Cinsiyet eşitsizliği ve çocuk gelişimi üzerine makaleler

Turkey is an interesting country to study as it is an upper middle income country and is perceived to be a very patriarchal society. Chapter 1 questions if systematic patterns of discrimination against girls exist, it should be reflected in household expenditure patterns. I estimate Engel curves for child goods and adult goods using Household Budget Survey of Turkey. Despite the widespread impression of a patriarchal culture in Turkey, the expenditure patterns of Turkish families show little evidence of discrimination against girls. The pattern of spending on adult goods indicates that girls are favored, in the sense of capturing a larger share of household resources. For child goods, a more mixed pattern of both boy and girl bias is revealed. Patriarchal nature of the society is also reflected in family size. Families tend to reproduce until the male child is conceived. Hence increased family size may lead to lower per capita allocation of household resources of each child. This in turn, would have direct negative effects on the long term quality indicators such as educational attainment as well as health measures of children. In the light of such dilemma, due to aging population, the government has changed policy incentives to increase family size. Therefore, it is critical to have evidence of quantity-quality tradeoff that the children face. Chapter 2 develops secondary infertility, as an exogenous source of variation in family size. Using the Demographic and Health Survey of Turkey, I investigate the possible tradeoff in education outcomes that the first born child faces. I find a negative and significant relationship between the quantity (family size) and quality (education) of the first born child in rural Turkey. I show that urban households are significantly smaller than rural households. Particularly in single adult households, the child-care needs of younger siblings may lead first born children to be sent to school. In urban Turkey, supervision of mandatory education is easier compared to Rural Turkey. These information supports the results of the positive and significant relation in family size and child educational outcomes that the first born child face in urban Turkey. Chapter 3 examines the effects of family size on child health outcomes in Turkey. I also study the consequence of having relatively more sisters than brothers. I find that family size has significant negative effects on child health outcomes both in urban and rural Turkey. Furthermore, I also find that in rural Turkey, having more sisters substantially reduces the health status of children. While the impacts are large, the results do not differ significantly by gender, i.e., both boys and girls are affected negatively by having more sisters. Results are more pronounced for poorer households and low educated mothers.