Publication: Pathways to the Middle Class in Turkey : How Have Reducing Poverty and Boosting Shared Prosperity Helped?
Date
2014-04
ISSN
Published
2014-04
Author(s)
Abstract
Turkey's poverty reduction
performance in the 2000s has been remarkably consistent.
Extreme and moderate poverty have fallen considerably since
2003. Between 2002 and 2011, extreme poverty fell from 13
percent to 5 percent, while moderate poverty halved from 44
percent to 22 percent (respectively, defined using the World
Bank's Europe and Central Asia regional poverty lines
of 2.5 and 5 USD/PPP). Most of this poverty reduction (89
percent) has been driven by growth, a performance consistent
with most countries in Europe and Central Asia. This is
substantially different form the recent performance of other
regions, such as Latin America, where redistribution
contributed to poverty reduction almost four times more than
in Turkey. Turkey has also achieved sustained consumption
growth of the bottom 40 percent of the population, even
during the years of the world recession. Turkey's
performance in poverty reduction and increased shared
prosperity has been complemented by the systematic expansion
of the middle class by 20 percentage points. This paper
analyzes the main drivers of poverty reduction, shared
prosperity, and changes in inequality in Turkey from 2002 to
2011. The analysis shows that labor markets, demographics,
pensions, and social assistance have played a critical role
in this process. It further explores some of the mechanisms
that have facilitated these changes.
Citation
“Azevedo, Joao Pedro; Atamanov, Aziz. 2014. Pathways to the Middle Class in Turkey : How Have Reducing Poverty and Boosting Shared Prosperity Helped?. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6834. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/17722 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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