Ücret eşitsizliği: Türkiye için bir inceleme
Özet
This study examines the change in and the factors that affect wage inequality between skilled and unskilled labor in Turkey in the 1990s. In less developed countries, along with technology transfer and trade with developed countries, two additional factors that affect wage inequality should be stressed: competition from less developed countries and economic instability. Competition from least developed countries that are specialized in the production of unskilled labor intensive goods should increase wage inequality in middle income countries. Another factor that should be emphasized is the periods of economic crises, which increase wage inequality. Relative demand for skilled labor and wage inequality increased in Turkey in the 1990s both between formal and informal sectors and between production and non-production workers within manufacturing industries. The increase in wage differentials was accompanied by an increase in the relative supply of skilled labor and this should imply an increase in relative demand. Total factor productivity (TFP) growth rates were decomposed in order to determine the bias of technological change in the Turkish manufacturing industries. This exercise indicate that the increase in productivity of skilled labor is not statistically different from the increase in productivity of unskilled labor. Econometric estimates demonstrate that capital accumulation and TFP growth increased the relative demand for skilled labor and wage differentials in the second half of 1990s. But this evidence is not true for all the 1988-1998 period. Imports increased relative demand for skilled labor in the 1988-1993 period but not after 1994. Another factor that seems to be explaining the increase in wage differentials in Turkish manufacturing industry is the economic crises in the 1990s. 189