The Pen or the Sword: Determining the Effects of Different Types of Coups D’état on Income Inequality
By Jie Wei Chia
Existing literature on the relationship between income inequality and coup d’états focus on how the former cause the latter. No research has yet been done on how coup d’états affect income inequality after their occurrence. This study uses cross–country panel data and fixed effects with instrumental variables models to examine the impact of successful armed coups, successful unarmed coups, failed armed coups and failed unarmed coups. I find that, on average, none of these coups have a significant impact on the Gini coefficient and the income share of the poorest quintile of a population relative to the richest quintile, save for successful armed coups when the sub–sample of data from 1991–2013 was used.
Advisor: Duncan Thomas, Timur Kuran | JEL Codes: D7, D74 | Tagged: Coups, Inequality, Political Economy
Variations in Turkey’s Female Labor Market: The Puzzling Role of Education
By Rachel Anderson
Although Turkey ranks among the world’s 20 largest economies, female labor force participation in Turkey is surprisingly low. Relative to other developed countries, however, the proportion of Turkish women in senior management is high. One explanation for these contrasting pictures of Turkey’s female labor force is education. To better understand how women’s education and household characteristics explain variations in Turkey’s female labor market, I use annual Turkish Household Labour Force Survey data from 2004–2012 to estimate five probabilities: the likelihood that a woman (1) participates in the labor force, or is employed in an (2) agricultural, (3) blue collar, (4) lower white collar, or (5) upper white collar job. I find that labor force participation is relatively high among female primary school graduates, who are most likely to work in agricultural and blue collar jobs. Highly educated married women are the most likely group to participate in upper white collar jobs, and families favor sending single daughters over wives to work during periods of reduced household income.
Advisor: Kent Kimbrough, Timur Kuran | JEL Codes: C51, J21, J23 | Tagged: Employment, Labor-force Participation, Occupation Women
