EFFECT OF SURVIVOR’S PENSION ON FEMALE EMPLOYMENT

Abstract

In this thesis, I analyzed risk of being out of employment and risk of employment without social security for women who take survivor’s pension from social security coverega in Turkey. The hypothesis of this thesis is that survivor’s pension constitutes a barrier to participate in labor or in formal employment for women. The primary data source for emprical analyses is “Income and Living Conditions Survey, 2017” micro data set. Analyses of this thesis include 26,266 economically active working age women and among them 8,376 single women who could legally receive a survivor’s pension. Following the descriptive analysis, multivariate models were established to the test of the hypothesis. Logistic regression analysis was carried out for the models to determine the variables that affect women's employment. The first model presents the determinants of participation of women in employment. Then the second model shows the determinants of working with or without social security. The dependent variable of the first model is working or non-working, while the dependent variable of the second model is working with social security or working without social security. Independent variables of the both models are determined into three groups; having or not having a survivor's pension, socio-demographic determanants and income related determinants. Socio-demographic determinants are age, education status, number of children under 5 and region , while income related determinants are household ownership and household income. Result of the logistic regression analysis shows that survivor's pension as well as the other income related and the socio-demographic determinants other than number of children under 5 are significant for the risk of not working and working without social security. This thesis shows that women who receive survivor’s pension are 0.442 times less likely to work than those who do not receive survivor's pensions and also women who receive a survivor's pension are 0.148 times less likely to work with social security than those who do not receive this pension.