Social Transfers and Income Inequality in Turkey: How Important is the Gender Dimension?

The main purpose of this project is to carry out descriptive analyses to determine the extent to which social transfers and pension payments have an impact on income inequality and the incidence of poverty in Turkey. Our survey data allows us to carry out this research by identifying the amounts of various types of income received by households. Furthermore, the availability of the amounts of labor income and pension payments at the individual level allows us to distinguish between the incomes of male and female household members, which makes it possible to examine some gendered dimensions of the research question. Thus, the examination of the distributional impact of pension and social assistance programs in Turkey promises to be an interesting exercise that will provide valuable insights for not only for social scientists, but also for politicians and policy makers. Pension payments received by female household members reflect a strong attachment to the labor market in the past. Thus, our findings might also point to the importance of the continued economic activity of women in terms of social justice. Also, by quantifying the contribution of social transfers to inequality, we might produce concrete empirical evidence of whether social policies of the government have had an impact on political outcomes.