The Wealth Tax of 1942 and the Disappearance of Non-Muslim Enterprises in Turkey

Ağır M. S., Artunc C.

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY, cilt.79, ss.201-243, 2019 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 79
  • Basım Tarihi: 2019
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1017/s0022050718000724
  • Dergi Adı: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.201-243
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Turkey imposed a controversial tax on wealth to finance the army in 1942. This tax was arbitrarily assessed and fell disproportionately on non-Muslim minorities. We study the heterogeneous impact of this tax on firms by assembling a new dataset of all enterprises in Istanbul between 1926 and 1950. We find that the tax led to the liquidation of non-Muslim-owned firms, which were older and more productive, reduced the formation of new businesses with non-Muslim owners, and replaced them with frailer Muslim-owned startups. The tax helped "nationalize" the Turkish economy, but had negative implications for productivity and growth.