1 Going for Growth Jean-Philippe Cotis OECD Chief Economist TÜSİAD-KOÇ UNIVERSITY ECONOMIC RESEARCH FORUM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABLE GROWTH STRATEGIES FOR TURKEY Istanbul, 17th June 2005
2 Turkey’s gap in the level of per capita GDP relative to the US is very wide
3 While not all countries are diverging, the income gap with the US remains significant 1
4 What’s been driving the gap in per capita incomes?
5 Product market regulation restrictiveness is converging towards a more liberal stance in all OECD countries...
6...but no progress has been made in reforming employment protection legislation
7 There is a wide dispersion in older worker employment rates…
8 …which is largely explained by disincentives in old age pension systems…
9...and in social transfer programmes
10 Labour force participation rates of population aged and the implicit tax on continued work 1
11 Suppressing various policy distortions would have a large positive impact on the labour force participation of older workers
12 Unregistered employment is widespread in Turkey
13 There is considerable scope to improve educational attainment in Turkey