ABSTRACT

Regional Competitiveness Operational Programme (RCOP) is one of the policies which aims to increase the competitiveness of the poorest regions of Turkey by supporting enterprises and creating employment opportunities. This study aims to investigate whether RCOP has generated more employment opportunities in the “East-Central Anatolia Region” compared to its neighbor called “West-Central Anatolia Region”. As an identification strategy, we implement Difference-in-Differences (DiD) methodology, and for the robustness check, we apply DiD with Propensity Score Matching (PSM). The entire analysis relies on data derived from the Household Labor Force Survey between 2004 and 2017. Our findings show that RCOP increased only the employment rate of young people aged between 15–24. We find no evidence of a positive effect for people over 24 years old. Governments in other countries which are also concerned about unemployment and vulnerability among youth could implement similar policies. Even though the programme has been effective in increasing the youth employment rate, the employment gap between men and women persists in favor of men in all age groups, including the youth. This finding offers an insight into the necessity of additional policies to increase female employment and close the gender gap in employment opportunities.

摘要

区域竞争力运营计划 (RCOP) 是一项旨在通过支持企业和创造就业机会来提高土耳其最贫困地区竞争力的政策。本研究旨在调查与其邻国“中西部安纳托利亚地区”相比，RCOP 是否在“安纳托利亚中东部地区”创造了更多的就业机会。作为一种识别策略，我们实现了差异中的差异 (DiD) 方法，并且对于稳健性检查，我们应用了带有倾向得分匹配 (PSM) 的 DiD。整个分析依赖于 2004 年至 2017 年间家庭劳动力调查的数据。我们的研究结果表明，RCOP 仅增加了 15-24 岁年轻人的就业率。我们没有发现对 24 岁以上的人有积极影响的证据。也关注青年失业和脆弱性的其他国家的政府可以实施类似的政策。尽管该计划有效地提高了青年就业率，但男女之间的就业差距仍然有利于所有年龄组的男性，包括青年。这一发现提供了对增加女性就业和缩小就业机会中性别差距的额外政策的必要性的洞察。