THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN DETERMINING SAVING RATES: CASE STUDY FROM TURKEY

Abstract

There exist numerous factors affecting saving rates in an economy such as demographics factors, economic factors as well as institutional factors. Therefore, the role of the institutions that we focus on in this paper is extremely critical for savings rates in an economy and so, economic growth. For Turkey, despite of the fact that the role of financial system is incontrovertible in determining the savings, as an informal institution, the role of culture should also be considered as one of the determinants of savings rates since it has direct or indirect impact on almost all variables determining saving rates. In fact, we see that relatively lower labor force participation rate for females and the lower trust index in Turkey, which they have been influenced by the cultural structure of society in Turkey, somehow matter in determining saving rates in Turkey. Normal 0 21 false false false TR JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Normal Tablo"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Calibri;} Accordingly, the relatively low savings rate in Turkish Economy reveals that the Turkish economy needs some measures to increase this lower rate. However, while some of these measures should be taken in the short-run, some should not, as in the case of cultural structure.