Ph.D. Theses
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Item Cooperation and policy interventions: Field experiments with small-scale fishing communities in Turkey(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2016., 2016.) Ertör Akyazı, Pınar.; Özkaynak, Begüm.; Adaman, Fikret.The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the vast literature on environmental policy instruments and resource use dilemmas via an experimental approach. Based on framed field experiments conducted with members of small-scale fishing communities in Turkey, the study focused on the effects of different policy interventions on cooperation, and demonstrated that analyzing the behavioral impact of environmental policy instruments is crucial to ensure effectiveness. The framed field experiments were used to evaluate the effects of an external fine, a market-like incentive, and a communication condition in a resource use dilemma. The experiments involved twelve sessions for each treatment (baseline, fine, market and communication treatments), with five participants per session. Both communication and a symbolic (low) fine were found to be effective in reducing extraction. The findings further imply that there is a framing effect between the fine and market conditions. When the economic incentive was framed as a fine as opposed to a market-like mechanism, it reduced extraction more. This implies that institutional context matters to individual behavior, and that the same level of economic incentive may perform differently if the institutional context is changed. This finding also supports the hypothesis that market reasoning may lead to unintended outcomes in resource use dilemmas. If this is not taken into account, environmental policies may backfire.Item Current account adjustment in Turkey : 1923-2002(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2003., 2003.) Yücel, Yelda.; Pamuk, Şevket, 1950-.In this thesis the balance of payments of Turkey between 1923-2002 is examined with special emphasis on current account adjustment. One of the targets is to evaluate the balance of payments under different economic regimes since 1923 and to identify the changes in the structure of balance of payments. The review of the balance of payments and different development strategies highlights that there is a close relationship between economic growth and balance of payments in Turkey. The second task of this thesis is to identify the determinants of current account balance empirically. A reduced form single equation model of current account with annual and quarterly data is estimated through ordinary least squares (OLS). Next, formal statistical methods are applied to detect possible breaks and shifts in the model. Whether there exists a threshold between the current account balance and economic growth is also questioned. Finally, stability of the model parameters is examined through rolling-regressions analysis. Consequently, current account balance in Turkey has been found to be determined by GDP growth, demand from export markets, terms of trade and foreign exchange volatility, among which GDP growth is the major factor. Formal tests for structural break and test for threshold effects did not provide significant results but analysis of rolling regressions had important results for the current account dynamics in Turkey, which verified that there are shifts and breaks in the current account model. The impact of GDP growth on current account balance declined during 1995-2002 and specifically in 1999. Given the unsustainability of economic growth in this period, the economy could not generate proportionate expenditures during phases of economic growth.Item Essays on growth, structural change and taxation(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022) Höke, Fatma Kübra.; Koyuncu, Murat.This thesis examines economies’ long-run dynamics with theoretical and empirical tools. It is composed of three chapters. In Chapter 1, we provide evidence for the labor share, structural change, fixed costs, and productivity divergence for the US economy that we observe in the data. The theoretical model with increasing fixed cost and dispersion in TFP growth across firms explains the most significant part of the decrease in aggregate labor share. The differentiation in labor shares of the two sectors can also stem from the difference in the standard deviation of TFP growth. In Chapter 2, we estimate a panel Structural VAR model for eleven OECD countries using yearly data between 1973 and 2015. We identify a permanent shock to the corporate income tax rate, which is exogenous to economic activity. Our results show that a cut in corporate income taxation positively influences hours worked and aggregate output for the whole sample. While corporate taxation has been almost halved in OECD countries over the last four decades, the effects of its decline are quite distinct between the two groups of countries. In Chapter 3, we investigate the effect of tax amnesty on the firm dynamics. We use the Difference in Differences (DiD) model to investigate the impact of the tax amnesty in 2011 in Turkey on firms’ employment and net sales. The results show that tax amnesty significantly and negatively impacts the employment and net sales of firms that have tax debt before the amnesty.Item Essays on Turkish private hospital industry :|dynamics of market structure, health reforms and regulations(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Boyacı, İsrafil.; Erus, Burçay.This thesis consists of three essays on empirical industrial organization. The first chapter focuses on the hospital industry environment in Turkey, provides a comprehensive picture of the industry, and also sets the foundation for the following chapters. The descriptive empirical analysis, which covers a period when the private hospital market nationwide experienced considerable growth, provides an insightful description of the hospital industry in Turkey while comparatively investigating and discussing the change in the competitive and regulatory environment with the health reforms implemented under the Health Transformation Program 2003-2013 (HTP). The second chapter addresses hospital entry and competition by employing a panel dataset on hospitals and local market characteristics. The static model builds on the entry threshold method of Bresnahan and Reiss (1988, 1990, 1991). Besides explaining the proliferation of private hospitals nationwide during the HTP in local districts of Turkey over the sample period 2001-2014, the multi-period estimations help explore the overall role of the health reforms and regulations under the HTP in shaping the hospital market structure. The third and final chapter of the research analyzes the capacity choices of hospitals in the post-reform period after 2010 with the help of a stochastic strategic investment model in an oligopoly game setting. The equilibrium solution of the theoretical model and empirical analysis provides evidence for the discussion of whether the private hospitals in Turkey engage in a medical arms race in the form of strategic capacity accumulation due to the local competitive pressures on them.Item Short-run structural rigidities and supply performance in a financially repressed economy: |the case of Turkey(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 1986., 1986.) Doğruel, A. Suut.In the beginning of the 1980, a stabilization prograrrce was introduced fulder the auspices of the IMF as a remedy to high rate of inflation and excessive balance of payment deficits experienced in Turkey. After five-year implementation, however, the success of the programme is ambiguous. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the short-run rigidities as an obstacle to stabilization efforts experienced last years from the "structuralist" perspective. The emphasis given solely on the supply side. But, due to their direct effects on the supply side, the external balance and the adjustment mechanisms in the financial sector are also included. Simple rr:acroeconomic models are presented in the study and used for explaining some of the stylized. facts of the Turkish economy. A macroeconometric model for the Turkish economy is estimated and used for analyzing some of the structural characteristics of the economy the study concerns.Item Three essays in dynamic macroeconomics(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2016., 2016.) Öztunalı, Oğuz.; Elgin, Ceyhun.This thesis consists of three essays on dynamic macroeconomics. The first essay focuses on the relationship between government policy, education and wage inequality in a theoretical environment similar to the ones described in Acemoglu (1998, 2002). Analytical solution of the theoretical model indicates that the decentralized equilibrium of a two-sector economy where technological progress is fueled by invention of new technologies that are sold in a monopolistically competitive market is not socially optimal. The socially optimal government strategy involves the subsidization of the two sectors at the same rate as favoring one sector over the other subsidizing it at a higher rate distorts relative prices of intermediate goods substantially and hampers economic growth. The second article explores the relationship between the degree of central bank independence and inflation both empirically and theoretically. Empirical analysis shows a non-linear pattern between the two variables, and a game theoretical model taking place between the government and central bank is used to show that the potential informational asymmetry between the two player regarding the cost of fiscal expansion can successfully generate such a non-linear relationship. The third essay investigates the intergenerational educational mobility patterns in Europe using European Social Survey Dataset. The results of the econometric analysis show that educational mobility patterns show heterogeneity across countries, birth cohorts, genders and parent structure.Item Three essays in industrial organization(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Işık, Mehtap.; Zenginobuz, Ekrem Ünal.In the first chapter of the thesis, we consider the formation of networks over which a public good is produced (as opposed to considering given and fixed network structures). We identify that the multiplicity of equilibria of effort levels that are exerted in provision of public good on a given and fixed network structure differentiates the problem of formation of these networks from the existing literature. We suggest some stability definitions for these kinds of networks. In the second chapter, we consider the problem of dealing with piracy in a monopolistic digital market in which piracy exists in the form of end-user copying and commercial reproduction. We find that the governmental protection against commercial piracy is not socially optimal due to end-user copying. Moreover, when the monopolist differentiates its product across quality, it can cover the most of its profit losses by deterring piracy. In the third chapter, we formalize the discrete type space version of the corruption problem, which is identi ed by Koray and Saglam (2005a) in Baron and Myerson (1982) model of monopoly regulation. We propose a solution to the problem by using the framework driven by the Myerson (1979) for incentive compatible bargaining games. We also implement a simulation to gain a quantitative insight on the economic effects of the corruption bargaining game.Item Turkey's transfer problem in the 1980s :|the external and the internal adjustment mechanisms(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 1994., 1994.) İzmen, Ümit 1961-; Evcimen, Günar.This thesis attempts an empirical interpretation of the Turkish transfer problem during the 1980's, the main cause of which is the debt selVice obligations. The thesis investigates how Turkey attempted to solve the twin problems of the external and internal transfers in the 1980s. In particular, this study formulates the salient features of the transfer process and investigates the extent to which policies in this process met the requirements of the textbook transfer theory. Using a simple macroeconomic framework, the thesis also attempts to relate the transfer problem to the growth-oriented adjustment literature. Mter the introduction, the second chapter introduces the transfer debate in literature. The third chapter gives an ovelView of the adjustment process and sets the methodological framework for measuring transfers. The fourth chapter probes further into the external transfer problem. The fifth chapter takes up the internal transfer problem. The sixth chapter develops a simple macro-economic model inspired by the growth-oriented literature of the IMF and the World Bank and uses this model to simulate the effects of a transfer requirement and alternative ways of financing the transfer on output growth and price stability. The last chapter summarizes the main findings.