The relationship between ethnic diversity and publicly provided goods, on the sub-national level in Turkey. Comparison of socio-economic indicators of the development of the Kurdish provinces and other regions. Efficiency of investment in education.
Аннотация к работе
In the past decade, the growth rate has been modest for an emerging market, with a 3.5% annual increase. Economists call it a middle-income trap, where countries that recently moved up from poverty are trying to move to the rich-countries club. Turkey struggles with branding and efficiency issues because they have difficulties with adding new value through research, design, and branding (The Economist, 2016). In addition, government administration has been increasing in number, where “de jure and de facto control of the ruling cadre intensified, amplifying corruption and arbitrary, unpredictable decision-making” (Acemoglu & Ucer, 2015). However, while uneven, Turkey experienced economic growth in all regions. The impact of growth on socioeconomic development is mostly seen through public goods provision. The biggest challenge for Turkey in this period is the improvement of human capital through investments in education and health. Alesina, Baquir, and Easterley (1999) found that public goods provision is lower in more ethnically diverse countries. Unwillingness to share especially happens when the ethnic groups are not represented proportionally (per share in population) in the government. If we assume the Kurdish population to be 15 to 20% of the total population (KONDA, 2006), the conclusion is that Kurds are, indeed, underrepresented. Secondly, preferences between different ethnic groups diverge, and different needs are very hard to satisfy, especially by a centralized government. Alesina, Baquir, and Easterley (1999) especially highlighted different languages as an important obstacle in public goods provision, which is the case with the Kurdish population and other minor ethnic groups. Baldwin and Huber (2011) argue that economic differences between groups affect different group needs for public goods, feelings of alienation or discrimination by some groups, different attitudes toward redistribution across groups, and different “class” identities by different groups. Therefore, in this paper, I will examine the relationship between ethnic diversity and mechanisms of public goods delivery, on the subnational level in Turkey, where eastern and southeastern heterogeneous regions have poorer economic performance than ethnically homogenous Turkish provinces in the central and western Turkey. 1.1 Theories of diversity Alesina and La Ferrara (2005) highlight the importance of the basics of social identity theory by Tajfel et. al.