Migration and regional convergence: An empirical investigation for Turkey

Ekoist: Journal of Econometrics and Statistics, 2022

Spatial econometric models have become increasingly popular in economic studies, especially in recent years. These models differ from classical econometric models in that they take into account the effects arising from the location of the data set subject to the study. The spatial effect seen in a data set comes in two forms. The first form is spatial autocorrelation, which is defined as the correlation between neighboring locations. The other form is spatial heterogeneity, defined as the variance of a variable under consideration from place to place. The aim of this study was to find out whether the factors affecting provincial migration in Turkey have spatial characteristics. For this purpose, data from 2014 were selected as all data were accessible. A coherence matrix was constructed by considering the borders of the provinces to show the possible spatial relationship and this matrix was used in the econometric models. The distribution map of migration by province was examined and it was found that there was significant clustering, especially towards the northeast-southwest. From this point of view, the provinces where the spatial effect was significant in the clustered regions were identified using LISA statistics. The spatial model was determined in accordance with the orientation of the factors affecting migration and the movement of these variables was evaluated based on the provinces with significant correlation. The results obtained fit with the economic theory.

Migration Letters, 2021

This paper examines the trajectory of internal migration and its impact on growth leading to convergence in India. The analysis is based on secondary data sourced from the Reserve Bank of India, Census and Economic and Political Weekly Research Foundation. It captures the data for a period of 20 years (1991-2011). An initial review indicates internal migration in the form of intra-state migration is very high compare to inter-state migration. The analysis of convergence/divergence suggests dispersion among states has increased in the concerned period. Similarly, absolute β-convergence indicate that rich states are growing faster than poor states. However, when conditional convergence is tested by various variables, conditional convergence among states is evident. However, migration and literacy rate as important indicator not producing the expected results, as migration which is expected to be negatively correlated to economic growth, is positive. The coefficient of the initial leve...

ERSA conference …, 2006

It is clear that urbanization is a natural outgrowth of industrialization. But, in developing countries industrialization lag behind the rate of urbanization which involves much more rapid migration. In the case of Turkey, urbanization is mostly related with huge population growth in cities. So, it is worth to understand migration flows to benefit from population's spatial distribution. Thus, this paper aims to show the attributes of regional migration in Turkey. First, geographic regions are compared with each other according to different migration directions with the help of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results show that, when four different migration directions are considered (from urban-to-urban, urbanto-rural, rural-to-urban and rural-to-rural) Marmara Region differ from the other in each cases. It might be related to urbanization level, job opportunities, education level, climatic and geographic conditions, accessibility etc. It is also worth that as a common 1990 2000 Annual growth rate of population %0

Sosyo ekonomi, 2022

This study tested whether there was a relationship between migration, unemployment, and urbanization based on the Harris-Todaro model in 12 regions of Turkey, which were formed according to NUTS-1 classification, in the period between 2008 and 2019. For this purpose, panel data methods that consider cross-section dependency were used in the study.

International Conference on Eurasian Economies 2011, 2011

This paper aims to investigate major determinants of interprovincial migration in Turkey until 2010. In recent decades the magnitude of migration in absolute terms has increased considerably: During 1975-1980, 3.6 million people migrated, which constitutes 9.4% of the total population. These numbers have increased to 6.7 million people and 11.2% in the 1995-2000 period. The rate of increase is especially tremendous for the 1985-1990 period with 41%. Over the years the composition of migration has also changed: In the past rural-to-urban migration was predominant; however, today there is remarkable amount of urban-to-urban migration. During 1975-1980, 66% of the total migrants were towards urban centers, which increased to 75% during 1995-2000. On the other hand, the percentage of total migrants towards the village centers declined from 34 to 25 in the respective periods. From 2008 on, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) started publishing yearly unemployment statistics at provincial level, which permits an analysis of Turkey's migration patterns within the Harris-Todaro framework. Moreover since 2007, TUIK started implementing Address Based Population Registration System, which enables tracking migration moves continuously, rather than by intermittent five to ten year periods. However, data was not adequate to test Turkey's migration within the Harris-Todaro framework, especially due to lack of average wages at the provincial level. Therefore, utilizing the 2010 provincial level data, we tried to explain Turkey's internal migration based on variables such as population born outside of their current province, number of university students, and a proxy variable we developed for average wages.

European Spatial Research and Policy, 2019

The main focus of this study is on understanding the importance of social dynamics of cities for attracting human capital to urban regions. The principal research question of the article is “if there is a spatial dependency on neighbouring provinces’ social environmental qualities in human capital at­traction for Turkey.” It is believed that developmental disparities among regions can be overcome with a balanced distribution of human capital. In this article, first the concept and importance of human capital and its evolution throughout economic history are explained in order to emphasize the relationship between development and human capital for urban regions. The literature review consists of migration models developed and used in previous studies and recent literature that together consider human capital and its flow with spatial analysis. A review of migration models helps structure the quantitative models’ building blocks, or the concepts to be quantified. Literature that disc...

2004

Rural-urban migration has long been associated with economic development and growth in the economic literature. In particular, Todaro and Harris-Todaro-type probabilistic models that examine migration have concentrated on the expected wage disparities between rural and urban (formal) labor markets as a driving force behind migration decision. These models, which are static and partial equilibrium in nature, have virtually ignored the

Applied Economics Journal, 2019

Recently, a growing body of research has dealt with the causes of growth differences in the context of regional economies. It can be argued that such differences mostly arise from a variety of economic and structural determinants pertain to regional characteristics. This study investigates the effects of potential determinants of regional economic growth in Turkey. In this respect, we examine the impact of human capital, R&D, exports, public investments, inflation and unemployment on per capita regional income across the 26 NUTS 2 regions for the 2008-2014 period. The results of the difference and the system GMM estimations show that human capital and R&D are essential for economic growth at a regional level. According to the results, exports, public investments and inflation are also important determinants of regional economic growth. However, empirical results indicate an inverse relationship between regional growth and unemployment.

2018

Migration flows are an important research topic in the economic literature due to the economic effects they have on both the homeland and the countries receiving the immigration. Studies on homeland focus on issues such as remittances, foreign direct investment, Technology and knowledge transfers and trade links, while studies on immigrant countries focus on issues such as immigrants' impacts on the local labor market and commercial effects. The aim of this study starting from this point is the recent massive migration flows exposed to these migration flows in Turkey to determine their impact on the local labor market. In the study, the data set covering the period of 2011-2016 was used for 26 sub-regions of Turkey and this was tested using panel data analysis. According to the results, while immigrants with a work permit in Turkey have a statistically significant and positive impact on the women’s labor force participation rate and the total labor force participation rate, ther...