Recent trends in informal employment in Turkey

Cem Başlevent and Ayşenur Acar
Additional contact information
Cem Başlevent: Istanbul Bilgi University
Ayşenur Acar: Bahcesehir University Center for Economic and Social Research (BETAM)

Yildiz Social Science Review, 2015, vol. 1, issue 1, 77-88

Abstract: Using micro data from TurkStat's 2000, 2006, and 2012 Household Labor Force Surveys, we examine the recent trends in informal employment in Turkey. Our descriptive analysis of the incidence of informal employment across broad categories such as sectors, occupations, and age groups is followed by an econometric exercise which aims to uncover the main determinants of informality status. We find that the gender di erence in the rate of informality is present even when the sectoral composition of employment is controlled for. Alternative versions of the empirical model are estimated to assess the idea that the gender di erence has to do with the fact that many women have indirect access to social security benefi ts as the insured person's wife or daughter. While our findings are in line with this hypothesis, we point to the lack of survey items that would have been more instrumental in uncovering to what extent 'indirect access to bene fits' and various government policies contribute to the persistence of informality.

Keywords: Turkey; Labor market; Informality; Household Labor Force SurveyJournal: Yildiz Social Science Review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F00 F30 G00 G10 K00 K20 M00 M20 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://yssr.yildiz.edu.tr/storage/upload/pdfs/1656073398-en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aye:journl:v:1:y:2015:i:1:p:77-88

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Yildiz Social Science Review from Yildiz Technical University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Murat DONDURAN ().