Browsing by Author "Demir, N."

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14

Open Access
Agro-climatic conditions and regional technical inefficiencies in agriculture
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc., 2002) Demir, N.; Mahmud, S. F.
A survey of applications of the Technical Inefficiency Effects (TIE) model suggests that agro-climatic and other environment variables are customarily omitted in the model specifications. The justification for such an omission is the assumption that these variables are beyond the control of the farmers and therefore should be treated as random variables. In this paper, we argue that in applications dealing with regional agricultural data, agro-climatic variables should not be treated as pure random terms. Historical differences in agro-climatic conditions are known with a reasonable degree of certainty across a larger region. Therefore, omission of such variables from the analysis may lead to inaccurate interregional technical inefficiency comparisons. In order to demonstrate the importance of agro-climatic variables in such analyses, we estimate the TIE model for Turkey. A translog stochastic frontier production function with agro-climatic variables such as rainfall and land quality is estimated, and it is shown not only that the agro-climatic variables are statistically significant but also that their omission substantially affects mean output elasticities and relative technical efficiencies.
Open Access
Depository banks were trapped high inflation into cost inefficiency: The Turkish experience
(2010) Demir, N.; Mahmud, S. F.; Babuscu, S.
Turkey embraced its worst banking crisis in the year 2001 after a long history of high inflation. Only one-third of the private domestic banks could survive immediately before and then after the crisis, mainly because of cost inefficiencies. We argue that many bank managers were trapped into cost inefficiencies during the high inflation years because they over-expanded with many new branches, looking for additional costly scarce funds in order to invest in government's securities for exuberant profits. Based on a stochastic total cost frontier with inefficiency effects (CIE) model, bank samples provide strong evidence that investing more in government securities during high inflation periods is highly significant in explaning cost inefficiency differentials among banks, in contrast to low inflation periods. A policy implication is that when inflation subsides rapidly, banks which invest heavily in government securities under high inflation are confronted with financial deterioration since they cannot adjust their cost structure, e.g., by closing several of their branches, in line with revenue losses. © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010.
Open Access
The effect of news on return volatility and volatility persistence: The Turkish economy during crisis
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2014) Solakoğlu, M. N.; Demir, N.
In this study, we investigate the effect of public information arrival on return volatility for Borsa Istanbul. New information arrival is measured by the number of daily news headlines for Turkey, the United States, and a sample of European countries with close trading ties with Turkey. We classify news headlines by country and type of news. Our findings indicate that, during a recessionary period, new information arrival causes return volatility mostly to decline. Moreover, both economic news and European news cause a significant decline in volatility persistence. However, when news is classified based on origin and type, a larger decline in persistence is observed.
Open Access
Foreign banks: executive jobs for Turkish women?
(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2007) Culpan, O.; Marzotto, T.; Demir, N.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the employment policies and practices of Turkish banks and how these practices affect the hiring and promotion of women. Turkey's banking sector consists of state-owned, private, and foreign banks. The overall restructuring of this sector along with the increase of foreign banks is an opportunity to enquire whether human resource (HR) policies of foreign banks have a differential effect on women's employment. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected in three phases. Phase 1: employment data for all three bank types were analyzed with particular reference to women's employment. About 12 of the largest banks were selected for in-depth study representing each of the three bank categories. Phase 2: bank-specific data were collected from the HR directors including: bank structure, personnel and recruitment policies, management levels, women in each level and professional employment application. Phase 3: structured personal interviews were conducted with the HR directors in the 12 selected banks. Findings - The HR departments of foreign banks use different assessment and selection criteria compared with Turkish private and state-owned banks. These criteria emphasize rank-in-person, which enhances the upward mobility of employees. Because of their flexibility, they may advantage female employment. Research limitations/implications - Survey data from female employees by type of bank would demonstrate a close relationship between organizational structure and women's career advancement. However, this study only interviewed HR managers. The methodology does not indicate whether and to what extent women in three banking types perceive the effect of structure on their career advancement. Practical implications - HR practices of the three categories evidences that foreign banks in Turkey add a variety of competencies of their prospective employees in their application forms. These additional dimensions may improve the recruitment and promotion of women into management positions. It is argued that employment applications that include individual or rank-in-person characteristics rather than job-based criteria advantage women. Originality/value - This is the only study that examines women's employment stratified by Turkey's three banking categories. The effect of culture and structure on employment practices and how this influences the mobility of women are explored.
Open Access
Measuring the degree of block interdependence between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in Turkey
(Routledge, 1998) Sayan, S.; Demir, N.
Based on the similarity of productive activities carried out by sectors, national input-output (IO) matrices may be divided into sub-matrices each representing a broader group of sectors called blocks. The strength of linkages among sectors that belong to different blocks would then show the degree of block interdependence. The measurement of this degree is useful in many areas including structural change analysis, evaluation of various support policy alternaticve or for deciding whether a general or a partial equilibrium framework should be used to investigate the effects of an exogenous shock to a particular sector or a block. This paper introduces a technique that can be used to gauge the degree of block interdependence based on simulation results from demand and supply-side IO models. The application of the technique is illustrated for the case of interdependene between agricultural and non-agricultural blocks in Turkey which recently signed a Customs Union Agreement with the EU. The results indicate tha, although Turkey's Agreement covers trade relations in non-agricultural sectors alone, the agricultural sectors must face indirect effects, the magnitude of which depend, to a great extent, on the degree of interdependence between blocks considered here.
Open Access
News releases and stock market volatility: intraday evidence from borsa Istanbul
(Elsevier Inc., 2015) Solakoglu, M. N.; Demir, N.
In this study, we investigate the effect of public information arrival on return volatility for Borsa Istanbul (BIST) using intraday, 60-min returns between October 3, 2013 and March 31, 2014. Stock return and return volatility is expected to react to news arrival if such news causes market participants to adjust their portfolios. To measure new information arrival, we count the number of daily news headlines for Turkey, the United States, and a sample of European countries with close trading ties with Turkey. Furthermore, we focus on economic news and particularly on news on real economy and inflation. In addition, along with the BIST100 index, which is the most commonly used market portfolio index, we also utilize Second National Market (SNM) index. Our results show that news arrival influences return volatility negatively, and it has no significant effect on index returns. Moreover, return volatility responds significantly to negative surprises in GDP and inflation announcements. Finally, we do not provide evidence that indicates differences in the usage of information that arrives to the market between BIST100 and SNM investors. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Open Access
Regional technical efficiency in the Turkish agriculture: a note
(University of Delhi * Delhi School of Economics, 1998) Demir, N.; Mahmud, S.
A panel data, (67 provinces and the years 1993-1995) of the Turkish agriculture, was employed to estimate technical efficiencies for six agricultural regions and 67 provinces using maximum likelihood techniques (ML). Stochastic frontier based on Cobb-Douglas production function with agricultural value added as the endogenous variable and land, labour and capital as the exogenous variables was estimated. Index of capital stocks was obtained by principal component technique. The results show that differences in technical efficiencies by regions and provinces are significant. Furthermore, it has been shown that some of these differences can be explained by location specific factors such as amount of precipitation, market accessibility and population density.
Open Access
The role of firm characteristics on the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance
(Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., 2016) Solakoglu, M. N.; Demir, N.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of gender diversity on firm performance and evaluate how that relationship is influenced by some firm-specific factors for firms in an emerging market. Design/methodology/approach – The authors collected firm level financial data and firm level characteristics for the firms listed in BIST100 index of Borsa Istanbul for the period between 2002 and 2006. Due to endogeneity of gender diversity and firm performance, the authors utilize unbalanced panel data with 2SLS specification. To observe the sensitivity of results across measures of performance, three measures of performance, two accounting-based and one market-based, are utilized. Findings – Overall, the authors find some weak evidence that gender diversity impacts firm performance. In particular, the findings imply significant association between gender diversity and firm performance for firms that are targeting local markets, for firms in the financial sector and for firms that are family or block-owned. Moreover, findings are fragile with respect to the measures of diversity and performance selected. Originality/value – Although the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance are investigated several times in the past, there are not many studies that examines the role of firm-specific factors on that relationship. By revealing the factors that are important, this study provides an explanation why the existing literature leads to mixed results.
Open Access
The role of progress factors explaining inefficiencies in Transition countries
(Springer-Verlag, 2013) Solakoglu, E. G.; Solakoglu, M. N.; Demir, N.
This paper examines whether progress in transition has a significant effect on the economic efficiency for 24 transition countries from 1990 to 2006. It uses nine progress factors to analyze the role of the progress factors to explain inefficiencies. It also questions the effect of the transition countries that recently joined the European Union on efficiency. The results suggest that the average efficiency scores for EU-N10 are much higher than the average efficiency scores for SEE/CIS. The scores increase over time for both groups of transition countries. Reforms also contribute to efficiency in general.
Open Access
Sentimental herding in Borsa Istanbul: informed versus uninformed
(Routledge, 2014) Solakoglu, M. N.; Demir, N.
This study searches for sentimental herding in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) using a state-space model for two distinct groups of investors/traders. We expect to find no sentimental herding in BIST30 as the investors are closely following the market, given their access to maximum amount of information and high quality of guidance from the world-known intermediaries that reduce information asymmetries. However, as the SNM investors are mostly local investors with smaller assets and with higher level of information asymmetry, we expect to find evidence of sentimental herding. As expected, we find no evidence of herding by the BIST30 investors from 2000 to 2013. In contrast, our findings provide evidence that the SNM investors demonstrate sentimental herding persistently and independently from market fundamentals in three stages: evidence of herding in the first stage (2000-2004), a 4-year (2005-2008) no-herding calm period and finally a volatile adverse herding pattern (2009-2013) where fundamentals about the firm values became more important.
Open Access
Structural change in agriculture and water requirements in Turkey
(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2003) Sayan, S.; Demir, N.
This paper investigates the effects of the post-1980 structural reforms in Turkey on the strength of inter-industry linkages between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, and discusses the implications of the changing strength of these linkages for water consumption by the Turkish economy as a whole. For this purpose, we first solve demand- and supply-side input output models under alternative scenarios concerning the nature of linkages between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in 1979 and 1990. We then calculate the direct and indirect water requirements of production in 32 sectors and estimate the amount of water embodied in agricultural and manufacturing exports of Turkey.
Open Access
The technical inefficiency effects of Turkish banks after financial liberalization
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005) Demir, N.; Mahmud, S. F.; Babuscu, S.
The banking sector in Turkey has grown significantly over the last two decades of financial liberalization. One of the aims of the financial liberalization was to improve efficiency through restructuring programs including the privatization of state banks and the encouragement of mergers. In this paper we identify key factors determining the technical efficiency differentials among Turkish commercial banks in the pre-and post-liberalization periods, using the technical inefficiency effects model. We found that loan quality, size, ownership of the banks, and profitability have a positive and significant impact on the technical efficiencies of banks. The results warrant implementation of effective regulatory measures to improve the quality of the earning assets of commercial banks. Furthermore, steps by the government to encourage acquisitions or mergers for private banks and the privatization of state-owned banks seem to be consistent in improving the overall efficiency of commercial banking in Turkey.
Open Access
A test for a functioning market economy: Seton'S eigenprices of Turkey
(Routledge, 2015) Demir, N.; Solakoglu, M. N.; Solakoglu, E. G.
We use Seton's eigenprices to see if some evidence can be found in support of the European Commission's official statement that the Turkish economy can be considered as a functioning market economy. Given an input–output flows matrix, there is a unique set of prices for outputs and production factors compatible with final demand, generating demand for factors. The findings based on Turkey's most recent I–O table and comparable I–O matrices for Romania and Poland (two EU members) in 2005 show that price distortions were on average five times larger in Turkey. Hence, based on price distortions alone, there was no solid evidence in support of the statement that Turkey had a functioning market economy.
Open Access
X-Efficiency, Returns to Scale and Profitability: Turkey's Banks Before and After the Financial Liberalization
(2012) Demir, N.; Ayture, S.; Mahmud, S. E.