Ayse Y. Evrensel

Institutional and economic determinants of corruption: a cross-section analysis

In recent years, corruption and possible anti-corruption measures have been extensively discussed at the national, international and multilateral levels. This article provides an empirical analysis of corruption by viewing corruption as an evolutionary process. It assumes that the institutional set-up of the country such as the characteristics of the political and judicial system determines the extent of corruption. The empirical results confirm that countries with totalitarian political regimes, ineffective judicial systems and lower levels of education as well as slower economic growth and higher inflation rates tend to have higher levels of corruption.

Are multinationals afraid of social violence in emerging markets?: Evidence from the Indonesian provinces

Purpose - The fact that previous studies regarding the effects of social violence on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows come to contradictory conclusions motivates this paper. Therefore, it seeks to investigate the social violence-FDI relationship in an ethnically heterogeneous and resource-rich country, Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach - The theoretical framework of the paper examines the social violence-FDI relationship and identifies the circumstances under which social violence in the host country adversely affects FDI inflows. The empirical analysis uses a unique dataset that consists of FDI flows and different types of social violence in 26 provinces of Indonesia during the period 1992-2001. A fixed-effects regression is applied to estimate the effects of social violence on FDI flows in Indonesian provinces. Findings - The results indicate that only certain types of social violence such as ethnic and industrial relations violence are detrimental to FDI. Multinational firms seem to differentiate among the several types of social violence and respond only to those that may affect their expected future profits. Practical implications - The immediate policy implication of this result implies that developing countries having the desire to attract FDI flows should be aware of the fact that multinational firms seem to differentiate among the several types of social violence and respond only to those that may affect their expected future profits. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the literature in two ways. First, the dataset employed in the empirical analysis is unique in that it contains different types of social violence and associated damage in a country. Second and because of the first point, the empirical findings provide an explanation of the conflicting results reported in the literature regarding the social violence-FDI relationship.

Differences in bank regulations: the role of governance and corruption

This paper provides a detailed explanation of cross‐country differences in bank regulations and their sources. The results suggest that the patterns of bank regulations imply important differences between developed and developing countries. While developing countries have stricter banking regulations, they are more likely to reduce competition among banks and provide greater safety nets to existing banks. The choice of banking regulations is affected by countries’ political characteristics, which are in turn endogenous to countries’ historical experiences and cultural characteristics. When political characteristics are replaced by corruption control, less corruption leads to less denied entries and banking restrictions as well as more constrained deposit insurance schemes. This implies that bank regulations may not be easy to change.

Turkey’s possible membership of the European Union from a cultural perspective

Even though Turkey’s odyssey to become an EU member started in 1959, EU membership is still not in sight. The existing literature identifies the barriers to Turkey’s EU membership to be of political, economic, and foreign-policy nature. While cultural dissimilarities of Turkey vis-á-vis the EU have been mentioned on many occasions, they have rarely been a subject of scientific inquiry. This paper focuses on the cultural aspects of the Turkey–EU relations by employing the World Values Survey for Turkey, the EU, and the Muslim world. The empirical results indicate that Turkey’s shared values are between those in the EU countries and in the Muslim world, reflecting the country’s dualistic cultural landscape. Religiosity has been increasing in Turkey, accompanied by an increasing tendency toward traditionalism and a decline of confidence in the EU. Regression results confirm that higher religiosity increases the chance of higher justifiability of traditional values, stronger criticism of democracy, and lower confidence in the EU. From the critical and liberal constructivist approach, Turkey’s cultural dissimilarity matters for possible EU membership.

Contradictory effects of religiosity on subjective well-being

Abstract This article provides empirical evidence for the contradictory effects of religiosity on subjective well-being (SWB). While a number of empirical studies demonstrate that higher religiosity is associated with higher happiness at the level of the individual, the published lists of happiest countries indicate that these countries are not religious. In this article, the empirical analysis is conducted at the level of the individual using a respondent-based dataset with 347,947 subjects in 96 countries as well as at the level of the country using a cross-section dataset including the same 96 countries. The empirical results at the respondent level indicate that happier people are likely to be female, younger, and healthier with higher social status and a stronger sense of control over their lives. Additionally, higher religiosity is associated with higher levels of SWB. At the country level, while religiosity tends to lose its statistical significance or negatively affect SWB, institutional quality emerges as a positive covariate of SWB. However, the country-level results are sensitive to alternative measures of SWB and religiosity.

An institutional approach to the decline of the Ottoman Empire

Abstract This paper examines the selected Ottoman institutions during the so-called rise (fourteenth through sixteenth centuries) and identifies the institutional characteristics that may have led to the eventual fall of the Empire in 1918. We propose three criteria based on which the Ottoman institutions are selected. First, there should be nominal accounts of the institution. Second, the institution has to be present during the rise of the Empire. Third, the institution should allow the investigation of whether changes in it led to increased power sharing between the sultan and a larger segment of the society. As a result, the paper identifies three institutions: succession structure, power structure, and the identity of the Ottoman elites and the landownership-military-public finance triangle. Our conclusion is that the weaknesses in the mentioned institutions were fundamental enough to make the Empire vulnerable. Additionally, the examination of these institutions leads to the identification of even more fundamental characteristics of the Ottomans, such as their aversion toward Turkish Muslims and commerce as well as their oblivious attitude toward technological innovations.

Happiness, economic freedom and culture

The cultural dimension of the subjective well-being (SWB)–economic freedom relationship has been largely absent from the current literature. This article’s argument for the inclusion of culture is twofold. First, culturally distinct groups may view the desirability of freedom in general and economic freedom in particular differently. Second, the inclusion of culture may explain some of the results presented in the existing research, such as positive contributions of freedom to SWB being confined to mostly developed countries. In this article, the respondent-based results use the World Values Survey (WVS) data with over 180 000 subjects in 86 countries and indicate that freedom of choice felt by individuals is an important determinant of SWB along with health and satisfaction with finances. While the respondent-based estimations do not show any variation in the effect of freedom of choice on SWB among different religious affiliations, the cross-section data-set that contains the same countries as in the WVS data yields different results. When the latter data-set is used, the interaction terms between economic freedom and religious affiliations indicate that higher economic freedom increases SWB in mainly Christian countries, while this effect is negative for mainly Muslim and Buddhist/Hindu countries.