Sentürk, Suat Hayri; Karakurt, Birol; Keyifli Sentürk, Nazli

This study examines the relationship between social expenditures and fiscal balance in 27 European Union member states over the period 2000–2022. Using a panel data framework, the analysis focuses on four disaggregated categories of social expenditure: health, education, pensions, and social protection. The study employs the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test to identify the direction of causality and applies Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimations to address potential endogeneity issues. The results reveal a unidirectional causal relationship running from fiscal balance to social expenditure categories. In addition, the findings indicate that fiscal balance exerts a significant constraining effect on all dimensions of social spending: improvements in fiscal balance (i.e. reduced deficits) are associated with decreases in social expenditures. Demographic factors also play an important role. Population ageing increases spending on pensions, health, and social protection, while a larger young population is associated with higher education expenditures. Institutional quality-measured by the rule of law-and national income positively influence social spending, whereas domestic savings and inflation have negative effects. Unemployment reduces spending on health and education but increases expenditures on social protection. Overall, the results highlight a fundamental policy dilemma: fiscal consolidation pressures may conflict with the need for social protection, particularly in the context of ageing European populations. By providing the first comprehensive analysis of how fiscal balance simultaneously affects multiple dimensions of social expenditure in EU countries, this study offers important insights for policymakers seeking to reconcile fiscal sustainability with inclusive social policy frameworks. The findings suggest that fiscal rules should be designed to safeguard essential social investments while maintaining budgetary discipline.

Sentürk, Nazlı Keyifli; Sentürk, Suat Hayri; Karakurt, Birol

The relationship between environmental protection expenditures and income inequality is undoubtedly a critical issue in terms of social justice and sustainable development. In societies with high income inequality, environmental protection expenditures are generally lower. This is because low-income individuals tend to have less motivation to develop awareness of environmental issues or to support environmental protection policies. On the other hand, in societies where income is more equitably distributed, environmental protection expenditures tend to increase. A key factor behind this is that a larger segment of society views environmental.

Karakurt, Birol; Sentürk, Suat Hayri; Sahingöz, Burak

Internal and external threats to Turkey lead her to have its military expenditures at a high level. The relationship between military expenditures and macroeconomic variables has been of great interest to a number of studies. However, there is no common view about the relationship between military expenditures and the inflation. In this study, the relationship between military expenditures and the inflation in Turkey is aimed to be analysed for the period 1966-2016. The length of the study period requires considering structural breaks. Therefore, according to the results of our study that benefits from a Maki cointegration test with structural breaks and Toda-Yamamoto causality test, a unidirectional positive causality between military expenditures and the inflation has been found both in the short-and the long-run.

Sentürk, Suat Hayri; Eser, Levent Yahya; Polat, Sedat

Sanitation tax (ST) being implemented in Turkey is insufficient to establish taxbenefit relationship as tariff structure. The purpose of this study is to reveal the inadequacy of the current ST system applied in houses and to establish a link between sanitation tax and solid waste within the scope of benefit principle. For this purpose household solid waste was evaluated in the context of benefit principle afterthat, some country examples and ST applied in Turkey were analyzed. In this study, it is determined that the ST is not based on the benefit principle and various suggestions are made in this context.

Sentürk, Suat Hayri

Having the largest share of public revenues tax has a vital importance in terms of state. Today, main purpose of the tax administration constitutes to obtain high tax revenues with low administrative costs, in many countries. In the same way, voluntary tax complince for the tax authorities is an important issue. Increasing degree of voluntary tax compliance will increase tax revenues. Voluntary tax compliance is an acceptable accurate reporting of tax liability by the taxpayers. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between voluntary tax compliance and benefit principle of taxation. Benefit principle of taxation states that taxes should be based on benefits received from public goods. Benefit principle of taxation will increase voluntary tax compliance.