The paper primarily aims to focus on inequality measurement on the basis of Gini coefficient following 2001 in case of Turkey. Although the Gini coefficient indicates some specific improvements in Turkey, there is a need to investigate in real terms the approaches to inequalities in the Turkish case. Drawing upon TurkStat, OECD and World Bank Development Indicators data related to Turkey, the Palma ratio (2011), the share of top 10 percent income to the bottom 40 percent income (D10/D1-D4) approach to inequality is applied to the balance sheet of Turkey in the last decade, after which, the relationship with related social and redistributive policies will be analysed. The paper strongly suggest that since the Palma ratio focuses on the top-, bottom- and middle-income groups, it will permit a deeper analysis of the inequalities and neoliberal policies of the last decade. Under these circumstances, following 2001 period, the political roots of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) and this particular phase of neoliberal policies in Turkey warrants further analysis, with a definition made of the relationship between the two. To this end, the paper begins with an analysis of the specific characteristics of the neoliberal era under the JDP, and then presents a brief summary of the redistributive and social policies that were enacted.
Key words: Income distribution and inequalities, poverty, development, social policies. Jel Classification: O10, O120, O150. Article Language: EnglishTurkish
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