Essays in applied industrial organization and econometrics
Abstract
Competition Policy in Turkey. This paper evaluates the current competition policy framework in Turkey. A brief history of competition policy is presented. An account of the Law on the Protection of Competition, the main law on competition in Turkey, is given. The structure of the Competition Authority, the body responsible for applying the Law, and the way the enforcement, system works are explained. Detailed statistics are given about all the cases submitted to the Competition Authority by 2002. Accounts of some selected cases are reported and a general assessment of the implementation of competition policy is offered. The main finding of the paper is that, although there is a movement in the right direction, competition policy implementation in Turkey still needs to be developed and strengthened. Measuring the Effectiveness of Competition Policy: Evidence from the Turkish Cement Industry. In this paper, we develop a method to measure the impact of the introduction of competition policy in a country on the performance of an industry. Our method employs the New Empirical Industrial Organization (NEIO) approach. We apply the method to the Turkish cement industry, which has been heavily investigated by the Turkish Competition Authority. The results indicate that the degree of market power has gradually decreased in the Turkish cement industry over time. However, we cannot detect any clear evidence that the decrease is due to the introduction of competition policy in Turkey. Modelling Changing Lag Structure in U.S. Housing Construction. In this paper, we reconsider the nature of changing lag structure in housing construction. We assume that the construction industry is subject to two regimes determined by the level of housing units under construction: recession and expansion. The econometric model we employ is a threshold autoregressive distributed lag model. The results imply that builders seem to change the speed of construction depending on whether the construction industry is in a recession or expansion. The mean lag between housing completions and housing starts is significantly shorter in recession periods than in expansion periods. This conclusion is in line with the so-called “accordion effect”.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Martin, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Economics
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