Publications

Fatma Gül Unal

• Working Paper No. 598 | May 2010

  The Economic and Financial Crises in CEE and CIS

  View More View Less

  Gender Perspectives and Policy Choices

  This paper looks at the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), where economies have been most dramatically hit by the global crisis and its impact is likely to be most long-lasting, especially among poor and vulnerable groups. Using poverty as the main axis, it looks at aspects of economic and social development in countries at similar poverty levels to identify the degree of fiscal space in each, as well as the different policy choices made. The paper argues that despite such economic fundamentals as increasing external debt, worsening current account imbalances, and demands for a balanced budget, governments have policy choices to make about how to protect different groups, especially the most vulnerable—including women.

  Download:

  Working Paper No. 598

  Associated Program(s):

  Gender Equality and the Economy The Distribution of Income and Wealth

  Author(s):

  Fatma Gül Unal Mirjana Dokmanovic Rafis Abazov

  Related Topic(s):

  Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Gender Global financial crisis Policy space Pro-poor growth

  

• Working Paper No. 575 | August 2009

  Market Failure and Land Concentration

  View More View Less

  Utilizing a 2002 household-level World Bank Survey for rural Turkey, this paper explores the link between concentration of land ownership and rural factor markets. We construct a unique index that measures market malfunctioning based on the neoclassical model linking land and labor endowments through factor markets to household income. We further test whether land ownership concentration affects market malfunctioning. Our empirical investigation supports the claim that factor markets are structurally limited in reducing existing inequalities as a result of land ownership concentration. Our findings show that in the presence of land ownership inequality, malfunctioning rural factor markets result in increased land concentration, increased income inequality, and inefficient resource allocation. This work fills an important empirical gap within the development literature and establishes a positive association between asset inequality and factor market failure.

  Download:

  Working Paper No. 575

  Associated Program(s):

  Economic Policy for the 21st Century Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis

  Author(s):

  Fatma Gül Unal

  Related Topic(s):

  Land ownership Market failure Turkey

  

• Working Paper No. 551 | December 2008

  Small Is Beautiful

  View More View Less

  Evidence of an Inverse Relationship between Farm Size and Yield in Turkey

  This paper examines the relationship between farm size and yield per acre in Turkey using heretofore untapped data from a 2002 farm-level survey of 5,003 rural households. After controlling for village, household, and agroclimatic heterogeneity, a strong inverse relationship between farm size and yield is found to be prevalent in all regions of Turkey. The paper also investigates the impact of land fragmentation on productivity and labor input per acre, and finds a positive relationship. These results favor labor-centered theories that point to higher labor input per decare as the source of the inverse size-yield relationship.

  Download:

  Working Paper No. 551

  Associated Program:

  Economic Policy for the 21st Century

  Author(s):

  Fatma Gül Unal

  Related Topic(s):

  Farm efficiency Turkey