Political economy of education as a positional good: The case of Turkey

Daha sonraThe aim of this thesis is to measure the positionality of educational services in Turkey by evaluating educational services within the framework of the positional goods approach in the public economics literature. In the post-World War II period, the rate of education increased, especially in developed countries and later in almost all countries of the world, and there was an increase in schooling that had not been achieved at any other stage in history. This growth has occurred within its own internal dynamics at all levels of education. States and governments have thought that economic growth and development can be achieved by increasing education and increasing productivity and skills within the framework of human capital theory. Some problems have emerged along with this educational expansion, which continues until today. The positional goods approach to education services is one of the most important of these problems. Although educational expansion increases equality of opportunity to a certain extent, after a certain level of satisfaction, qualified education and its direct result, high-prestige job opportunities, are no longer accessible to everyone. The gains made by some individuals come at the expense of others; This is a process that involves waste of time, effort and finance. The relationship between individual well-being and social well-being breaks down, and the struggle for prestigious higher education and job positions, which are socially scarce in an extremely competitive environment, becomes a zero-sum game. In this context, in the thesis, a theoretical framework will be drawn within the historicality of positional goods and different theoretical approaches regarding this issue will be discussed. Later, education and labor market results will be evaluated from the perspective of positional goods in order to clearly reveal the relationship between educational services and positional goods. Following the theoretical sections, the relationship between educational services and positionality will be evaluated on Turkey using empirical and econometric methods. doldurulacaktır.