Suchergebnisse

Access to finance is a key component of poverty reduction, as it enables individuals to make economic decisions that can improve their welfare. The equality of access among different groups in society is also crucial for correctly allocating the positive benefits of improved financial services. In Turkey, bank account, debit card, and credit card ownership, which can serve as the main indicators of access to finance, are at a remarkably high level. However, adjusting the coverage rate of these indicators by controlling for age, education, gender, an income reveals that gender is the main source of inequality in Turkey at the individual level. Despite the progress made in addressing the gender disparity in access to finance between 2011 and 2014, females in Turkey continue to be financially less included. Moreover, Turkey's low level of savings and high rate of informal borrowing compared with its peers diminish individuals' resilience to future shocks. Promisingly, Turkey has been able to improve its rate of savings significantly over the past few years, although it continues to be among the countries that save at a lower level.

In the past decade, Turkey has experienced a notable level of poverty reduction at all levels (extreme poor, poor, and vulnerable). The steady decline in poverty was also resilient to the decline in gross domestic product per capita growth during the crisis. However, although poverty convergence was strong before the financial crisis, there was an absence of regional convergence afterward. This paper analyzes poverty trends, poverty convergence, economic mobility, and the determinants of poverty reduction at the regional level over the period 2006–13. The analysis finds that agricultural growth in the east was an important contributor to Turkey's regional poverty reduction. In additionally, employment growth in the services sectors boosted poverty reduction throughout the entire country. From a fiscal perspective, the amount of per capita central spending is also linked to poverty reduction, although more strongly for regions in the west.