Do countries with lower policy-induced barriers to international trade grow faster, once other relevant country characteristics are controlled for? There exists a large empirical literature providing an affirmative answer to this question. We argue that methodological problems with the empirical...

This study examines convergence in aggregate labor productivity levels, using data on the 67 provinces of Turkey over the period 1975-1990. Markov chains, a nonparametric approach, are applied to characterize the long run tendency of labor productivity. Evidence shows polarization: the...

This paper looks at the implications of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership agreement on labor and wages in Egypt, using a dynamic CGE model, which takes into account the labor market segmentation. Our results suggest that trade liberalization bears the risk of promoting the use of...

The MENA Region has recently witnessed significant economic and financial development. Yet its trade and capital flows remain marginal on a global level, and risk perceptions and institutional underdevelopment are still a powerful obstacle to an increased access to capital markets, a better...

There is no evidence on the extent of public versus private wage differentials in Turkey. The main objective of this paper is to examine the factors which explain the employment choice and the wage differentials in the public administration, state owned enterprises and the formal private wage...

This paper studies the long-term consequences of polices designed to curb the rapid growth in pension deficits in Turkey where the mismanagement of pension funds has begun to generate considerable losses, despite a relatively young population that is just beginning to face population aging. With...

The size of government consumption relative to national output is examined to see if it is optimal in five Gulf countries of the Middle East. We follow the methodology suggested in Barro (1990) and Karras (1996, 1997) and examine the marginal productivity of government consumption. The "Barro...

The main objective of this paper is to provide evidence on the extent of the wage differential between general and vocational high school graduates who do not go on to higher education. School selection is modeled with a three-way multinominal logit model. Selectivity corrected wage equations...

The rapid pace of urbanization in developing countries, and especially the growth of very large cities, is a source of considerable concern for policy makers and is increasingly becoming a topic for economic analysis. Most studies of migration are concerned with rural-urban flows. However, in...

I subject the paradigm of a rational individual acting upon earnings-enhancing benefits of migration to careful statistical scrutiny, using a rich micro-data set from Turkey.