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"Income Inequality" Research from BETAM
The Bahçeşehir University Center for Economic and Social Research,BETAM, has published the Research Note titled "Income Inequality in Türkiye and Its Regions: 2005-2010", prepared by Seyfettin Gürsel and Ayşenur Acar.
Executive Summary
Income inequality is one of the most debated issues in Türkiye, yet one on which no consensus has been reached. One reason for this is that TÜİK data do not sufficiently cover the long term, along with some other statistical shortcomings. But we believe a more important reason is the difficulty of measuring income inequality. There are different measures of income inequality, and each sheds light on a different dimension of it. In this respect, it is important which dimension of inequality the measures mainly illuminate. Because in a given economy in a given period, one measure may show that income inequality has increased while another may say that it has decreased. It will be seen below that these characteristics are very much valid for Türkiye as well.
In this research note, we examine how income inequality evolved in the 2005-2010 period using data from the Income and Living Conditions Survey, published since 2006. Compared to the Household Budget Survey, on which research on income inequality in Türkiye has relied, the Income and Living Conditions Survey is a more comprehensive survey applied throughout the European Union. In this respect, its data are suitable for analyzing intra-regional inequalities as well. As far as we know, income inequality at the regional level is addressed for the first time in this research.
Looking at the period as a whole, examined using the Gini Coefficient and Relative Poverty Rate measures, we see that income inequality decreased considerably in 2010 compared to 2005 by both measures, but that this decrease was not uniform over time. While income inequality fell markedly at both the national and regional levels in the 2005-2007 period, a limited increase in inequality from 2007 to 2008, which we define as the crisis period, is observed. However, while this increase is observed in most regions, in some regions inequality decreased, and in others one of the two measures we use increased while the other decreased; in other words, the direction of inequality was uncertain. In the recovery period covering 2008-2010, the direction of income inequality turns out to be largely uncertain at both the national and regional levels. Nationwide, there is a very limited increase in the Gini coefficient and a relatively marked decrease in the Relative Poverty Rate. At the regional level, it emerges that income inequality moved in very different directions.
You can access the full research note at the link below.
http://betam.bahcesehir.edu.
