19/08/2026
📄 We are pleased to share the recent publication by our DA associate Güneş Aşık, published by the World Bank as Social Policy & Labor Discussion Paper No. 2704, "Artificial Intelligence and Labor Market Adjustment in Türkiye: Exposure and Complementarity," co-authored with Siddharth Hari, Efşan Nas Özen, and Dhushyanth Raju.
🔍 The paper provides a systematic diagnostic of how AI-related technological potential is distributed across Türkiye's labor market, applying occupation-level measures of AI exposure and task complementarity to nationally representative labor force survey data and employer-employee administrative records. The findings show that around 41% of employment in Türkiye is in occupations with relatively high exposure to AI, but the scope for productivity-enhancing complementarity varies substantially across occupations, sectors, and worker groups—with women, formal-sector workers, and those in metropolitan regions like İstanbul, Ankara, and İzmir more concentrated in high-exposure jobs. Despite this widespread exposure, the authors find that employment and labor demand patterns across exposure categories have remained largely stable in recent years, suggesting that technological potential alone does not automatically translate into labor market disruption.
📊 Importantly, the paper argues that the economic consequences of AI in Türkiye are likely to unfold gradually, shaped less by the breadth of technological capability than by the economy's capacity to translate that capability into productivity gains through firm adoption, workforce skills, and complementary institutional adjustments. Drawing on firm interviews, vacancy data, and international evidence, the authors identify key policy priorities—expanding AI adoption among SMEs, strengthening workforce skills and lifelong learning, supporting labor market adjustment and inclusion, and building Türkiye's broader AI ecosystem—as central to ensuring that AI's productivity benefits are broadly shared.
đź”— To read the full paper, please follow this link:
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099704407242668121/pdf/IDU-99871a38-9f7d-44fc-bc04-936ea45d60f5.pdf
🔗 To learn more about Dr Güneş Aşık’s work and experience, please follow this link:
https://www.developmentanalytics.org/team/g%C3%BCne%C5%9F-a%C5%9F%C4%B1k%2C-ph.d.-