Aysit Tansel

Job satisfaction in Britain: individual and job related factors

Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the analysis of job satisfaction variables. Job satisfaction is correlated with labour market behaviour such as productivity, quits and absenteeism. In this paper four different measures of job satisfaction are related to a variety of personal and job characteristics. The data used are from the 28 240 British employees in the Workplace Employee Relations Survey, 1997. This data set is larger and more recent than in any previous studies. Four measures of job satisfaction that have not previously been used are considered: satisfaction with influence over job; satisfaction with amount of pay; satisfaction with sense of achievement; and satisfaction with respect from supervisors. The paper contributes to the literature by analysing job satisfaction with respect to industrial composition and occupations. One of the striking findings is that those in the education and health sectors are less satisfied with their pay but more satisfied with their sense of achievement. Further, it is found that employees who received job training were more satisfied than those who had no training opportunities. Unlike previous studies, it is found that married individuals have lower job satisfaction levels than the unmarried. Other results confirm those in the literature, such as women being more satisfied than men, and a U-shaped relationship between satisfaction and age.

Wage and Labor Supply effects of Illness in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana : Instrumental Variable Estimates for Days Disabled

Sickness should make individuals less productive, but there are problems in measuring this effect. First, how is adult morbidity measured in a household survey? Second, how is the impact of morbidity on productivity inferred, if earning is partly used to improve health? Self-reported functional activity limitation due to illness is considered as an indicator of morbidity for wage earners and self employed. To deal with both the measurement and joint determination problems, an instrumental variable estimation approach is used where local food prices and health services instrument for disability days that reduce wages by at least 10 percent and hours by 3 of more percent.

Determinants of school attainment of boys and girls in Turkey: individual, household and community factors

Abstract This study investigates the determinants of school attainments of boys and girls in Turkey. Although high levels of enrollments have been achieved at the primary school level for both boys and girls in much of Turkey, substantial regional differences remain. In particular, in the Southeastern region, girls begin to drop out of school around the third grade. Only half of the primary school graduates register at the middle level. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of educational attainments at the primary, middle and high school levels. Individual and household factors such as household income, parental education and occupation and a rich array of community characteristics are considered. The community characteristics considered included rural/urban location, the level of urban development, distances to regional metro centers and Istanbul and the local employment composition. Attainments of boys and girls are examined separately so as to shed light on the causes for the significantly lower level of attainment for girls. Understanding the constraints causing the large gender gap in Turkish education and the covariates related to lower overall educational levels may be useful to policy makers and planners.

Public-Private Employment Choice, Wage Differentials and Gender in Turkey

The main objective of this article is to examine the factors that explain the employment choice and the wage differentials in public administration, state‐owned enterprises, and the formal private wage sector in Turkey. Selectivity‐corrected wage equations are estimated for each sector for men and women separately. Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition of the wage differentials between sectors by gender and between men and women by sector are carried out. Results indicate that when controlled for observed characteristics and sample selection, for men public administration wages are higher than private sector wages except at the university level where the wages are at par. State‐owned enterprise wages for men are higher than private sector wages. Similar results are obtained for women. Further, while the wages of men and women are at parity in the public administration, there is a large gender wage gap in the private sector in favor of men. Private returns to schooling are found to be lower in the noncompetitive public rather than in the competitive private sector.

Schooling Attainment, Parental Education, and Gender in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana*

This study examines the determinants of human capital investment in male and female childrens schooling in Cote dIvoire and Ghana. Data were obtained from the Living Standards Survey in 1985 1986 1987 in Cote dIvoire and in 1987-88 and 1988-89 in Ghana. The mean schooling attainment of parents and children in the sample was 3.61 years for men and 1.91 years for women in Cote dIvoire and about 5 years for men and 3 years for women in Ghana. Younger cohorts had more schooling and their parents had more education than older cohorts. In recent cohorts the greatest improvements were for females at the middle-school level in Cote dIvoire and for males at the post-middle-school level in Ghana. Income growth increased schooling especially for girls in Cote dIvoire and for boys in Ghana. Urbanization is expected to be a significant factor in the future in both countries. The analytical model is based on the human capital theory and household production model of G.S. Becker on investment in education and the benefits. Findings indicate that parents education had a significant influence on the educational achievement of male and female children. Fathers education was more important than mothers education in both countries for male and female education. The impact of parents education was larger for girls in Ghana and larger for boys in Cote dIvoire. Mothers education had a larger effect on daughters schooling attainment in Ghana. Parents were constrained by household income in both countries. Parental education at the primary level had larger effects in Cote dIvoire for both genders. Parental effects at the middle- and post-middle-school level were larger in Cote dIvoire only for male children. One standard deviation increase in fathers education increased his sons achievement by almost a year and his daughters by a smaller amount. Distance was a greater deterrent for girls than boys in Ghana.

Wage Employment, Earnings and Returns to Schooling for Men and Women in Turkey

Abstract This study estimates an earnings function for urban wage earners in Turkey together with a wage earner choice equation. Male and female wage earners are treated separately so as to identify the differential returns to these groups. Returns to education and probability of wage earner participation are found to increase with the level of schooling for both men and women wage earners. Returns to women are somewhat smaller than those to men. The highest returns are observed for the younger cohort of men which may be an indication of recent higher demand for educated personnel. Vocational and technical high school graduate men have not only a higher probability of working as wage earners but also significantly higher returns than general high school graduates. This suggests a policy of expansion of such educational opportunities.

Economic Development and Female Labor Force Participation in Turkey: Time-Series Evidence and Cross-Province Estimates

Recently, several researchers hypothesized that the female labor force participation rate exhibits a U-shape during the process of economic development. This paper provides time series evidence on female labor force participation rates in Turkey and considers its cross-provincial determinants. Time series evidence shows that after a period of sharp decline, female labor force participation rates have exhibited a slowdown in the rate of decline recently. An upturn in this rate may be expected during the coming decades. In the cross-provincial determinants of female labor force participation the measure of development used is per capita Gross Provincial Product. A quadratic term in per capita Gross Provincial Product and other determinants are included in the models estimated. The models are estimated using data for 67 provinces for three time points: 1980, 1985 and 1990. The results affirm the U-shaped impact of economic development. Further, unemployment had a considerable discouraging effect on female labor force participation while the impact of education was strongly positive. The hidden unemployment computations indicate that urban female unemployment rate is underestimated and the discouraged-worker effect for women is substantial.

Cigarette demand, health scares and education in Turkey

The purpose of this paper is to examine the demand characteristics of cigarettes in Turkey. Aggregate time-series date for the 1960–88 period are used in estimation. Income and price elasticities of cigarette demand are obtained. The effect of health warning is estimated to reduce cigarette consumption by about 8% since the inception of warnings in 1982. Imports of cigarettes have been allowed since 1984 in addition to advertising of cigarettes in the non-electronic media. The effect of health warnings are found to be stronger than the opposing effect of advertising. The results also suggest that public education about adverse health effects of smoking may be more effective in reducing consumption and less regressive on consumer incomes than raising the price of cigarettes.

Determinants of School Attainment of Boys and Girls In Turkey

This study investigates the determinants of school attainments of boys and girls in Turkey. Although high levels of enrollment have been achieved at the primary school level for both boys and girls in much of Turkey, substantial regional differences remain. In particular, in the Southeastern region, girls begin to drop out of school around the third grade. Only half of the primary school graduates register at the middle level. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of educational attainments at the primary, middle and high school levels. Attainments of boys and girls are examined separately so as to shed light on the cause for the significantly lower level of attainment for girls. Understanding the constraints causing the large gender gap in Turkish education and the covariates related to lower overall educational levels would be useful to policy makers and planners.

Impact of Sibship Size, Birth Order and Sex Composition on School Enrolment in Urban Turkey*

This paper investigates the effects of sibship size, birth order and sibling sex composition on children’s school enrollment in urban Turkey. Moreover, we examine how the effects of these variables vary by household income and the gender of the children. We utilize an instrumental variables estimation method in order to address parents’ joint fertility and schooling decisions where we use twin-births as instruments. In addition, we generate careful measures for birth order and siblings’ sex composition in order to purge the impact of these variables from that of sibship size. We find no causal impact of sibship size on school enrollment. However, there is evidence for a parabolic impact of birth-order where middle-born children fare worse. The parabolic impact of birth order is more pronounced in poorer families. Sex composition of siblings matters only for female children. A higher fraction of older male siblings decreases the enrollment probability of female children in poorer households. In the wealthiest families, on the contrary, a higher fraction of male siblings increases the enrollment probability of female children. The finding that birth order and sibling sex composition matters more for poorer households suggests that scarce financial resources are the underlying cause of the sibling composition effects.