The effect of pensions and old-age benefits on poverty: An empirical investigation for Turkey

In this thesis, the impact of pensions and the other types of old-age allowances are analysed using "Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) Income and Living Conditions Panel Micro Dataset (2008-2017)". One of the important panel data methods that is the Fixed Effect Method is used for the entire analyses. Considering the international literature, the effect of pensions and the old-age benefits is generally studied as single country-case studies, while there is no existing study in the national literature that investigates the impact of income obtained during retirement and the old-age period. Furthermore, it is thought that the research carried out in this thesis will contribute to the national literature since the existing studies are generally done using qualitative methods rather than advanced techniques applying detailed micro level data. STATA 15 program is used in the analyses. Overall findings show that pensions and old-age allowances obtained by male individuals have power to reduce their poverty levels, while income obtained by women during the retirement and old-age period is not effective in reducing their poverty. In addition, income, other than pensions and old-age allowances, has been found to reduce poverty in all age and gender categories.