This thesis mainly analyzes the effects of Turkish Grameen Microcredit Program (TGMP) on income levels of the program participants in Eskisehir. The studies found in the literature which examine the effects of TGMP on participants concentrate on Diyarbakir in 2007 whereas this thesis provides evidence for a province which has different socio-economic characteristics, Eskisehir, in 2011. The methodology used is sample survey on participants through interviews and results are evaluated with non-parametric statistical tests. Poverty levels of program participants, characteristics of microbusinesses conducted by them, effect of the program on profit levels of microbusinesses and relation between profit levels of microbusinesses and other variables are analyzed in detail. The main findings of the study reveal that TGMP Eskisehir branch does not discriminate in favor of or against poorest women, microbusinesses conducted by participants concentrates on traditional and low profit ones, the program positively affects the profit levels of some microbusinesses but not for all of the participants and the effect of the program on profit levels is positively related with the microcredit amount spent for these businesses. It is concluded from the findings that TGMP cannot be the solution for poverty by itself and recommendations for improving the program and its effects are provided accordingly.

This study focuses on the female labor force participation rate (LFPR). Cross-country fixed effect analysis of fifty-six countries shows that female LFPR increases with income and education level. Moreover, average schooling years for males is a good fit for female LFPR especially in the low income countries with low education level. Average schooling years for females is a good fit for female LFPR especially in the high income countries with high education level. Higher female tertiary enrollment ratio is significant for higher female LFPR. On the other hand, Turkey has a lower level of female LFPR than the predicted level. Low female education explains the lower female LFPR of Turkey than the countries with similar income level. However, female LFPR has a declining trend in time even if income and education level improves. Institutional background of Turkey indicates the negative impact of urbanization on participation rates. However, under different growth and education scenarios, Turkey can reach higher levels until 2030. Employment policies especially focused on higher education is essential to reach the targets.

International migration is an important issue that has become even more important with the recent globalization process and economic restructuring. Economic activities that stem from this process have provided new opportunities for labor exporting countries. In the past, the focus was on remittances but today the entrepreneurial activities of transnational entrepreneurs have become more important. Many developing countries have recently concentrated their policies upon this group of entrepreneurs and they try to increase the economic benefits from their activities. Turkey is also one of the major labor exporting countries. New economic opportunities that concern the activities of transnational entrepreneurs have emerged for Turkey recently. These entrepreneurs are very important especially at the regional level. In &Ccedil / orum, several transnational entrepreneurs founded their firms. They contribute to employment, exports and income considerably. These entrepreneurs succeed by making use of their social capital and network. They also create positive externalities by encouraging other local entrepreneurs to export. Our findings show that these entrepreneurs need consulting and information / therefore, the state should get involved in this process more actively. Only then can one expect greater benefits from the ongoing process.

This thesis analyzes the tenure choice behavior of Turkish household heads over the period between 1985 and 2000, using a method of logit. The probability of owning the housing unit an individual lives in, is modeled by using demographic, labor market, migrational characteristics of the household head and the provincial differences as the explanatory variables. The results show that age and education of the household heads are positively correlated with probability of homeownership and they are the most influential factors determining the tenure choice of Turkish households and the discrepancy in the homeownership rates of the regions. The empirical analysis also displays that internal migrants have lower probabilities than natives and the length of stay matters the most for the tenure choice of internal migrants.

Infant mortality rate is used as an indicator of a nation&rsquo / s economic welfare. Despite the tremendous reduction since 1900s infant mortality rate is still high for developing countries. Infant mortality is reduced from 67 to 21 per 1000 live births in 17 years from 1990 to 2007 in Turkey. However, IMR in Turkey is still much higher than the rates in developing countries which is reported as 5 in 2007. In this thesis, I examine regional, household and individual level characteristics that are associated with infant mortality. For this purpose survival analysis is used in this analysis. The data come from 2003-2004 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey that includes detailed information of 8,075 ever married women between the ages 15-49. 7,360 mothers of these women gave birth to 22,443 children. The results of the logistic regression show that intervals between the births of the infants are associated with infant mortality at lower levels of wealth index. Children from poorer families with preceding birth interval shorter than 14 months or children whose mothers experience a subsequent birth fare badly. Breastfeeding is important for the survival chance of the infants under the age 3 months. Place of delivery and source of water the family uses are also found to be correlated with infant mortality risk. Curvilinear relation between maternal age at birth and infant mortality risk is observed, indicating higher risk for teenage mothers and mothers having children at older ages.

This thesis examines the life-cycle profile of informal employment in Turkey. To achieve this goal cohort analysis technique and 2000-2007 Household Labor Force Survey micro level data of State Institute of Statistics is used. Informal sector is composed of people working without social security coverage due to their current jobs. Analyzes are conducted both for the total sample and six education groups separately. Besides informal employment, labor force participation and unemployment rates are also examined and using these variables net transitions between the sectors over the life-cycle are tired to be observed. According to the results / informal employment rate decreases at young ages, relatively stable at middle ages and then increases rapidly at older ages. Moreover, strong cohort effects are found in many variables and the cross section profiles differ from the true life-cycle profiles remarkably.

The effect of fertility on female labor supply decisions in Turkey is analyzed in this thesis. Taking the endogeneity between fertility and labor supply into account, the causal effect of fertility is interpreted in an instrumental variables estimation framework. Results of the analysis indicate that fertility estimates of sex preference and twin based instruments on short term labor supply of women differ substantially. While fertility increases due to sex preference instrument cause no significant change in labor supply decisions, unexpected fertility shocks by twin instrument have an adverse effect on female labor supply.

This thesis aims to investigate both the causes and effects of migration in the Middle East and North Africa with a view to identifying the patterns and trends that characterize migration phenomena in the region. It is argued that migration is a significant variable to understand the economic, social and political dynamics of the development that the MENA countries have experienced since imperial and/or colonial times. In its different variants, migration has been conditioned primarily by economic vicissitudes. With the exception of the Gulf states, all of the MENA countries have experienced significant levels of immigration as well as emigration especially since the 1980s when the structural effects of the oil crisis (1973) surfaced. The Iraq-Iran War of the 1980s and the Gulf War of the 1990s enhanced the existing trends of migration. In the absence of political reform and economic restructuring, the economies of the region have rejuvenated the conditions of migration. Having drawn upon sociological theories, political histories and economic analyses to identify and discuss the patterns and trends of migration, the present study argues in complete contrast to a policy-oriented Western scholarship that migration is far from being a stimulus for economic growth across the MENA countries.

This thesis analyzes the Turkish unemployment problem in the 2000-2011 period, in a broad and comparative perspective with unemployment problem in the Netherlands, Ireland and Argentina. However, periods of concern for these three countries and Turkey differ, because each country experienced severe unemployment problem in different time periods. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate current policies dealing with unemployment problem in Turkey and suggest more effective policy alternatives, with reference to successful policies of other countries. It is found that current approach towards unemployment problem in Turkey is inadequate in many aspects / specifically there is no emphasis on job creating policies. Moreover, our discussions on the measurement of labour market indicators in Turkey and general characteristics of Turkish labour market showed that underemployment and marginally attached workers are neglected problems that have to be addressed in policymaking.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of the South Eastern Anatolia Project (GAP) on the inter-regional inequality between the GAP region and the rest of Turkey. Cross-sectional analyses are carried out for the years of 1990 and 2000, that is, before the project is put into effect and 10 years after of its implementation. Although this thesis is ultimately concerned with the inter-regional inequality, the within and the total-region inequality are also discussed. Moreover, since not only the economic, infrastructure and service related variables, but also the sociodemographic variables are included in the analyses, it is a comprehensive evaluation, and the results provide current information about the success of the GAP. In this study, Theil&#039 / s inequality index is used as it provides the property of additive decomposability, which allows us to analyze the magnitudes and trends in inequality among regions and within regions as well as total inequality. The indicators include 17 socio-demographic, 12 economic, and 10 infrastructure and service related variables, i.e., total of 39 independent variables. Although the GAP region performed an improvement in absolute terms for most of the variables, the findings show that the inequality between the GAP region and the rest of Turkey increased for more than half of the variables during the last decade. These variables are mostly related to demography (i.e., infant mortality rate, fertility rate, etc.), health services, and GDP p.c.. On the other hand, the between-region inequality decreased for the variables related to infrastructure, urbanization, educational level (i.e., literacy and schooling ratios in primary education), and nonagricultural labor force.