Determinants of duration of unemployment insurance benefits in Turkey

Abstract

This article is the first empirical study on the duration of unemployment insurance benefits in Turkey. Turkey has adopted an unemployment insurance programme in 2000, and the first payment of the benefit was made in 2002. Thus, it is new and the first programme to partially compensate the income of workers when they are unemployed. The unemployment insurance programme has been criticized for low benefits and strict eligibility requirements. However, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit has been increasing steadily since 2002. This study provides an empirical evaluation on the determinants of duration of unemployment insurance benefits by a hazard modelling approach. We find that age, sex, marital status, significantly affect insurance duration after controlling effects of types of workplace, job types and regions.