Determinants of the Attribution of Poverty in Turkey: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This study explored poverty attribution in terms of socio-economic factors, based on a survey of 1,110 participants living Turkey’s three largest cities, namely Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir. We include the following socio-economic variables: income, subjective class status, subjective destiny perception, education level, political position, gender, marital status, and age. Participants with higher education levels mostly explain poverty using structural reasons whereas participants with lower education levels tend to explain it with fatalistic reasons. Left- wing participants tend to explain poverty in terms of structural factors for reasons whereas right-wing participants tend to give individualistic reasons. Finally, men tend to offer more individualistic attributions of poverty than women do. Individualistic and structuralist approaches agree on several specific policies for reducing poverty whereas the fatalistic approach suggests different policies.