The Turkish Wage Curve:Evidence from the Household Labor Force Survey

This paper examines the Turkish wage curve using individual data from the HouseholdLabor Force Survey (HLFS) including 26 NUTS-2 regions over the period 2005-2008.When the local unemployment rate is treated as predetermined, there is evidence infavor of the wage curve only for younger and female workers. However, if the laggedunemployment rate is used as an instrument for current unemployment rate, we find anunemployment elasticity of -0.099. We also find a higher elasticity for younger, lesseducated, low experienced workers than for older, more educated and more experiencedworkers. Another important finding is that the wages of females in Turkey are significantlymore responsive to local unemployment rates than their male counterparts....