Abstract:

The problem of unemployment—especially among youth—has been the subject of many scientific studies. Scientists have worked on the main causes of youth unemployment and possible solutions for a long time and are still working on it. However, youth unemployment is a complex, global problem that is affected by many factors. Various scientific disciplines have dealt with different perspectives on the main causes, consequences and possible solutions of youth unemployment. The problem is increasing worldwide, and various opinions and suggestions have been put forward. The main objective of this study is to analyze the determinants of youth unemployment in Turkey for the period 1988– 2019. The dependent variable of the study is youth unemployment, and the main variable that affects the dependent variable is higher education expenditures. Other control variables used in the study are real gross domestic product per capita, gross capital formation and labor productivity, respectively. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag Bounds Testing (ARDL Test) approach, which tests whether there is a short and long-run relationship between the series, was used in the study. The findings obtained from the analysis results indicate that youth unemployment is negatively associated with higher education expenditures and gross capital formation. It is positively associated with real gross domestic product per capita and labor productivity. When the long-term coefficients are compared, the independent variable that has the highest impact on youth unemployment is gross domestic product per capita, followed by gross capital formation, higher education expenditures and labor productivity, respectively.

Keywords: