Advertising,avoiding, disrupting,and tabooing: The discursive construction of diversity subjects in the Turkish context

This study investigates organizational diversity discourses in Turkey – a non-Western, politically relevant, yet underrepresented context. Using a Foucauldian perspective on power and discourse, we scrutinize how power relations in the Turkish context are (re)produced. Based on our analysis of company websites and semi-structured interviews with various actors (e.g., HR managers), we propose a conceptual framework of the discursive construction of diversity subjects at work along the dimensions of (1) visibility of organizational diversity discourses and (2) contestation of meaning within organizational diversity discourses. The combination of these dimensions yields four discursive dynamics as illustrated in our data (Advertising, Avoiding, Disrupting, Tabooing). This framework may inspire future context- and power-sensitive investigations on diversity discourses at the workplace.     

Income variability and selection of the pension system

This paper provides a simple two‐period, game theoretic set‐up with heterogeneous agents to analyse individual selection of a pension scheme by different categories of agents. Agents have been differentiated according to their income variability. We describe Bayesian equilibria and provide examples to illustrate. The design of a pension scheme requires the consent of all the population, and we have shown that differences of volatility of income contribute to the divergence regarding the decision of a pension investment alternative. We also provide support for the subsistence of unfunded scheme in economies with demographic aging and with promising returns in funded alternatives.     

Sources of inequality in selected MENA countries

The paper deals with income inequality in the selected MENA countries focusing on the dynamics of domestic wage differentiations. The main aim is to identify the sources of inequalities. GDP per capita, share of manufacturing sector, urban share of population, gender participation in the labor force, education and openness may be possible factors. The paper analyzes pay inequalities using a panel regression model where the Theil index is used as the dependent variable. The results show that GDP per capita and female labor force participation have positive (increasing) effects, and openness has a negative (decreasing) effect on pay inequalities in these countries.     

North–South terms‐of‐trade trends from 1960 to 2006

The composition of exports of developing countries is increasingly dominated by manufactured goods. This has not changed the fact that their major trading partners continue to be the developed countries. In order to properly assess the distribution of gains from trade, there is a pressing need to analyze the movements in the terms of trade of developing countries with respect to the developed ones. A statistical analysis of the North–South terms of trade reveals that the terms of trade have turned against the South since the 1960s. However, the terms‐of‐trade deterioration is neither continuous nor evenly distributed over different country groupings. The existence of a structural break in the mid‐to‐late 1970s together with the greatest adverse terms‐of‐trade movements against the highly indebted and least developed countries attest the discontinuity and unevenness of this process.     

Betrayal in buyer–seller relationships: Exploring its causes,symptoms, forms,effects, and therapies

Building on literature in social psychology that discussed betrayal in interpersonal relationships, this article explored betrayal in buyer–seller relationships using data collected from a survey conducted among 109 buyers and 115 sellers in the United States. The results indicated that betrayal was a complex, multifarious, and dynamic phenomenon, consisting of a sequence of phases, namely causes, symptoms, forms, consequences, and therapies, with multiple issues being involved at each phase. Our study also revealed that the views of buyers differed from those of sellers in terms of how various relational characteristics contributed to the emergence of betrayal episodes, what behavior and attitudes helped to diagnose partner betrayal, in which forms the betrayal acts were manifested, how the victims of betrayal felt, and how betrayal problems could be handled in a working relationship. In fact, the various dimensions in each of the betrayal phases examined were consistently more frequently mentioned by buyers than sellers.     

Predatory mortgage lending

Regulators express growing concern over predatory loans, which we take to mean loans that borrowers should decline. Using a model of consumer credit in which such lending is possible, we identify the circumstances in which it arises both with and without competition. We find that predatory lending is associated with highly collateralized loans, inefficient refinancing of subprime loans, lending without due regard to ability to pay, prepayment penalties, balloon payments, and poorly informed borrowers. Under most circumstances competition among lenders attenuates predatory lending. We use our model to analyze the effects of legislative interventions.     

Mismatch between Material Deprivation and Income Poverty: The Case of Turkey

By employing cross-sectional data obtained from Survey of Income and Living Conditions for the years from 2007 to 2011, we analyze the identification problem of the poor by using both monetary and non-monetary measures. We classify the poor into the following categories: (i) poor in monetary and nonmonetary measures, (ii) poor in monetary measure only, (iii) poor in non-monetary measure only, and (iv) non-poor in both categories. We examine the determinants of each category by utilizing the probit model and find that the share of workers in adults — or the share of informal or agricultural workers — creates some disparities between poverty at a country and regional level.     

Innovation,networking and the new industrial clusters: the characteristics of networks and local innovation capabilities in the Turkish industrial clusters

Elaborating on the literature on industrial districts, this paper suggests that innovation and networking are the two key issues, which provide the new generation industrial clusters’ competitive capacity in the globalization process. The paper presents the findings on the innovative and networking capabilities of the three important industrial clusters of Turkey based on the data collected from the sample firms in each of these industrial clusters through in-depth interviews. The findings clearly show the importance of local and national networking as well as global linkages and confirm the positive relation between intensity of local networking and innovativeness. Moreover, the paper provides evidence that firms within global networks have higher numbers of innovations than firms with higher intensity of locally embedded linkages.