Income distribution and poverty: Testing the IBB-1 interregional convergence hypothesis

Income distribution analyzes between regions are carried out to seek answers to the question of how the income generated in a country during a certain period is distributed among the regions of the country. The variable considered when performing income distribution analyzes is income per capita. One of the biggest problems the world faces today is poverty and injustice in income distribution. In this study, the convergence hypothesis was tested with the panel unit root analysis method for IMM Level-1 12 sub-regions. Real per capita GDP data for the regions for the period 2006-2021 was compiled from TURKSTAT. To measure the convergence between regions, the natural logarithm of the GDP per capita series was taken and subjected to unit root tests. All tests of the study were performed with the Eviews-12 package program. According to the analysis results, for the 12 Level-1 regions in Turkey, the GDPPC (gross national product per capita) values of the regions have converged to higher values over the years in relation to Turkey in general; Thus, it was observed that there was similarity between regions. A convergence between regions that occurs at high KBGDP values indicates that the income distribution problems of the country overlap with the income distribution problem of the country and that it is not possible to evaluate the regions separately from the country as a whole.