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Studies on Balkan and Near Eastern Social Sciences: Volume 5

by Rasim Yilmaz (Volume editor) Günther Löschnigg (Volume editor)
©2021 Edited Collection 284 Pages

Summary

This book, the fifth volume of Studies on Balkan and Near Eastern Social Sciences, is a collection of empirical and theoretical research papers in the social sciences regarding the Balkans and the Near East written by researchers from several different universities and institutions. The book addresses economic, business, marketing, management, financial, political, historical, phycological, international economics, and international relations issues in the region of the Balkan and Near East. The book is aimed at educators, researchers, and students interested in the Balkan and Near Eastern countries.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the editors
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Contributors
  • The Relationship between Productivity, Female Labor Force Participation and Freedom (Yüksel Okşak)
  • The Impact of Foreign Trade on Human Capital: System GMM Method (Tufan Sarıtaş)
  • Productivity, Globalization and Rents in Developing Economies (Eda Özen)
  • Financial Development, Economic Growth and Poverty (Muhammed Benli)
  • Are Openness and Productivity Associated in Turkey?: Evidence from Long-run Analysis (Julide Yalçınkaya Koyuncu and Mustafa Ünver)
  • From Traditional Marketing to Green Marketing (Bora Gündüzyeli)
  • Importance of Agricultural Cooperatives in Agricultural Financing in Turkey (Resül Yazıcı)
  • A Meta-Analysis Study on the Relationship between Hedonic Consumption and Impulsive Buying Behavior (Yağmur Kerse)
  • Guerilla Marketing (Tayfun Güven)
  • Examination of Relationship between Transactional Leadership and Job Satisfaction Using Meta-Analysis: The Case of Turkey (Gökhan Kerse and Mustafa Babadağ)
  • Organizational Commitment: Literature Review and Conceptual Framework (Emre Ünver)
  • The Role of Opportunity Cost in Cost Management (Mehmet Yücenurşen)
  • Leadership and Social Intelligence (Elif Üler)
  • Emotional Labor with its Positive and Negative Aspects (Hilal Çelik)
  • Emotional Intelligence and Advertisement Perception (Rana Özyurt Kaptanoğlu)
  • Performance Evaluation of Conventional Banks in Turkey (Erdi Bayram and Selim Baha Yıldız)
  • The Importance of Non-Governmental Organizations for Reducing Public Costs in Natural Disasters1 (Alparslan Uğur)
  • Happiness in Old Age (Zeynep Gümüş Demir)
  • Towards Subjective Well-Being with Positive Psychology (Remziye Keskin)
  • The Establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1836 and Modernization in the Ottoman Diplomacy (Can Ünsal)
  • Turks and Islam for a Turkish Socialist (Muhammed Emirhan Onhan)
  • Conflicts, Wars and Civilian Victims: An Overview on Mitigating Effects of Conflicts on Civilians at Different Levels of Analysis (Suat Dönmez)

List of Contributors

Alparslan Uğur

Associate Prof. Dr., Kırıkkale University, Department of Public Finance, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8881-1745.

Bora Gündüzyeli

Assistant Prof. Dr., İstanbul Ayvansaray University, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Department of Management Information Systems, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5098-8713.

Can Ünsal

PhD Candidate, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of History, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1080-4160.

Eda Özen

Assistant Prof.Dr., Bilecik Seyh Edebali University, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0818-1040.

Elif Üler

Lecturer, Yozgat Bozok University, Çekerek Fuat Oktay Vocational School of health Services, Department of Medical Services and Techniques, Medical Promotion and Marketing Program, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2536-544X.

Emre Ünver

Dr., ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0390-8327.

Erdi Bayram

Research Assistant, Manisa Celâl Bayar University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4478-7231

Gökhan Kerse

Associate Prof. Dr., Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1565-9110.

←9 | 10→Hilal Çelik

Assistant Prof. Dr., Beykent University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2227-5462.

Jülide Yalçınkaya Koyuncu

Prof. Dr., Bilecik Seyh Edebali University, Department of Economics, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7930-4901.

Mehmet Yücenurşen

Associate Prof.Dr., Aksaray University, Department of Business Administration, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6327-0169.

Muhammed Benli

Associate Prof. Dr., Bilecik Seyh Edebali University, Department of Economics, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6486-8739.

Muhammed Emirhan Onhan

Research Assistant, Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5503-9565.

Mustafa Babadağ

Lecturer Dr., Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Department of Foreign Trade, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0198-7105.

Mustafa Ünver

Associate Prof. Dr., Kırıkkale University, Department of Public Finance, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0491-3080.

Rana Özyurt Kaptanoğlu

Assistant Prof. Dr., Istanbul Ayvansaray University, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Department of Management Information Systems, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0341-4722.

Remziye Keskin

Assistant Prof. Dr., Üsküdar University, Institute of Social Sciences, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2970-519X.

←10 | 11→Resül Yazıcı

Assoc. Prof. Dr., Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7875-3331

Selim Baha Yıldız

Assistant Prof. Dr., Manisa Celâl Bayar University, Faculty of Business, Department of Business Administration, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0750-0556.

Suat Dönmez

Assistant Prof. Dr., İstanbul Ayvansaray University, Department of Political Science and International Relations, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9621-389X.

Tayfun Güven

Assistant Prof. Dr., İstanbul Ayvansaray University, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Department of Public Relations and Advertising, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2493-6909.

Tufan Sarıtaş

Assistant Prof. Dr., Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Department of Economics, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1728-2377.

Yağmur Kerse

Assistant Prof. Dr., Kafkas University, Department of International Trade and Logistic, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6773-1153.

Yüksel Okşak

Assistant Prof. Dr., Bursa Uludağ University, Department of International Business and Trade, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8794-4597.

Zeynep Gümüş Demir

Lecturer, Dr., Üsküdar University, The Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4474-4813.

Yüksel Okşak

The Relationship between Productivity, Female Labor Force Participation and Freedom

Introduction

The workforce is expressed as the total of the population employed and unemployed between the ages of 15–64. The concept of labor force includes unemployed people looking for a job. The ratio of the workforce to the population of people over the age of 15 gives the labor force participation rate. This ratio is also a variable that is of great importance for the functioning of policies within the economy. In order to maximize the employment of the workforce, it is necessary to find out how many people want to work at first. The indicator of this is the labor force participation rate (Korkmaz and Korkut, 2012: 42).

Unemployment is always one of the biggest problems of developing countries. Developing technology affects production and it becomes difficult for the workforce to adapt to changing technology, and hence the concept of labor productivity is beginning to be discussed. Women contribute significantly to the development process with their household and non-household labor force. In the development process, although women’s domestic reproductive activities have started to be emphasized, the labor that women spend on reproductive activities is not sufficiently included in economic studies.

Women mostly do care and housework at home. Marcal (2016) stated that one of the important reasons why women are lower in economic life than men is that women have higher empathy and compassion than men. However, Marcal (2016) also stated that the duty of the woman is not to meet her husband at home after his stressful working day and arrange the life of his wife and that the woman should be the balance of the market. When we look at the position of women in the work life across the world, the understanding of women should stay out of working life and take care of activities such as housework and childcare can be observed. In a country where women constitute a significant portion of the population, it is expected that women have a great place in employment. Although the gap between female and male employment is not the same, it poses a problem in every economy. There is a substantial gap between female and male labor force participation in developing countries.←13 | 14→

Female labor force participation first started with agriculture, then took place in the industrial sector and finally in the services sector. Increase in production with industrialization required capital and labor intensively. Along with the industrial sector, the service sector has also developed. More use of mental power instead of muscle power, flexible regulation of working hours, and a concentration of service jobs in the city centers enabled women to be employed more in the service sector compared to the industry. Considering the high number of women working in business fields such as salespeople, health technicians and teaching, it can be said that the service economy has turned into an economy where women are densely populated (Dura and Atik, 2002: 104).

In the economic development process, women should have taken part in working life as having the same rights as men from a social, political and economic perspective (Koray et al., 1999: 22). However, despite legal regulations in developing countries, labor force participation of women is also low (Özbey, 2004: 1). Throughout history, women’s participation in the labor force has increased continuously. This situation is generally perceived as a positive situation and is increasingly seen as positive. It has been emphasized in many studies that the participation of women in the labor force has increased since the 1980s.

Increases in the number of women who have gained economic freedom and self-sufficiency are generally perceived as positive developments. However, in the historical process, the first increase in the female labor force participation rate occurred around sectors that provided precarious work, low wages and unqualified labor. Thus, the increasing dominance of women in the labor market initially had quantitative meaning in developed countries. In present time, although the status of women is in a better position in the labor market in developed countries compared to developing countries, gender equality has not been fully achieved in the market in general (Kılıç and Öztürk, 2014: 111). Today, with globalization, entry of women into the business life intensively is one of the biggest and most important developments in the business world (Mercanlıoğlu, 2009: 35).

According to Jaumotte (2003), greater female labor force participation (FLFP) can increase growth by increasing the labor supply. The increasing contribution of women to the labor force has become one of the main policy issues, especially in developed economies facing rapidly aging and shrinking population. FLFP has been increasing in many developing countries over the past decade, although differences between countries remain large. The female labor force can be the key to unlocking the growth potential in economies where ←14 | 15→skilled female labor is abundant. This is particularly important for countries with labor shortages due to the rapidly aging population.

When the freedoms are tried to be diversified, a concept of freedom is encountered at almost every stage of life. The concept of freedom is encountered at every stage of life. For example, expressing one’s opinion without any pressure is freedom of thought, the right to choose or abandonment a religion without interference is freedom of religion, participating in political elections or to vote according to one’s own opinion is freedom to choose and be elected, going to foreign countries is freedom of travel. Although freedom is a value that concerns all humanity, the freedom of women is more or less restricted in almost every society.

It is possible to say that the freedom of the press is also a mirror of freedom of thought. One of the places where freedom of thought should exist is the communication network the internet that has become indispensable in the globalizing world. For this reason, the concept of internet freedom, which has attracted attention in recent years, actually gives an idea about the freedom of countries. Internet freedom is subject to restrictions in cases of military, homeland security and protection of family life.

Women and women’s rights are largely included among alternative development approaches and goals. Amartya Sen (2001), who has important studies in the fields of feminist economics, gender equality and development, emphasized the disadvantaged position of women against men in terms of enjoying freedoms and the vital importance and necessity of women’s access to economic resources, especially education, on development. In societies where freedom of expression is developed, women can take part more in social life, political life and economic life (Yalcinkaya Koyuncu and Özen, 2018a: 550).

Literature

Labor productivity has recently increased with the privatization policies of states. Privatization has become an integral part of short-term stabilization and long-term structural adjustment policies implemented by many developing countries since the 1990s. One of the aims of privatization is to increase economic efficiency and productivity by reducing the role of the state. Empirical studies indicate that the relationship between privatization and labor productivity is positive (Brown et al., 2004; Yilmaz and Yalcinkaya Koyuncu, 2018). Also, due to corruption, political influence, financing, lack of capital and market discipline, public companies and firms will not be as productive as private firms ←15 | 16→(Dessy and Florio, 2004; Gronblom and Willner, 2008; Yalcinkaya Koyuncu and Ünver, 2018).

Labor productivity has been the subject of evaluation from different angles. For example, Yıldırım, K., Koyuncu, C. and Koyuncu, J. Y. (2009) measured the effect of temperature on labor productivity and stated that there is a statistically significant negative relationship between temperature and labor productivity. Koyuncu and Ünver (2018) examined the role of globalization on labor productivity in both the short and long term. They concluded that globalization and productivity are positively correlated with each other and this relationship is statistically significant both in the short and long term. Koyuncu and Yilmaz (2006) analyzed the impact of imports on productivity and unemployment.

According to the discrimination theory, men and women are equally productive workers, but the exclusion of women from “male” jobs due to the exclusionary behavior of employers, colleagues or customers affects women’s wages and jobs. Discrimination against women emerges when the wage gap between male and female labor is large enough for the same job (Becker, 1957; Blau and Jusenius, 1976). Studies indicate that even if differences in education, age, work experience, and productivity don’t explain the gender pay gap (O’Neill and Polachek, 1993; Kunze, 2003). However, the wage gap between men and women has narrowed in recent years (Monk-Turner and Turner, 2008; Petersen et al., 2010).

In recent years, women’s attachment to the labor market has increased due to the increase in the average age at marriage, decreased fertility, and decreased household responsibilities. Employment restriction for women enabled women to enhance their education levels in different fields in the education sector. The number of university graduates of women continued to increase with each passing time (Mulligan and Rubinstein, 2005). As women increased their human capital investments, a significant number of women have traditionally turned to a variety of men’s jobs. As a result, women’s productivity and hence their wages increased. Yilmaz et al. (2016) examined the relationship between labor productivity and various indicators representing women’s participation in the labor force. A positive relationship has been found between the labor force participation indicators of women and labor productivity. The research results indicated that female labor force participation increases labor productivity.

There are studies that examine women’s participation in the labor force from different angles. For example, Koyuncu and Özen (2017) examined religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity and women’s participation in the labor force. On the other hand, Yalcinkaya Koyuncu and Özen (2018b) analyzed the impact of political stability on female labor force participation.←16 | 17→

Freedom is represented by freedom of expression. It shows the extent to which freedom of expression and press freedom, including ownership of media organizations, are affected by government censorship. When the literature is examined, it is observed that studies on freedom of expression and women’s participation in the labor force are very limited. The fact that there are almost no studies in recent years on this section is an important factor that causes the literature review to be limited in this section. In the study conducted by Evans and Kelly (2008), education, income, income of spouses, marital status, number of children were discussed in the study on the tendency of women’s participation in the labor force. The results show that these variables are related to labor force participation.

One of the places where freedom of thought should exist is the internet, which has become indispensable in the globalizing world. In the study of Yilmaz et al. (2017) on this subject, the relationship between internet penetration and productivity were examined and they concluded that internet penetration increases efficiency by controlling other factors that may contribute to productivity.

Data and Methodology

Labor productivity level in a country may be affected by the level of freedom and female labor force participation (FLFP) rate in that particular country. Increases in degree of freedom or FLFP rate in an economy may lead to rises in labor productivity. In that sense this study examines the association between labor productivity, FLFP rate, and freedom in a panel framework via a panel data set of developing countries for the period of 1981–2011. Productivity (PRODUCTIVITY) is measured in terms of output per employed person and the data come from The Conference Board Total Economy Database. FLFP rate is given by female labor force participation rate as of percentage of female population ages 15+ and it is collected from WDI (World Development Indicators). Freedom (FREEDOM) is represented by freedom of speech and it is gathered from CIRI Human Rights Dataset. FREEDOM variable shows the extent to which freedoms of speech and press are affected by government censorship, including ownership of media outlets.

Whenever time series are used in empirical analyses, series should be checked for stationarity since models using non-stationary series have a potential facing with spurious regression problem. Therefore first of all panel unit root tests are applied to each series to see if it stationary or not. By using stationary forms of the variables, random effect model is estimated to figure out ←17 | 18→how these variables are interacted with each other. After that a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model is constructed based on information criteria and a causality analyses is conducted among variables by utilizing PVAR structure.

Estimation Results

Panel stationarity test results are shown in Table 1 for four different stationarity tests (i.e., Levin, Lin & Chu Test, Im, Pesaran and Shin Test, ADF-Fisher Test, PP-Fisher Test) for the model of “individual effects&linear trend”. Lag selections of each model is automatically made based on AIC information criterion. The findings of panel unit root tests in Table 1 indicate that PRODUCTIVITY and FLFP variables turn to be stationary in first differences and hence PRODUCTIVITY and FLFP variables are integrated order one (i.e., I(1)). Moreover SPEECH variable is stationary at levels and thus SPEECH variable is integrated order zero (i.e., I(0)). Finally the results in Table 1 reveal that PRODUCTIVITY and FLFP variables are I(1) whereas SPEECH variable is I(0).

Tab. 1: Panel Unit Root Test Results

At levels

At 1. differences

Test Stat.

Prob.

Test Stat.

Prob

Model: Individual effects & linear trends (H0: PRODUCTIVITY has unit root.)

Levin, Lin & Chu Test

1.06877

0.8574

-25.5257

0.0000

Im, Pesaran and Shin Test

3.18236

0.9993

-26.509

0.0000

ADF-Fisher Test

196.157

0.3644

1018.94

0.0000

PP-Fisher Test

156.138

0.9655

1633.71

0.0000

Model: Individual effects & linear trends (H0: FLFP has unit root.)

Levin, Lin & Chu Test

-0.38827

0.3489

-9.50893

0.0000

Im, Pesaran and Shin Test

-0.0707

0.4718

-13.254

0.0000

ADF-Fisher Test

387.670

0.0001

732.300

0.0000

PP-Fisher Test

287.129

0.5695

1388.86

0.0000

Model: Individual effects & linear trends (H0: SPEECH has unit root.)

Levin, Lin & Chu Test

-12.6726

0.0000

-

-

Im, Pesaran and Shin Test

-11.3663

0.0000

-

-

ADF-Fisher Test

815.302

0.0000

-

-

PP-Fisher Test

1324.58

0.0000

-

-

Both fixed cross-section effect model and random effect model are constructed and estimated. Based on Hausman test result, random effect model was picked up against fixed cross-section model and therefore Table 2 below ←18 | 19→reports estimation findings for random effect model. All variables are used in their stationary forms in the random effect model in order to avoid from spurious regression problem. According to the estimation results both FLFP and SPEECH variables have statistically significant impact on labor productivity. While FLFP variable negatively affects labor productivity, SPEECH variable has a positive impact on labor productivity.

Tab. 2: Random Effect Results

Coefficient

Std. Error

Details

Pages
284
Year
2021
ISBN (PDF)
9783631854730
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631854747
ISBN (MOBI)
9783631854754
ISBN (Softcover)
9783631851357
DOI
10.3726/b18417
Language
English
Publication date
2021 (July)
Keywords
Economics Business History International Relations Political Sciences
Published
Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2021. 284 pp., 15 fig. b/w, 54 tables.

Biographical notes

Rasim Yilmaz (Volume editor) Günther Löschnigg (Volume editor)

Rasim Yilmaz currently teaches economics and finance-related subjects in Turkey. His fields of interest comprise money and banking, the economy of China, and macroeconomics. Günther Löschnigg is Head of the Department of Labour Law and Law of Social Security at the University of Graz, Austria. His research interests include labor economics, social policy, and public economics.

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