The effect of social protection expenditures on income distribution in Turkey

One of the most important goals of economics is to ensure equality in income distribution. Since the industrial revolution, the income distribution between rich and poor has been getting wider day by day. Although societies try to look perfect, it is not possible for absolute equality to be in the future as it was in the past. While income inequalities were seen as a problem of less developed countries in the past, it has become a problem that concerns all countries today. The economy of a country is not at a sufficient level for its growth and development. A fair share of income among households is also important with growth. This sharing is solved or remedied through social expenditures. Social spending is an economic policy that includes aids for low-income groups in a society to reach a certain level of welfare. It is important to evaluate the social state indicators of the countries by looking at their expenditures on education, health and social protection. Education, health and social protection expenditures are deemed very important for today and the future of the society, and these expenditure elements are considered as the essential obligations of being a social state according to the functional classification quality. In this study, the relationship between social protection expenditures and income distribution in Turkey has been evaluated with the help of tables, data and figures. There has been an increase in social expenditures in Turkey. Increasing social spending reduces the negative effects of income inequality. However, there was no significant increase in the share of social protection expenditures in GDP.