More female CEOs in Turkey
Güven Sak, PhD
10 November 2012
When education and income barriers are passed, women tend to be more active as employers. What first comes to mind when defining Turkey? I suppose it must be the duality of the country. The uninitiated will struggle to identify the country after traveling to Istanbul then Diyarbakır. The sets of economic capabilities also change radically, becoming less sophisticated as one goes southeast from Istanbul. There are more female CEOs in one part of Turkey while the female labor force participation rate hits its low point in another part. These two halves of the country used to live far apart but have been seeing more of each other through internal migration.
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What’s with the Boğaziçi zombies?
Güven Sak, PhD
09 November 2012
The draft shows us that all has been quiet on the YÖK front since its establishment. Last week Radikal had an eye catching headline “One thousand zombies at Boğaziçi University.” It seems that this referred to students who were un able to pass the English preparation class. There were many of them. One of the banners in the story image asked for conditional pass for the English class. I believe this is a bad idea. In addition, with the new Higher Education Council (YÖK) Draft Law on the table, I think that the issue of the English preparation class is good chance to address the issues into which YÖK, the peak of the bureaucracy in Turkey, should not poke its nose. Let me tell you what I think.
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Let’s urbanize our agricultural policy already
Güven Sak, PhD
06 November 2012
Turkey’s agricultural policy framework concentrates on rural development rather than on the productivity of the sector. The majority of the voters, however, now live in urban areas. Turkey successfully liberalized its economy in the 1980s, followed by a comprehensive structural transformation. It switched from an agricultural economy to an industrial one exporting medium-tech products. This is the general story that I tell when talking about Turkey. But I think there are some points missing. The true story is that, in the 1980s, Turkey liberalized its economy except for the agricultural sector. It appears that the agriculture and livestock sectors have remained as they were.
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Turkey’s economic growth stuck between Hamas and PKK?
Güven Sak, PhD
03 November 2012
Turkey could not enact an effective legal framework to combat terrorist financing. I was at a meeting with a group of officials from the European Investment Bank (EIB) recently. The EIB is more and more interested in supporting infrastructure projects in Turkey. I told them about how Turkey’s inadequate transportation and logistics infrastructure prevent our inland regions from joining the European Customs Union, thus foregoing all the benefits of connectivity that comes with it. We went over the relevant sectors for the European integration process. Everything was going well until a little caveat at the end. “Of course,” I was told, “if Turkish membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is suspended in February 2013, the EIB will not be able to extend any more loans a
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So this is the free floating exchange rate regime, huh?
Güven Sak, PhD
02 November 2012
Under the floating exchange rate regime, the exchange rate is expected to float. If it does not, the banking system that cannot sense risk accumulates risks. The world economy is going through an unprecedented period. Surrounded by events with which we are unfamiliar, central banks too are acting in new ways. The Central Bank of Turkey (CBT) has been acting outside of the box for some time now. Most recently, it has introduced the Reserve Option Mechanism (ROM), which has brought remarkable stability in foreign exchange (FX) markets. With ROM, a significant proportion of the transactions in FX markets has been excluded from the price setting process. The first question to ask here is: is Turkey still employing the free-floating exchange rate regime? Second, would this policy have a side e
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Political polarization is bad for the economy
Güven Sak, PhD
30 October 2012
I believe that political polarization has been blocking our way and reducing our luck. The US has the same problem.
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Reform fatigue in Turkey
Güven Sak, PhD
27 October 2012
I was at the Prague Enlargement Dialogue meeting last week, where I was asked whether the prolonged accession process had led to reform fatigue in Turkey. Now, our candidacy started seven years ago and we were pretty tired of it by the fifth. But at the meeting I still said it hadn’t fatigued us, simply because you can’t be tired of reform if you stopped trying years ago. At some point in 2007, we simply stopped playing the game.This might be the result of the Sarkozy-Merkel effect. Being told every day that you are not good enough might just have consequences. Our politicians now tell us a story of sour grapes. Never mind that we wanted to get into the EU, now that we can’t, we’re told that it is a bad idea anyways. Lousy politicians make for bad solutions. Turks need to learn
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Why did ASEAN not win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Güven Sak, PhD
26 October 2012
At the outset of beating the odds lies the courage to confront history. The EU has been courageous enough, ASEAN has not. The European Union (EU) won the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. I think this bodes well. The question occupying my mind today is why ASEAN lost the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU. The EU is a union seeking to accomplish regional integration. ASEAN works for the same objective for the Asia-Pacific region. We also are going through a period in which the security focus of American documents has shifted from Europe and its surrounding region to the Asia-Pacific region. Then, why was the EU and not ASEAN awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? If you are curious why, please read on.
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Turkey achieved half of the EU’s GDP per capita before 2020
Güven Sak, PhD
23 October 2012
The number of SMEs operating in Turkey with EU capital has increased from 4,000 in 2003 to 15,000. Turkey’s per capita GDP has reached 50% of the EU-27 average. Please don’t tell me that the EU has accepted new members who have pulled the average down, or that a global crisis has occurred. In the final analysis, we have achieved 50% of the EU average. In 1995 when Turkey joined the Customs Union with the EU, its per capita GDP was 30% of the EU average. Back then, reaching 50% was a distant possibility. But today it has happened. Now Turkey can act more confidently about the EU membership target. If you ask me, if it wasn’t for the EU membership negotiations, Turkey couldn’t have achieved 50% of the EU’s average GDP per capita in such a short time. Let me give proof of this first.
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The next big debate in Turkey
Güven Sak, PhD
20 October 2012
Turkey’s economy and public life today is deprived of the skills and creativity of half of its population. Turkish women do not get jobs. Turkey is the only OECD country where the female labor force participation rate is lower than 30 percent. Even female Turkish “guest workers” to Germany are working less than their fellow female migrants to that country. There seems to be a strong cultural element here. Is there a solution on the horizon? The result of the next big debate over women in Turkey may bring some answers. This time, the struggle will be among conservative movements, and will certainly have far-reaching consequences.
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