This paper examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on CDS, stock returns, and economic activity in the US and the five European countries that have been most affected: the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The sample period covers the period from 11 March 2020 to 19 February 2021. In the empirical analysis, first, we estimate benchmark linear VAR models and then, given the evidence of parameter instability, TVP-VAR models with stochastic volatility, which are ideally suited to capturing the changing dynamics in both financial markets and the real economy. The linear VAR responses of CDS to the number of COVID-19 cases are positive and statistically significant, whilst those of electricity consumption are insignificant and those of stock returns vary across countries in terms of their sign and significance. The results from the TVP-VAR analysis indicate that the effects of shocks on the system variables was more pronounced during the initial stages of the pandemic and then decreased in the following months. Specifically, there was a positive impact of the number of COVID-19 cases on CDS and a negative one on stock returns and economic activity, the latter two being interlinked.

This study analyzes the dynamics of exchange market pressure in Turkey by employing the Markov regime switching model for the period from January 2006 to December 2019. Our findings show that there are two regimes in the foreign exchange market, characterized as low- and high-pressure periods. The domination of the high-pressure regime in the sample period indicates that depreciation pressure prevails in the Turkish foreign exchange market. During this regime, the pressure is aggravated by the rising inflation, credit growth, and VIX, and the falling of short-term external debt. Thus, in the presence of capital flows, the preferences of policy authorities regarding price stability and growth determine the course of the pressure. When these policy choices favor credit-driven growth, depreciation pressure in the foreign exchange market is exacerbated through the current account deficit.

Unlike in many advanced and emerging market economies, inflation was already a problem for the Turkish economy before the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 1990s, Türkiye experienced severe inflation, which reached three digits in some months. Although inflation was reduced to single digits in the 2000s through a successful disinflation program under an implicit inflation targeting framework with a flexible exchange rate regime, price stability became a problem again after the global financial crisis. Inflation gradually increased during the 2010s and became out of control after late 2021. This study aims to explore inflation dynamics in Türkiye using the Phillips curve framework for different inflation environments. To this end, the Phillips curve equation, augmented with the exchange rate and oil prices, is estimated using the Markov regime switching model between January 2006 and September 2023. Two regimes are identified in the sample, namely low- and high-inflation regimes. According to the estimation results, the Phillips curve is invalid in both regimes. The unemployment gap is statistically insignificant despite its negative impact on current inflation. The increasing coefficient of backward inflation in the high regime reflects the resurgent indexation behavior, which was dominant before inflation targeting was introduced in Türkiye. The positive impact of oil prices is only statistically significant in the low regime. While an increase in the exchange rate significantly raises inflation in both regimes, the effect is greater in the high-inflation regime. These empirical findings indicate that the primary issues for controlling inflation in Türkiye are inflation inertia and exchange rate stability.

Bu çalışmanın amacı, orta gelir tuzağının Türkiye’nin geneli ve düzey alt bölgeleri için var olup olmadığını incelemektedir. Çalışmada ülke geneli için orta gelir tuzağının varlığı Robertson ve Ye’nin (2013) yaklaşımından hareketle geleneksel ve yapısal kırılmaya izin veren birim kök testleri vasıtasıyla analiz edilirken, düzey alt bölgeleri için başta Yakalama Endeksi (Catch-Up Index, CUI) olmak üzere istatistiki sınıflandırmalar kullanılmıştır. 1960-2018 döneminin ele alındığı ekonometrik analiz sonuçlarına göre, Türkiye ekonomisinde orta gelir tuzağı mevcut değildir. Bununla birlikte 2004-2017 dönemindeki CUI değerleri, düzey alt bölgelerinin çok büyük bir kısmının düşük gelir grubunda yer aldıklarını ve orta gelir seviyesine yükselen bazı bölgelerin de son yıllarda konumlarını kaybettiklerini göstermektedir. Bu bağlamda, Türkiye’nin orta gelir tuzağında yer almamasını yüksek gelir grubuna doğru yakınsama ile açıklamanın güçleştiğini ifade etmek mümkündür.

This paper analyzes the asymmetric effects of consumer confidence on personal credit card expenditures in Turkey. To this end, the impact of the consumer confidence index on real credit card spending is investigated from January 2013 to June 2023 using the threshold generalized method of moments (GMM). The linear GMM model findings indicate that consumer confidence increases real credit card expenditures. Furthermore, when the threshold GMM model is estimated using the annual percentage change of the consumer confidence index as a threshold variable, the coefficients differ across low- and high-confidence regimes. More specifically, the consumer confidence index has a statistically significant positive impact on credit card expenditure in the low-confidence regime but not in the high-confidence regime. This indicates that the optimistic expectations of economic units in a low-confidence environment may stimulate credit card spending.