Outsourcing distribution and logistics services within the automotive supplier industry

This paper reports on an empirical study that examined a suite of distribution and logistics services commonly used to manage inbound materials en route to plants. The sourcing decision is examined through the lenses of transaction cost economics and the resource-based view of the firm and the results lend limited support for both theories in the context of such services. Results further indicate that there is little evidence supporting differences between internal versus external decision-makers.     

Hedonic price estimation for the Turkish bread wheat characteristics

This research has been made to assess the effects of the characteristics of bread wheat quality on the prices in the Turkish bread wheat market. A hedonic price model was used to analyze factors affecting the variability in bread wheat prices. Results indicate that prices received by bread wheat producers reflect the presence of basic quality characteristics of bread wheat. According to the research consequences, the hectoliter and sedimentation are the major factors that have the greatest effect and influence on Turkish bread wheat market in respect to the quality aspects. The study shows that the five regions in Turkey, which have been chosen as the research area and are important in bread wheat production, have differences in terms of bread wheat quality characteristics.     

Functional income distribution,capacity utilization,capital accumulation and productivity growth in Turkey: A post-Kaleckian analysis

The aim of this article is to examine the relation between functional income distribution, capacity utilization, capital accumulation and productivity in Turkey by identifying demand and overall regimes prevalent in the economy. For this purpose, we conducted an empirical analysis using different specifications of the post-Kaleckian model of Hein and Tarassow. This model defines and characterizes an overall regime by endogenizing productivity growth and integrating it into the models in this tradition. Empirical findings show that while the demand regime is wage-led, the overall regime turns out to be unstable in Turkey due to the destabilizing impact of productivity growth. This article contributes to the literature by being the first study that simultaneously identifies the demand and the overall regimes of an economy.     

Popular Urbanization: Conceptualizing Urbanization Processes Beyond Informality

This article introduces the concept of popular urbanization to describe a specific urbanization process based on collective initiatives, self-organization and the activities of inhabitants. We understand popular urbanization as an urban strategy through which an urban territory is produced, transformed and appropriated by the people. This concept results from a theoretically guided and empirically grounded comparison of Mexico City, Istanbul and Lagos. Based on postcolonial critiques of urban theory and on the epistemologies of planetary urbanization, we bring urbanization processes in these urban regions into conversation with each other through a multidimensional theoretical framework inspired by Henri Lefebvre focusing on material interaction, territorial regulation, and everyday experience. In this way, popular urbanization emerged as a distinct urbanization process, which we identified in all three contexts. While this process is often subsumed under the broader concept of ‘urban informality’, we suggest that it may be helpful to distinguish popular urbanization as primarily led by the people, while commodification and state agencies play minor roles. As popular urbanization unfolds in diverse ways dependent upon the wider urban context, specific political constellations and actions, it results in a variety of spatial outcomes and temporal trajectories. This is therefore a revisable and open concept. In proposing the concept of popular urbanization for further examination, we seek to contribute to the collective development of a decentered vocabulary of urbanization.     

Functional income distribution and growth in Thailand: A post Keynesian econometric analysis

The aim of this article is to analyze the effect of the income distribution between labor and capital on the growth performance of Thailand from a post Keynesian view. It rests on the theoretical model of Bhaduri and Marglin (1990 Bhaduri, A., and Marglin, S. “Unemployment and the Real Wage: The Economic Basis for Contesting Political Ideologies.” Cambridge Journal of Economics, December 1990, 14 (4), 375–393.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to see if an increase in the labor income share has a sufficient positive effect on consumption to offset a negative effect on investment and export demand. In order to investigate the question empirically we adopt and develop the approach of Stockhammer, Onaran, and Ederer (2009 Stockhammer, E.; Onaran, Ö.; and Ederer, S. “Functional Income Distribution and Aggregate Demand in the Euro-area.” Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2009, 33 (1), 139–159.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Several measures of the labor income share are calculated to take into account the fact that wage labor represents only half of the total labor force and check the robustness of our results. We also introduce a new treatment of external trade to better integrate the price competitiveness of Thailand. The econometric investigation shows that the growth regime is profit-led over the period 1970–2011, which shows that rebalancing the Thai economy will be difficult and requires an overall change of strategy going beyond a simple prolabor policy.     

Participation to the public life and becoming organized at local level in Romani settlements in Izmir

There are more than 20 million Romani residents in many countries around the world. Due to social and economic reasons, many Romanies do not declare their ethnic origins; therefore, it is not possible to obtain any exact figures from official records. Romanies may have a preference of not defining themselves openly as “Romanies”. However, it is thought that they are distinguished from non-Romanies with their unique behavior and speech. Actually, physical features cannot be used as a definite distinctive feature in identifying Romanies. As a matter of fact, the first Romanies who had entered Europe were identified by their dark skin color and black hair, whereas today, it is possible to see Romanies with light skin and hair color. Romanies and music are often considered together; they have trained numerous accomplished musicians.     

An exploratory study on the perspectives of prospective computer teachers following project-based learning

This study investigates perceptions of 29 prospective teachers about a course based on Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach. The course, ‘Authoring Languages in PC Environment (B-320)’ lasted in 14 weeks in fall semester of 2004–2005. In this course each prospective teacher carried out a project that requires designing and developing courseware individually. This study is qualitative in nature and data were collected through an open ended questionnaire composed of seven items and analyzed by content analysis technique. The results show that prospective teachers found PBL as an effective way of learning. It also suggests that when efficient guidance about technical issues and time management is provided, PBL approach can be successfully implemented in computer related courses such as programming language and web designing.     

Do the global stochastic trends drive the real house prices in OECD countries?

This paper demonstrates that in the long-run the main determinants of the real housing prices for a panel dataset comprising the quarterly observations of 12 OECD countries are the real GDP per capita and the real interest rate along with the global stochastic trends.     

Analysing money demand relation for OECD countries using common factors

This article investigates the existence of a long-run money demand relation for a panel data consisting of 13 OECD countries. The analysis is based on the most recent data. The existence of a long-run money demand relation is tested with two new meta-analytic panel cointegrating rank tests which are robust to cross-sectional dependence. Cross-sectional dependency in the data generating process is modelled by unobserved common factors. The observed data are decomposed into idiosyncratic and common components, and these two components are analysed separately to find out the driving forces of the long-run stationary relationship. The evidence shows that the long-run money demand relation is driven by the cross-unit cointegration. Finally, the long-run relation is estimated by taking the common factors into account.     

Testing for spatial market integration and law of one price in Turkish wheat markets

This paper examines co-integration models in testing for spatial market integration and the Law of One Price (LOP) for Turkish wheat market. The multivariate co-integration tests show that there is one co-integrating vector in the system which implies that though the markets are integrated, the LOP does not hold. Vector error correction model restrictions tests also show that structural breaks have impacts on the long-run linkage among the prices. These results are important for wheat production policies and for wheat market liberalization considerations in the future.