IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/57739.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Defining and Measuring Informality in the Turkish Labor Market

Author

Listed:
  • Kan, Elif Oznur
  • Tansel, Aysit

Abstract

This paper investigates how informality can be defined and measured in the Turkish labor market. Two alternative definitions of informality are used to explore their relevance and implications for the Turkish labor market using descriptive statistics. They are the enterprise definition and the social security definition. Further, contributions of individual and job characteristics to the likelihood of informality are investigated using multivariate probit analysis under the two definitions. The social security registration criterion is found to be a better measure of informality in the Turkish labor market given its ability to capture the key relationships between several individual and employment characteristics and the likelihood of informality.The study suggests that preference should be given to social security definition of labor informality for a more accurate depiction of the Turkish labor market. The suitability of the two alternative definitions of informality in the Turkish labor market and its implications have not been investigated before.

Suggested Citation

  • Kan, Elif Oznur & Tansel, Aysit, 2014. "Defining and Measuring Informality in the Turkish Labor Market," MPRA Paper 57739, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:57739
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/57739/1/MPRA_paper_57739.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henley, Andrew & Arabsheibani, Reza & Carneiro, Francisco G., 2006. "On Defining and Measuring the Informal Sector," IZA Discussion Papers 2473, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Derek Yu, 2012. "Defining and measuring informal employment in South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 157-175, March.
    3. Melika BEN SALEM & Isabelle BENSIDOUN & Selin PELEK, 2011. "Informal Employment In Turkey: An Overview," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 34, pages 57-84.
    4. Jaime Saavedra & Alberto Chong, 1999. "Structural reform, institutions and earnings: Evidence from the formal and informal sectors in urban Peru," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 95-116.
    5. Guillermo E. Perry & William F. Maloney & Omar S. Arias & Pablo Fajnzylber & Andrew D. Mason & Jaime Saavedra-Chanduvi, 2007. "Informality : Exit and Exclusion," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6730.
    6. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    7. World Bank, 2010. "Turkey - Country Economic Memorandum Informality : Causes, Consequences, Policies," World Bank Publications - Reports 2843, The World Bank Group.
    8. Bromley, Ray, 1978. "Introduction - the urban informal sector: Why is it worth discussing?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 6(9-10), pages 1033-1039.
    9. Johannes Jütting & Jante Parlevliet & Theodora Xenogiani, 2008. "Informal Employment Re-loaded," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 266, OECD Publishing.
    10. Martha Alter Chen, 2007. "Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment," Working Papers 46, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    11. Bosch, Mariano & Maloney, William, 2005. "Labor market dynamics in developing countries: comparative analysis using continuous time Markov processes," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3583, The World Bank.
    12. Henley, Andrew & Arabsheibani, G. Reza & Carneiro, Francisco G., 2009. "On Defining and Measuring the Informal Sector: Evidence from Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 992-1003, May.
    13. Maloney, William F, 1999. "Does Informality Imply Segmentation in Urban Labor Markets? Evidence from Sectoral Transitions in Mexico," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 275-302, May.
    14. Yamada, Gustavo, 1996. "Urban Informal Employment and Self-Employment in Developing Countries: Theory and Evidence," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(2), pages 289-314, January.
    15. Aysit Tansel, 1999. "Formal Versus Informal Sector Choice of Wage Earners and their Wages in Turkey," Working Papers 9927, Economic Research Forum, revised Sep 1999.
    16. Aysit Tansel, 2001. "Wage Earners, Self Employed and Gender in the Informal Sector in Turkey," Working Papers 0102, Economic Research Forum, revised 01 Nov 2001.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cem Başlevent & Ayşenur Acar, 2015. "Recent trends in informal employment in Turkey," Yildiz Social Science Review, Yildiz Technical University, vol. 1(1), pages 77-88.
    2. Erten, Bilge & Keskin, Pinar, 2021. "Female employment and intimate partner violence: Evidence from Syrian Refugee inflows to Turkey," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    3. Kerem Cantekin & Ceyhun Elgin, 2017. "Extent And Growth Effects Of Informality In Turkey: Evidence From A Firm-Level Survey," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(05), pages 1017-1037, December.
    4. Mehmet Nazım Tamkoç & Orhan Torul, 2020. "Cross-Sectional Facts for Macroeconomists: Wage, Income and Consumption Inequality in Turkey," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(2), pages 239-259, June.
    5. Ceyhun Elgin & Muhammed Burak Sezgin, 2017. "Sectoral Estimates of Informality: A New Method and Application for the Turkish Economy," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 55(4), pages 261-289, December.
    6. Adem Yavuz Elveren, 2015. "The Impact of the Informal Employment on the Social Security Deficits in Turkey," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 1(1), pages 3-19, June.
    7. Duman, Anil, 2020. "Non-Standard Employment and Wage Differences across Gender: a quantile regression approach," GLO Discussion Paper Series 664, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Kaya, Ezgi, 2019. "Gender wage gap across the quantiles:What is the role of firm segregation?," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2019/7, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    9. Cem Baslevent, 2016. "Social Transfers and Income Inequality in Turkey: How Important is the Gender Dimension?," Working Papers 1013, Economic Research Forum, revised Jun 2016.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kan, Elif Oznur & Tansel, Aysit, 2014. "Defining and Measuring Informality in the Turkish Labor Market," MPRA Paper 57739, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Elif Öznur ACAR & Aysıt TANSEL, 2016. "Defining and Measuring Informality: The Case of Turkish Labor Market," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 24(28).
    3. Aysit Tansel & Elif Oznur Acar, 2016. "The Formal/Informal Employment Earnings Gap: Evidence from Turkey," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality after the 20th Century: Papers from the Sixth ECINEQ Meeting, volume 24, pages 121-154, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Aysit Tansel & Elif Oznur Acar, 2016. "The Formal/Informal Employment Earnings Gap: Evidence from Turkey," Research on Economic Inequality,in: Inequality after the 20th Century: Papers from the Sixth ECINEQ Meeting, volume 24, pages 121-154 Emerald Publishing Ltd.
    5. Tansel, Aysit & Kan, Elif Oznur, 2011. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: evidence from individual level data," MPRA Paper 35672, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Aysit Tansel & Elif Öznur Acar, 2017. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: Evidence from individual-level data," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 617-635, September.
    7. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda, 2014. "The Informal Sector Wage Gap: New Evidence Using Quantile Estimations on Panel Data," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 117-153.
    8. Bargain, Olivier B. & Magejo, Prudence, 2010. "Is Informality Bad? Evidence from Brazil, Mexico and South Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 4711, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Carmen Pagés-Serra & Marco Stampini, 2007. "¿Sin formación no hay buenos empleos? Elementos de juicio sobre la relación entre la formación y la segmentación del mercado laboral," Research Department Publications 4562, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    10. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda, 2009. "The Informal Sector Wage Gap: New Evidence Using Quantile Regressions on Panel Data," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 09-06, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
    11. Pagés, Carmen & Stampini, Marco, 2009. "No education, no good jobs? Evidence on the relationship between education and labor market segmentation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 387-401, September.
    12. Gindling,T. H. & Mossaad,Nadwa & Newhouse,David Locke, 2016. "Earnings premiums and penalties for self-employment and informal employees around the world," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7530, The World Bank.
    13. Larrain, Mauricio & Poblete, Joaquin, 2007. "Age-differentiated minimum wages in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 777-797, November.
    14. Slonimczyk, Fabian & Gimpelson, Vladimir, 2013. "Informality and Mobility: Evidence from Russian Panel Data," IZA Discussion Papers 7703, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Bosch, Mariano & Maloney, William F., 2010. "Comparative analysis of labor market dynamics using Markov processes: An application to informality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 621-631, August.
    16. T. H. Gindling & Nadwa Mossaad & David Newhouse, 2016. "How Large are Earnings Penalties for Self-Employed and Informal Wage Workers?," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-39, December.
    17. Danquah Michael & Schotte Simone & Sen Kunal, 2021. "Informal work in sub-Saharan Africa: Dead end or stepping-stone?," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-44, January.
    18. Bosch, Mariano & Maloney, William, 2008. "Cyclical movements in unemployment and informality in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4648, The World Bank.
    19. Melanie Khamis, 2012. "A Note On Informality In The Labour Market," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 894-908, October.
    20. Xavier Jara & David Rodríguez, 2019. "Financial disincentives to formal work: Evidence from Ecuador and Colombia," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-14, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informality; Definition; Measurement and Likelihood; Turkey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:57739. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.