ECON Alumni Share "Life After BilEcon" Experiences
Photograph by Kaan Ünlü (CS/IV)
The Department of Economics, at the initiative of its students, has started a new seminar series entitled "Life After BilEcon" as part of the Bilkent Economics CEO, or "BilEcon CEO" program.
The "Life After BilEcon" seminar series aims to bring together the larger Bilkent Econ family, with alumni meeting with current students to share their post-graduation experiences as well as give short seminars on topics related to their jobs. The seminar series kicked off Thursday, March 21, with a seminar given by Bilkent ECON '08 graduate Cevdet Çağdaş Ünal, entitled "Unorthodox Monetary Policies of the Turkish Central Bank."
In his presentation, Mr. Ünal provided an overview of the key macroeconomic indicators of the Turkish economy in the post-2008 crisis period, focusing specifically on the monetary policy tools used by the Central Bank. He argued that while these tools are labeled as unorthodox, they have finally started looking more like pseudo-orthodox policies. He showed evidence regarding the initial ineffectiveness of these policies in slowing down domestic growth, along with indications that their effectiveness has increased significantly since the latter half of 2012. He ended his presentation by discussing the risks pertaining to the Turkish economy.