The effect of education and health expenditures on income distribution in the context of the welfare state: A comparative analysis of Turkey and selected OECD countries after 1980

The welfare state has undertaken tasks in many fields such as increasing accessibility to health services, providing equal opportunities in education, targeting justice in income distribution and fighting poverty. Expenditures made in these areas are called welfare expenditures. Since welfare expenditures provide social benefit as well as personal benefits, increasing these expenditures also accelerates the socio-economic development of countries. In this context, the aim of the study is to determine and evaluate the effects of health and education expenditures on income distribution in Turkey within the framework of the welfare state and as a result, to make an analysis by comparing them with selected OECD countries. In addition, income distribution analysis for the post 1980 period in selected OECD countries and Turkey, based on welfare state policies was also made in the study. Within the framework of this analysis, the development of education and health expenditures over the years is discussed on the basis of tables and graphs, based on various basic indicators such as the share of Gross Domestic Product and the share of the central government budget. Thus, service indicators and expenditures in the fields of education and health of a total of 20 countries, including Turkey, which is a member of the OECD, were compared, and as a result of the study, in parallel with the positive development in income distribution for Turkey, the expenditures for health and education services in the relevant years were quantitatively positive and qualitatively relative concluded to be positive.