Determining Türkiye’s Place Among OECD Countries in Terms of Tax Wedge Using K-Means Method and Sigma Convergence
Şu kitabın bölümü:
Albayrak,
M.
(ed.)
2025.
Kamu Maliyesi Alanında Kuramdan Politikaya Seçili Araştırmalar.
Özet
The tax wedge defines the difference between the total cost of an employee to an employer and the net wages the employee receives. It represents the burden of taxes and premiums on wages. The OECD publishes tax wedge statistics yearly for countries as a proportion of labor expenses. This approach enables a comparative assessment of taxes and other wage-related premiums at the national level. This study seeks to ascertain Türkiye’s position among OECD nations regarding the tax wedge. The K-means clustering method, classified as a non-hierarchical clustering method, was chosen for this purpose. The Elbow method was used to determine the number of clusters, indicating that the optimal number is three. The K-means clustering algorithm was then implemented according to this specified number. The analysis categorized OECD countries into two groups based on 2021 and 2024 tax wedge data. Türkiye’s tax wedge closely resembles that of EU countries. When compared with the OECD averages, Türkiye’s tax wedge decreased until 2013 and started to converge to the OECD average between 2009 and 2013 but diverged after 2014. The study also reveals evidence of sigma convergence in tax wedge.
