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Wage Inequality and Wage Mobility in Turkey

Author

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  • Aysit Tansel

    (Middle East Technical University
    Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
    Economic Research Forum (ERF))

  • Başak Dalgıç

    (Hacettepe University)

  • Aytekin Güven

    (Abant İzzet Baysal University)

Abstract

This paper investigates wage inequality and wage mobility in Turkey using the surveys on income and living conditions. Providing the first evidence on wage mobility for Turkey, our paper also differs from the existing literature by investigating wage inequality and wage mobility over various socio-economic groups. We first present an overview of wage inequality over the period 2005–2011. Next, we compute several measures of wage mobility and explore the link between wage inequality and wage mobility. Further, emphasizing positional mobility, we compute transition matrices and investigate the determinants of transition probabilities. The results show that, overall, wage inequality exhibits a slight increase over the analysis period. Wage mobility in Turkey is lower than what is observed in European Union countries although it increases as the time horizon expands. Wage mobility has an equalizing impact on wage distribution; however, this impact is not substantial enough to overcome the high and persistent wage inequality in Turkey.

Suggested Citation

  • Aysit Tansel & Başak Dalgıç & Aytekin Güven, 2019. "Wage Inequality and Wage Mobility in Turkey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 107-129, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:142:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-018-1908-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-018-1908-1
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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage mobility; Wage inequality; Heterogeneity; Turkey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

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