An Analysis of The Relationship Between Educational Expenditures, Economic Growth and Youth Unemployment in Turkey

Abstract

The high share of the young population in the total population can be considered both a window of opportunity and a threat in terms of countries. The effective participation of young people in the production processes is transforming the young population into flourishing; unpaticipation leads to an increase of the unemployment problem. The increase in youth unemployment is a major problem for all countries because of the social costs it incurs as well as threatening the future of economic growth. There are many studies in the literature analyzing education, unemployment and growth relations. These studies show that the existence and direction of the relationship between the variables in different countries and periods differ. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship between education expenditures, economic growth and youth unemployment between 1991-2016 in Turkey. The findings of the least squares method analysis show that while the increase in the share of education expenditures in GDP increases youth unemployment, the growth of GDP reduces unemployment.