ABSTRACT

Global climate commitments have direct implications for labour markets. This makes it necessary to consider the link between labour and the environment within a broader systemic setting. Labour indicators and carbon emissions reflect different aspects of the same processes. For this reason, environmental variables can no longer be set aside in labour market analysis. The study focuses on Turkey and groups labour market indicators into two categories: Production-side and socioeconomic conditions. It then examines how these indicators relate to per capita carbon emissions. The analysis draws on cointegration, causality and multi-criteria-decision-making approaches. The empirical work covers the period from 1990 to 2023. Several econometric tests are applied, including the ADF unit root test, the KPSS stationarity test, the Zivot-Andrews unit root test with structural breaks, the Gregory-Hansen cointegration test with structural breaks and the Toda-Yamamoto causality test. In addition, MEREC and ARIE are used within the multi-criteria-decision-making framework. The results are checked through the LOO procedure and sensitivity analyses. The findings show a stronger link between carbon emissions and indicators classified under the production side than those grouped under socioeconomic conditions. In the case of Turkey, carbon emissions per capita, gross domestic product per capita and labour productivity stand out as the most influential criteria. These results indicate that employment policies in Turkey cannot be designed separately from environmental sustainability goals.