A CROSS- REGIONAL WELFARE COMPARISON FOR TURKEY

Seyfettin Gürsel and Burak Darbaz

TURKSTAT has published the data for regional household consumption expenditures by combining the household expenditure surveys that it had conducted in 2005-2006-2007. We have compared Turkish regional welfare levels, by using their shares in the total expenditure categorized according to main expenditure groups. To do this, we have adjusted the regional data according to their shares in the total population, and to the relevant regional price indices. Following these adjustments, we are able to compare the average consumer’s real consumption across regions.

These adjustments yield three important results. First, İstanbul still holds the first place in welfare terms. Second, the gaps between North-East Anatolia, Middle-East Anatolia, South-East Anatolia and the rest of Turkey are considerably wide and South-East Anatolia is significantly behind on the welfare scale.  Third, apart from these three Eastern Anatolian regions, there are no large welfare differences across regions.

doc. ResearchBrief020

pdf. ResearchBrief020