Browsing by Author "Günay, Simge"

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Citation Count: 11
Female employment status: a survey analysis of selected member states of the Arab League
(Springer Heidelberg, 2019) Ucal, Meltem; Günay, Simge
Low female labor force participation is a conspicuous issue in the literature. Based on this information, women's perspectives of the determinants of female labor force participation in 13 member states of the Arab League in relation to the region's patriarchal culture and conservative social norms are discussed in this paper. Probit modelling is applied to the sixth wave of the World Values Survey data (2010-2014), in order to examine the relationship between female labor force participation and socio-cultural variables, such as women's perceptions about the importance of religion, the priority of religion compared with science, the importance of traditions for women, the priority of men concerning the right to a job and the importance of a job for women's independence, and personal characteristics, such as women's social class, marital status, number of children, educational level and age. The results indicate that the number of children and the importance given to tradition and religion by women are obstacles to increasing their labor force participation.
Citation Count: 7
Household Happiness and Fuel Poverty: a Cross-Sectional Analysis on Turkey
(SPRINGER, 2021-01) Ucal, Meltem; Günay, Simge
In recent years, self-reported happiness and fuel poverty have both become hotly-debated topics in the literature. Since both of them affect people's quality of life, they are certainly worth serious consideration. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct a household-level analysis on the association between happiness and fuel poverty taking advantage of other housing characteristics. We used ordered logit model utilizing Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT)'s 2014-2018 Life Satisfaction Survey (LSS) data for the analysis. Our dependent variable is household happiness. The results show that household fuel poverty is negatively associated with household happiness in Turkey. A positive association exists between becoming home-owner and household happiness in the country; however, it becomes mostly negative after considering odds ratios. On the other hand, there is a positive association between climbing income ladder and household happiness in the country. Also, the presence of men in households is found to be negatively associated with household happiness in Turkey. Our results imply a U-shaped association between age groups in households and household happiness in the country. Finally, we found that the association between an increase in household size and household happiness varies across each category of the independent variable. This is also the case for the association between number of rooms and household happiness as well as for the association between dwelling area and household happiness in Turkey.
Citation Count: 3
Perceived Happiness, Perceived Trust and Perceived Income Levels: The Case of the Reunified Germany
(Savez Ekonomista Vojvodine, 2019) Ucal, Meltem; Günay, Simge
This study explored the possible impact of perceived income on individual (perceived) happiness in Eastern and Western Germany in relation to perceived trust and four socio-economic variables, namely gender, age, marital status and employment status. To examine the relationship between these variables, a generalized ordered logit model was applied using the World Values Survey data. Bootstrapping and marginal effects were used to obtain a more robust model. The findings provided insights regarding the impact of perceived income and perceived trust on individual (perceived) happiness in both regions after reunification. Perceived income had a positive effect on all happiness categories in both regions. Perceived trust had a stronger positive impact on individual happiness than that of perceived income, although its significance varied across individual (perceived) happiness categories. Analysis of marginal effects revealed differences between the base models.
The relationship between happiness and perceived income inequality as well as some social indicators: a comparative analysis on Turkey and selected european countries
(Kadir Has Üniversitesi, 2016) Ucal, Meltem; Ucal, Meltem
in recent years the relationship between happiness and income distribution has become an important issue in the economics literature. Underlying reason of this situation is the widening income gap between the rich and the poor since 1980s. Several studies have traced the link between happiness and income inequality especially since the last two decades. it is also very important to study “perceived” income distribution and inequality because they may show different approaches to income distribution and inequality from many individuals. The aim of this study will be to explore the relationship between perceived happiness level and perceived income inequality in Turkey and the other selected OECD countries using the World Values Survey data. The main question will be whether and to what extent perceived income inequality affects happiness level of individuals who live in those countries. in addition some social characterictics and socio-demographic variables will be used to learn whether they affect people’s happiness or not in Turkey and other selected countries more or less than their perceptions to income inequality. Generalized ordered logit model analysis will be used in the study because it fits to the nature of our data. This study is expected to contribute to the literature in the sense that it will give relevant people a point of view about the relationship between perceived happiness of people who live in selected countries and perceived income inequality as well as selected variables because a similar comprehensive and comparative study has not been found in the literature which especially addresses Turkey yet. At the end of the empirical analysis it is seen that perceptions to income inequality impact on happiness level positively however its impact is weaker than other social and demographic variables in the analysis.