Working Poverty in Türkiye: A Dynamic Panel Analysis

AYDINER AVŞAR N., Onemli M. B.

Social Indicators Research, cilt.168, sa.1-3, ss.139-164, 2023 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 168 Sayı: 1-3
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s11205-023-03127-4
  • Dergi Adı: Social Indicators Research
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, FRANCIS, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Periodicals Index Online, ABI/INFORM, Abstracts in Social Gerontology, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, CAB Abstracts, Communication & Mass Media Index, Communication Abstracts, EBSCO Education Source, EconLit, Geobase, Index Islamicus, Philosopher's Index, Political Science Complete, Psycinfo, Public Administration Abstracts, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Veterinary Science Database, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.139-164
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Poverty, Labour market, Working poor, Working poverty
  • Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Employment is a key instrument to tackle poverty. However, working poverty continues to be a major issue and has caught significant attention especially in developed countries. This issue is of primary relevance also for middle-income developing countries such as Türkiye, but it has not yet been sufficiently investigated. This paper examines working poverty in Türkiye based on a dynamic analysis framework, using the 2007–2017 panel waves of the Survey of Income and Living Conditions. Specifically, it estimates the determinants of working poverty while controlling for state dependence and unobservable heterogeneity using the dynamic random effects probit model. Empirical findings show that the dynamic effects are both statistically and economically significant. This implies that working poverty is associated with a significant degree of state dependence in Türkiye. Hence, there is a need for direct policies to lift the working poor out of poverty. Among the individual, household and employment characteristics, education emerges as a key determinant of working poverty, supporting the predictions of the human capital theory. Additionally, in line with the predictions of the segmentation hypothesis, occupation, industry, firm size, and formal job status are all significantly associated with the probability of being working poor in Türkiye. With respect to household characteristics, the number of children in the household is positively related to the likelihood of working poverty, reflecting the burden on household needs. In contrast, having a retired person and increased work intensity at the household level help reduce the risk of being working poor, most likely through the income pooling effect.