Effects of trade liberalization on the welfare of the agriculture sector via double factoral domestic terms of trade in Turkey: 1990-2010

The effect of the agricultural support policies on the prices of the agricultural commodities has been declining in Turkey since 1990s. The prices of the agricultural commodities approximate to the world prices. The employment in the agriculture sector has been declining due to the transfer of labor from the agriculture sector to the non-agriculture sector. In this paper, the effects of the trade liberalization on the welfare of the agriculture sector in Turkey at the period of 1990-2010 are estimated by the double factoral domestic terms of trade indicator. The findings of the estimation denote that the welfare of the agriculture sector is increased related with the labor productivity increase triggered by the labor transfer from the agriculture sector at the trade liberalization process while the domestic terms of trade is developed in the expense of it. The welfare is transferred from the agriculture sector to the industry sector via relative price scissor. Even though the relative productivity of the agriculture sector is increased at the examination period, the welfare of the agriculture sector is negatively affected from the domestic terms of trade.