2016 Volume 18 Pages 17-31
This study investigates the relationship between female labor participation and social customs in a rural area of Mediterranean Turkey, and examines how and to what extent existing social customs restricting female labor supply would constrain the effects on agricultural production and farm behavior of Turkey’s accession to the European Union (EU). Based on the results obtained in a field survey, a household model incorporating social customs is constructed that demonstrates the effects of divergence from standard female labor participation rates in crop production. Using this model, computable general equilibrium simulation analyses of Turkey’s accession to the EU are conducted. The results show that although social customs may restrain agricultural production by limiting female labor participation in crop production, their restraining effects are not as large as the effects of the changed production circumstances that would be caused by Turkey’s accession to the EU.
