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

2019/03/01 by Seven Ağır, Cihan Artunç · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Corporate Finance and Governance #Economic Growth and Development #Turkish #Fell #Productivity #Turkish economy #Business #Economics #Economic growth #Geography

paper · doi:10.1017/s0022050718000724

openalex publication_date 2019/03/01 · openalex created_date 2019/03/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11

Abstract

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.

Citations

• Race, Assimilation and Kemalism: Turkish Nationalism and the Minorities in the 1930s
• Peasant Protest in the Late Ottoman Empire: Moral Economy, Revolt, and theTanzimatReforms

Cited by

• Istanbul [wikipedia]

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