Economic Development and Institutional Change, 1914–1950
This chapter explains how the period 1913 to 1950 was exceptionally difficult for Turkey. The country had to deal with the difficulties of the transition from being part of a larger empire to becoming a nation-state within new borders. Available data suggest income per capita declined by as much as 40 percent during World War I and remained depressed until the end of the War of Independence in 1922. Per capita incomes then increased rapidly in the 1920s and caught up with their pre-World War I levels and may have even slightly exceeded them by 1929. They then fell sharply, by more than 30 percent during World War II. Given these very large fluctuations in per capita income, it makes a big difference which end years are used in calculating the average growth rates for this period.