IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v34y2002i6p767-781.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring wage flexibility: the case of Turkey before and after structural adjustment

Author

Listed:
  • Ozlem Onaran

Abstract

This article presents an empirical analysis of wage flexibility in the formal private sector in Turkey. The analysis is based on a wage bargaining model that links the nominal wage demands to labour market conditions, which are proxied by the rate of unemployment; productivity improvements; and price expectations. The model is estimated on the basis of panel data of the formal private manufacturing industry; and changes in the wage setting mechanism as the country shifts from an import substituting industrialization strategy to an export-oriented growth regime are discussed. This debate is particularly important in terms of its policy implications, and is relevant to current international discussions of the role of labour markets during structural adjustment. In most economic policy discussions, unemployment is assumed to be a labour market rigidity problem. The results of this article, however, suggest that increased flexibility of wages leaves little room for such arguments. In the light of these findings, the prospect of wage rigidity becomes immaterial, and a focus on the structural problems of the economy, which are outside the labour market, becomes central.

Suggested Citation

  • Ozlem Onaran, 2002. "Measuring wage flexibility: the case of Turkey before and after structural adjustment," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 767-781.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:34:y:2002:i:6:p:767-781
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840110056934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840110056934
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036840110056934?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erin Yeldan & Kivilcim Metin-…zcan & Ebru Voyvoda, 1999. "Dynamics of Macroeconomic Adjustment in a Globalized Developing Economy : Growth, Accumulation and Distribution, Turkey 1969-1998," Working Papers 9905, Department of Economics, Bilkent University.
    2. Riveros, Luis A., 1990. "Chile's labor markets in an era of adjustment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 404, The World Bank.
    3. Riveros, Luis A. & Sanchez, Carlos E., 1990. "Argentina's labor markets in an era of adjustment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 386, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Baltagi, Badi H. & Baskaya, Yusuf Soner & Hulagu, Timur, 2012. "The Turkish wage curve: Evidence from the Household Labor Force Survey," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 128-131.
    2. Erik Dietzenbacher & Gülay Günlük-Şenesen, 2003. "Demand-Pull and Cost-Push Effects on Labor Income in Turkey, 1973–90," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(10), pages 1785-1807, October.
    3. Ipek Ilkkaracan & Raziye Selim, 2003. "The role of unemployment in wage determination: further evidence on the wage curve from Turkey," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(14), pages 1589-1598.
    4. Baltagi, Badi H. & Baskaya, Yusuf Soner & Hulagu, Timur, 2012. "The Turkish wage curve: Evidence from the Household Labor Force Survey," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 128-131.
    5. Fei Peng & Sajid Anwar & Lili Kang, 2020. "Job Movement and Real Wage Flexibility in Eastern and Western Parts of Germany," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 44(4), pages 764-789, October.
    6. repec:ilo:ilowps:463375 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Tropeano, Domenica & Michetti, Elisabetta, 2008. "Exchange rate policy and income distribution in an open developing economy," MPRA Paper 6642, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Yeldan, Erinç. & Ercan, Hakan., 2011. "Growth, employment policies and economic linkages : Turkey," ILO Working Papers 994633753402676, International Labour Organization.
    9. Nursel AYDINER‐AVSAR & ÖZlem ONARAN, 2010. "The Determinants Of Employment: A Sectoral Analysis For Turkey," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 48(2), pages 203-231, June.
    10. Ipek Ilkkaracan & Haluk Levent & Sezgin Polat, 2013. "Exploring different measures of wage flexibility in a developing economy context: the case for Turkey," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 297-315, May.
    11. Thomas Gruber, 2004. "Employment and Labor Market Flexibility in the New EU Member States," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 96-121.
    12. repec:ilo:ilowps:467426 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Özlem Onaran, 2006. "Speculation-led growth and fragility in Turkey: Does EU make a difference or "can it happen again"?," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp093, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    14. Erol Taymaz & Sule Ozler, 2004. "Labor Market Policies and EU Accession: Problems and Prospects for Turkey," ERC Working Papers 0405, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised Mar 2004.
    15. Sayın San & Özgür Polat, 2012. "Estimation of Public–Private Wage Differentials in T urkey with Sample Correction," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 50(3), pages 285-298, September.
    16. Lili Kang & Fei Peng, 2017. "Wage flexibility in the Chinese labour market, 1989–2009," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 616-628, April.
    17. Yeldan, Erinc., 2011. "Macroeconomics of growth and employment : the case of Turkey," ILO Working Papers 994674263402676, International Labour Organization.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. C. Emre Alper, 2000. "Stylized Facts of Business Cycles, Excess Volatility and Capital Flows: Evidence from Mexico and Turkey," Working Papers 2000/11, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    2. Mariano Roberto S & Gultekin Bulent N & Ozmucur Suleyman & Shabbir Tayyeb & Alper C. Emre, 2004. "Prediction of Currency Crises: Case of Turkey," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Ardic Oya Pinar & Yuzereroglu Uygar, 2009. "How Do Individuals Choose Banks? An Application to Household Level Data from Turkey," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-26, June.
    4. Özlem Onaran & Nursel Aydiner-Avsar, 2006. "The controversy over employment policy: Low labor costs and openness, or demand policy? A sectoral analysis for Turkey," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp097, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    5. Ozlem Onaran, 2009. "Wage share, globalization and crisis: the case of the manufacturing industry in Korea, Mexico and Turkey," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 113-134.
    6. Mustafa Ismihan & Kivilcim Metin-Ozcan & Aysit Tansel, 2002. "Macroeconomic Instability, Capital Accumulation and Growth: The Case of Turkey 1963-1999," Working Papers 0209, Economic Research Forum, revised 21 Mar 2002.
    7. Ilina Srour & Erol Taymaz & Marco Vivarelli, 2014. "Globalization, Technology and Skills: Evidence from Turkish Longitudinal Microdata," ERC Working Papers 1405, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised Jun 2014.
    8. Secil Pacaci Elitok & Al Campbell, 2008. "The Balance of Payments as a Constraint on Turkeys Growth: 1960-2004," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2008_13, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    9. Oner Guncavdi & Suat Kucukciftci, 2011. "Openness to trade and structural changes in the sources of economic growth and labour demand in Turkey," EconoQuantum, Revista de Economia y Finanzas, Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Economico Administrativas, Departamento de Metodos Cuantitativos y Maestria en Economia., vol. 8(1), pages 7-34, Julio-Dic.
    10. Erzan, Refik & Filiztekin, Alpay & Zenginobuz, Unal, 2002. "Turkey’s Customs Union with the European Union: A Framework for Evaluating the Impact of Economic Integration," MPRA Paper 382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Fatma Zeren & Levent Korap, 2010. "A Cost-based Empirical Model of the Aggregate Price Determination for the Turkish Economy: A Multivariate Cointegration Approach," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 57(2), pages 173-188, June.
    12. Betul Mutlugun & Ahmet Ä°ncekara, 2023. "Estimation of the Distribution and Demand Dynamics in Turkey: Structural Vector Autoregression Approach to a Post-Keynesian Model," Istanbul Journal of Economics-Istanbul Iktisat Dergisi, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 73(73-1), pages 1-54, June.
    13. Onaran, Özlem, 2006. "Speculation-led growth and fragility in Turkey: Does EU make a difference or "can it happen again"?," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 93, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    14. Selin Sayek & David D. Selover, 2002. "International Interdependence and Business Cycle Transmission between Turkey and the European Union," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(2), pages 206-238, October.
    15. Ozlem Onaran & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2001. "The Effect of Distribution on Accumulation, Capacity Utilization and Employment: Testing the Wage-Led Hypothesis for Turkey," Working Papers 0130, Economic Research Forum, revised 10 2001.
    16. Huseyin Ozturk, 2020. "The shape of sovereign yield curve in an emerging economy: Do macroeconomic or external factors matter?," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 83-112, February.
    17. Ilina Srour & Marco Vivarelli & Erol Taymaz, 2013. "Technological Change and Skill-based Employment Disparities: Evidence from Turkey," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali dises1393, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    18. Srour, Ilina & Taymaz, Erol & Vivarelli, Marco, 2013. "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Skill-Enhancing Trade in Turkey: Evidence from Longitudinal Microdata," IZA Discussion Papers 7320, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:34:y:2002:i:6:p:767-781. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.