Gokhan Karabulut

The Effect of Religiosity and Religious Festivals on Positional Concerns: An Experimental Investigation of Ramadan

This article examines the effect of religion on positional concerns using survey experiments. We focus on two of the dimensions of religion – degree of religiosity and religious festivals. By conducting the experiments during both the most important day of Ramadan (the Night of Power) and a day outside Ramadan, we find that Ramadan overall has a small and negative impact on positional concerns. Detailed analyses based on the sorting of individuals’ degree of religiosity reveal that the decrease in the degree of positional concerns during Ramadan is mainly explained by a decrease in positionality among individuals with a low degree of religiosity.

The Impact Of World Energy Price Volatility On Aggregate Economic Activity In Developing Asian Economies

This paper analyzes the impact of volatility in the world energy price on aggregate economic activity in an unbalanced panel data framework for 10 developing Asian countries: Bangladesh, PR China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. We use both the realized volatility and the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity models to measure the volatility in the world energy price. Empirical findings from dynamic panel data estimations show that the volatility in world energy price is negatively associated with the aggregate economic activity. Using the common correlated effects panel estimation techniques, we also systematically examine uncertain transmission channel of the world energy price volatility on the aggregate economic activity in each economy and obtain the most impressive negative effects in Turkey, PR China and India, respectively.

Purchasing Power Parity Hypothesis: Mixed Evidence from Eastern Europe Emerging Markets

This paper investigates whether the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis holds in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland by considering currencies of their five largest trading partners. We employ eight panel unit root tests that can be arranged in groups by cross-section independence or dependence. Empirical findings show that the stochastic behavior of real exchange rates in the Czech Republic and Poland is not a mean reversion, and the PPP condition does not hold for them. However, we obtain mixed empirical evidence in Hungary. Limited evidence is found for validity of the PPP hypothesis among currencies of Hungarys largest trading partners.

Technology transfer and enterprise performance: a firm-level analysis in China

This paper attempts to explore the relationship between openness and a Chinese firms productivity using 1999–2002 panel data on 26 industries covering 2400 enterprises. The current literature has focused mainly on the relationship between productivity and exports, using country-level data, leaving a gap in the relationship between imports and productivity unfilled, in particular at the firm specific level. However, our study complements the existing literature by using the latest set of data, and more importantly, by examining the effects of exports and importing machinery on the firms performance. Using the dynamic panel data econometrics technique, we find evidence that firms can improve productivity by importing more capital good and utilizing foreign technologies from technologically advanced economies. Finally the effects of importing capital goods on productivities and that of exporting activities are compared.

Turkish textile and clothing industry in the post-quota era and some policy options

Textile and clothing (T&C) industry has experienced important developments since 1994. The most important is that Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) signed (1994) under supervision of World Trade Organization. The system governing T&C trade for more than 40 years has expired by means of stipulating a gradual quota reduction during the period 1995–2005. Though signing of ATC does not mean a complete elimination of protection, it may lead to shifts in market shares, trade and investment flows. It is expected that the equilibriums will change in favour of some countries as well as in disfavour of others. The period created serious problems for Turkish T&C industry. This paper attempts to analyse the impact of ATC on Turkish T&C industry.

How Do Geopolitical Risks Affect Government Investment? An Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT The paper examines the effects of geopolitical risks, measured by a new index for geopolitical risk, on general government investment (gross fixed capital formation). It uses panel data for 18 countries for the period from 1985 to 2015. Using panel fixed-effects and the corrected least squares dummy variable estimators, results indicate that geopolitical risks seem to exert a positive effect on government investment.