Reexamining the mincerian wage equation in Turkey: Functional form and interpretation

Abstract

The Mincer Wage equation is the mostly used human capital model. Since this model was introduced, there has been a substantial expansion in micro data and estimation techniques avaliable to labor economists. One of the aims of this study was that explaning how the Mincer equation stands in light of these advances in empirical labor economics. For this aim, the wage models were estimated in semiparametric form based on public and private data obtained from Household Labor Force Survey micro data set of 2013 in Turkey in order to analyze the empirical performance of mincerian wage model. The other aim of the study was that taking in consideration the spatial effect on wages. As differently from the other studies, coordinate variables were used in order to represent the spatial effect. The estimation results showed that there is a linear relationship between wage and experience for private sector in Turkey as different from the standard mincerian wage model. On the other hand, the coordinate variables measuring the spatial effect on wages showed that wages are maximum for public sector in Ankara and nearby cities. The wages are maximum across the country and for private sector in Istanbul and nearby cities with some provinces from the east of Turkey.