Murat Mercan

Yildiz Technical University · Department of Economics

Suriye İç Savaşının 2011 yılında başlamasından sonra Suriyeliler Türkiye’ye yoğun bir şekilde göç etmişlerdir. Suriyelilerin göç hareketinin ev sahibi ülkeler üzerindeki etkileri akademik yazında yoğun olarak incelenen konular arasındadır. Bahse konu niceliksel yöntem kullanan çalışmaların önemli bir kısmı Suriyeli göçünün ekonomik etkilerine odakl...

This study investigates the impact of the massive and unexpected influx of Syrian refugees on the job vacancy rates (JVRs) and job-finding rates (JFRs) in Turkey between 2009–2015 and 2009–2018. We employed the instrumental variable approach to address potential endogeneity issues. While we found no significant causal impact of the Syrian refugees...

Population ageing coupled with measures for active ageing and encouraging working at older age as well as unmet financial needs translates into an increase in the proportion of older workers. In this regard, it becomes imperative to create a work environment responding to the needs of more experienced workers. Accordingly, research into the effects...

In this study, we investigate the impact of an increase in the number of refugees on a host country’s incarceration rate, through the specific case of the inflow of Syrian refugees into Turkey. Using statistics from Turkish penal institutions for the period of 2010 to 2015, we applied the difference-in-difference, panel event study, synthetic contr...

Background: Population aging, caused by an increase in life expectancy and decrease in fertility rates, has created changes and challenges in various spheres, including the labor market. Though health deteriorates with age, more and more older adults choose to stay in the labor force and work into late life. Objective: Understanding the effects...

Many old adults are faced with the risk of social exclusion, which inhibits them from enjoying a satisfactory quality of life. Accordingly, understanding this multidimensional and multifaceted complex phenomena is crucial for building an inclusive society. Hence, studies concentrating on vulnerable groups with higher probability of economic forms o...

This study investigates the wage differential and discrimination between genders in Turkey based on data taken from the nationally representative Turkish Household Labour Survey for 2002 to 2019. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition technique was used which was then integrated into the Heckman’s selection correction procedure. It was found that the gen...

Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, more than 3.6 million refugees have been hosted in Turkey. In this study, we investigate the effects of changes in the number of Syrian refugees on native divorce across Turkish provinces between 2008 and 2017. Using difference-in-difference (DiD) and instrumented difference-in-differences (DDIV) approa...

Turkish residents 65 and older comprise 8.8% of the total population yet the academic literature on the relationships among the effects of ageing, gender and the labour market is very limited. This chapter describes the characteristics of older workers and discusses changes in the legal structure of the labour market and their implications in Turke...

Economists’ solution to the tragedy of the commons relies on well-defined property rights and competitive market mechanism for limiting individuals’ self-serving, short-sighted actions that result in a dramatic depletion of the common resources. However, this solution implicates a serious threat in terms of sustainability. Recently, deterioration o...

This paper investigates the relationship between sons’ working age and their fathers’ income in Turkey. In addition, we investigated the relationship between sons’ occupations and fathers’ income in Turkey. It is a unique study because no such study has been previously conducted in Turkey, which is both a Muslim country and a developing country. Ou...

Driven by falling fertility rates and increase in life expectancy, aging populations is an evident phenomenon. In line with this demographic change, even though health deteriorates with age, many older workers is expected to continue working and participate in labor force. Accordingly, analyzing health effects of various working conditions are cent...

The difference between the working hours of natives and immigrants has begun to attract a great deal of attention in U.S. migration research, but this phenomenon has yet to be studied in a European context. In this article, we examine this difference in working hours for 13 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Finland, Fran...

Ageing population is a demographic shift that requires adaptations in social and economic sphere. In this respect, many of the older adults is expected to extend their working life. Considering projected increase in the number of older age adults and their raising presence in the labor force as well as higher prevalence of many health conditions am...

Healthy aging is critical for the elderly to be independent and enjoy at least a satisfactory quality of life. However, late-life bereavement threatens healthy aging, as it may lead to adverse health effects. Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey, this study investigates the relationship between weight—specifically, body mass index (BMI)...

With more than 400 nuclear power plants around the globe, recent experiences at Fukushima Daiichi once again draw attention to nuclear radiation exposure. Looking at prior nuclear power plant accidents, especially at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, it is possible to make inferences regarding long term consequences of nuclear radiation exposure a...

Intergenerational transmission of health is a relatively new area of study for economists. Its persistence points to health inequalities. It also suggests that some part of the population does not have the capacity or opportunity to neither participate in nor benefit from economic and social life to the fullest extent. This study examines the relat...

Income relationship between generations has been subject of interest for economists and sociologists. Economists have measured income relationships between generations, which are known as intergenerational income elasticity. Most studies depend on developed countries datasets. Unfortunately, there is only one previous study that investigates interg...

Despite leveling off, United States is faced with high prevalence of obesity. Obesity epidemic is an important public health concern imposing pressures on social support schemes, leading to productivity losses and threatening quality of life of the people living with it. As occupations take up good portion of adult's daily life and have close relat...

Inter-industry wage differentials between women and men have received increasing attention in the literature, but few studies have examined this phenomenon for developing countries. This study investigates the female-male wage differentials for Turkey, which is an eastern and developing country. A simple Blinder-Oaxaca type decomposition analysis o...

The aim of this study was to investigate the existence of sectorial undereducation and overeducation problems in the Turkish labor market. In order to cope with this issue, the 2009 Household Labor Force Survey (TurkStat), which covers 145,934 individuals within 27 sectors, was utilized. An objective measure of education–occupation mismatch based o...

The aim of this study was to investigate the existence of sectorial undereducation and overeducation problems in the Turkish labor market. In order to cope with this issue, the 2009 Household Labor Force Survey (TurkStat), which covers 145,934 individuals within 27 sectors, was utilized. An objective measure of education–occupation mismatch based o...

Working long hours may be related to obesity in older adults. No studies have focused on older workers and long work hours, although the risk of obesity is high among this population group. This study is the first attempt to investigate the relationship between obesity and the older workforce. Panel data from the Health and Retirement Study are exa...

This paper aims to calculate intergenerational income mobility in Turkey. We employed two different approaches: a simple OLS and a two-stage model. These three methods produced the same result. We found that the intergenerational income elasticity between fathers and sons is approximately 0.1 in Turkey. This result indicates that Turkey is a highly...

This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. Our first contribution is calculating the marriage premium for Turkey. Our results suggest that married men earn 27 percent more than single men and married women earn 4 percent less than single women. Our second contribution is calculating the marriage premium for Turkey’s regions. For men, t...

We investigate the influence of long-term unemployment on intergenerational earnings mobility among men. We defend our definition of the long-term unemployed as those who have zero annual earnings despite labor force participation and emphasize that previous studies have routinely excluded these workers. When this relatively small group is included...

The degree of assortative mating shows the degree of similarity within couples. Many papers try to calculate earnings correlations between husbands and wives. This paper tries to calculate the earnings correlations for Turkey and consider the effect of the sample selection. Our results show that there is a weak positive assortative mating in Turkey...