Structural Adjustment Policies and Employment in Turkey

Abstract

Much of the recent debate on the labor market issues of developing countries has revolved around the interaction of the labor market with stabilization and structural adjustment policies, introduced mostly in conjunction with the IMF and the World Bank. In particular, there is a growing body of literature on the interaction between structural adjustment policies and employment performance in these countries.According to the dominant view in this literature, the favorable employment effects of these policies stem basically from the shift of industrial trade strategy from state-led import substitution towards market-based export orientation.

New technologies and employment: industry and firm level evidence from Turkey

“…To a lesser extent, it was also attributed to the emphasis of export incentives on sectors with relatively high capital intensity (Senses, 1990). The reasons why the reduction in the real wages has not initiated a process of increased labour intensity may be related to two main factors, namely, the non-availability of an international stock of labour-intensive technologies and the difficulties to attain international competitiveness on the basis of these technologies and low wages (Senses, 1996).…”

Gender Based Discirimination at Work in Turkey: A Cross - Sectorel overview

“…While employment in agriculture has declined slowly in time, an outstanding increase in women's employment outside agriculture could not be observed in the period of export oriented growth modeL. This was basically the outcome of the fact that the expected increase in industrial investments has not taken place due to various economic and financial factors (ŞENSES, 1996). One of the indicators of this is that Turkey has not been a country which attracted foreign direct investments comparcd with other countries.…”

Women’s Employment in Turkey in the Light of Different Trajectories in Development-Different Patterns in Women’s Employment

“…The period after 1994 is marked by economic crisis sweeping away what had been recovered and real wages started falling again. 37 Given the fall in real wages and transition to flexible forms of employment which made labour cheaper after 1980, did it create a motive for women to seek wage employment since it was nomore possible for a single member to sustain the family? According to the classical economic theory, fall in wages should bring about a rise in demand for labour.…”