ECON 399: Independent Study – Presentation 1

Title: Alternative Dispute Resolution: Situation in Turkey

Presenter: Mustafa Taşçı

Abstract: Alternative Dispute Resolution is a method to facilitate solving problems among people. It is an alternative to courts that brings some advantages to both side. ADR reduces burden of courts and it is less costly and time saver for people as well, thus it is commonly chosen by commercial cases. This method is common at many countries at Europe and at USA. In this study, it is searched whether there is any processes about ADR methods in Turkey. There is a law draft about the issue, 2 lawyers and 1 law academician are interviewed by taking this law draft into consideration. They are requested not to do any pre-research about ADR before interview, thus we can learn how is situation in Turkey. Moreover, they are chosen intentionally. It is known that lawyers are commercial focused lawyers and they have opposite ideas about the ADR applications so that more different viewpoints can be achieved. Also, the law academician is at law draft committee and has written a book related ADR. Over these interviews, law draft and research foundings regarding ADR applications, ADR perception and ADR process are discussed by viewpoint of resolution of commercial cases.

ECON 399: Independent Study – Presentation 2

Title:Welfare Effects of Price Regulation in Catering Market at the Sabanci
University Campus

Presenter: Ömer Faruk Koru

Abstract:Catering market at the Sabanci University Campus is oligopolistic and features some further physical restrictions, and hence, is inefficient. By modeling it as a one-dimensional horizontally differentiated market, we analyze effects of price regulations on welfare. In particular, we compare two pricing strategies; price-cap and reference pricing, which are commonly used in pharmaceutical markets which display many similar characteristics as the catering market at the Sabanci University Campus. In the first regulation, one of the firms is selected and it cannot charge price higher than a predetermined level. The second regulation calls for a predetermined level of compensation to any one of the consumers regardless which firm they choose to buy the service from, while if any the remaining part of the price would be paid by the consumer. In a one-shot perfect information game, we analyze the societal welfare, by considering firms' strategic pricing and resulting profits and consumer welfare figures.

ECON 399: Independent Study – Presentation 3

Title: Why is India so successful in terms of the economy?

Presenter: Senem Arsezen

Abstract:

ECON 399: Independent Study – Presentation 4

Title: Determinants of Turkish Students’ Performance in PISA

Presenter: Melike Ayşe Kocacık

Abstract: The student achievement in Turkey is very dire. Furthermore there are regional differences among the student performances. In this essay the reasons of the change in student achievement is going to be evaluated. The data is going to be provided by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which is an organization arranges the international test. For analyzing the reasons the education production function is going to be used which will include the family background, school resources and peer effect as inputs and student performances as the output. The most effective input in the differences among the regions results as the peer effects where family background and school resources affect the performances but in a smaller rate.

ECON 399: Independent Study – Presentation 5

Title:The differences of German- and French-speaking Switzerland in the 2009 PISA Study

Presenter: Olaf Kottmann

Abstract:This paper aims at explaining the gap between German- and French speaking students from Switzerland in the results of the 2009 PISA study. The approach chosen to explain this gap is the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. Numerous predictors are taken into account and combined into four groups: age and grade level, personal endowment, school endowment, and peer effects. The results show that all predictors except for the school endowment matter. Thus, it is concluded that the only predictor under the direct influence of the state does not contribute significantly to the gap.

ECON 399: Independent Study – Presentation 6

Title:Regional Consumption Differences in Turkey

Presenter: Deniz Sanin

Abstract: Consumption in Turkey differs from region to region. This study investigates to what extent changes in consumption differences in Turkey can be attributed to regional differences in household and household head characteristics. The variety in households’ types, sizes, years of education and the number of earners in the households create variety in the budget shares of education, health, food, restaurants, recreation and culture, alcoholic beverages, housing, furnishing, transport and communication. In this paper, the regional consumption differences of education and health is emphasized since they are the key elements of human capital and they are the most essential goods for economic growth. According to 2003 TUIK’s Household Budget Survey the dominating change in regional consumption differences is that the budget shares of education and health decrease when moving from Istanbul to Southeastern Anatolia. By investing the household and household head characteristics of the regions, the reasons of the consumption differences between the western and eastern part of Turkey will be shown using Engel curves and Oaxaca decomposition.