The Impact of the Turkish Employment Subsidy Programs in Increasing the Level of Social Protection for Women

The Turkish government started a labor market program in July 2008, to subsidize the employers’ social security contributions for the two target groups: young men (of age between 18 and 29) and all women above 18. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyze the impact of the program on social protection of women by checking the transitions in the labor market states. Using difference-in-differences (DID) and regression discontinuity design (RDD) techniques, the effectiveness of the policy will be assessed by analyzing the switches from informal employment to formal employment, from unemployment to formal employment and from out of the labor force to formal employment. Last, the study will carry out analysis on social protection with respect to firm size, since the degree of social protection in the intensive margin differs across firm size. Overall, the project aims to assess whether the subsidy program has been effective in reducing the gender gaps in the Turkish labor market in terms of the level of social protection.