-depth semi-structured interviews, this article assesses Turkey’s R&D policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper quantifies the economic effects of climate change on Turkey. We use an integrated framework that combines an economy-wide model with a crop water requirement model to analyse the probable effects of the B1 scenario of the intergovernmental panel on climate change which is comparable to representative concentration pathway 4.5 scenario. Results suggest that the economic effects of climate change will not have serious economic effects over the period up to late 2030s, but the negative effects dominate the economy in the second half of this century. This provides Turkey an excellent opportunity to increase resilience and implement appropriate adaptation policies. The impact of climate change varies across regions. Agriculture and food production will be heavily affected. Especially irrigated production will decline as water stress increases. Significant decline in agricultural production is transmitted throughout the economy and reduces national welfare. Part of agriculture’s decline is compensated by imports, thus deteriorating Turkey’s food trade balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to investigate the main lines of vocational training and ethics education in Turkey from past to today in order to discuss the elements which are likely to play role on the efficacy of ethics education. To do this, first the social and economic rules of Akhism and the Guild System (the Loncas), forming the economic and social infrastructure of Turkish private enterprises in between the 13th - 16th Centuries are investigated. Second, the modern vocational training and ethics education in accounting profession throughout education process from primary school to accounting-related training period are investigated. Then, by considering the International Education Standards for Professional Accountants (IES)-4, the study suggests an ethics education process and compares it to the current ethics education and vocational training process of today's Turkey in order to reveal where we are. Thus, the study emphasizes crucial points and shortcomings in ethics education process and discusses why ideal vocational training and ethics education in accounting profession could not be reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to assess the civilian character of Turkey's political economy in sub-Saharan Africa with a special focus on its trade policy towards African countries. It also seeks to explore the degree to which its trade policies towards the continent contribute to the construction of a civilian foreign policy. Additionally, this study delves into the linkages between "power and trade" and between "civilian power and trade". Assuming that Turkey is not usually conceived as a traditional civilian power in the IR literature and political debates, this paper aims to fill the lacuna in the existing literature focusing on the impact of trade on the making of civilian power. Applying Maull's threefaceted framework of civilian power characteristics (cooperation, use of economic means, development of supranational structures), this study concludes that in Turkey's emerging "civilian power" objectives, trade's role is larger in the use of economic means for securing national goals and cooperation in the pursuit of international objectives than in the development of supranational structures for international management level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal is the property of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The transformation of life in Turkey from a secular democracy has been radical. The author argues it now has a full-fledged authoritarian Islamic ideology. And despite claims otherwise, it is not a neoliberal small government economic philosophy. Government’s role is only growing. The economic results have been poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey, located at crossroads between Europe, Asia and the Middle East (see Exhibit 1), was among the world’s 20 largest economies with a population nearing 80 million and purchasing power parity (PPP) adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) of 1.9 billion USD in 20161. However, the real GDP growth per annum slowed down from 6.1% in 2015 to 3.2% in 2016, and the Turkish Lira devaluated by more than 40% from July 2016 to December 2017. There was also a significant decrease in inward foreign direct investments (FDIs) (see Exhibit 2), and the inflation was rising to double digits. The failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, acts of terrorism since July 2015, killing many innocent civilians in the country, and the shooting of a Russian warplane on November 24, 2015, leading nearly to the freezing of economic relations between Russia and Turkey challenged Turkey’s competitiveness. The most serious impact was on the tourism sector, and Turkish Airlines, the flag carrier of Turkey, got its share. The airline has been growing during the last 15 years to become the number one airline covering more destinations worldwide than any other airline (49 cities inside Turkey and 250 cities abroad)2, and Skytrax, an international air transport rating organization, has been awarding it as the best airline in Europe for six consecutive years since 20113. In 2016, however, Turkish Airlines needed to ground 30 aircraft and reported an operating loss of 130 million USD (compared to a profit of 1,076 million USD in 2015)4. How will Turkey and Turkish Airlines recover to maintain their competitiveness? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]