Provincial Income Inequality and Spatial Autocorrelation Across Turkish Provinces: 1992-2013.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate provincial income inequality, the degree of spatial autocorrelation between provinces in Turkey and to determine whether low and high income provinces are randomly distributed or not. Gini Results indicate that coefficients are increasing throughout the period, and regional income inequality is increasing over time. The difference between the Weighted and Unweighted Gini coefficients reveals that the level of inequality further increases when population shares of provinces are taken into consideration. Spatial autocorrelation results indicate that there is a strong spatial autocorrelation between provinces. Low (high) income provinces are mostly surrounded by low (high) income provinces. Results also indicate a tentative border between the high income west and poor income east provinces. This border moves even further west throughout the period under question. This fact may be interpreted as further concentration of richness at the western provinces.