Determinants of poverty in Turkey

Poverty can be regarded as a multidimentional social issue, where income poverty and human poverty constitute the two main dimensions. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TUIK) 2010 Household Budget Survey, the poverty rate for Turkey is 3.66 per cent with US Dollar 4.3 (PPP) per capita daily limit. This paper investigates the determinants of poverty in Turkey by employing TUIK 2010 Household Budget Survey data. First, in order to measure the incidence or the spread of poverty the head- count ratio measures are calculated. Then factors contributing to poverty are investigated utilizing logistic regression analysis. Early empirical results indicate that in addition to economic factors, socio-demographic factors are also among determinants of poverty. Our analysis suggest that there is a direct relationship between poverty and educational status and gender of household head. Poor people in Turkey generally live in extended families, have lower educational status, are likely to be women, lack social and health insurance, and work seasonally, implying that there is a significant association between social exclusion and poverty. Key Words 1. Approaches to measuring poverty 2. Methods of measuring povery 3. Poverty profiles 4. Determinants of poverty 5. Logit Model