STUDY OBJECTIVE - PhD in economy
At the beginning of the last decade when I was in high school, declining in Turk's economy was becoming visible and everyone talked about it, therefore I starting to be interested in economy. Over a last decade prognosticatively Turkey's economy is faced with various problems. During my college years, I noticed that current economical interventions and policies are not enough to recover, and it is needed for new viewpoints. So, I determined my further career goal because of these reasons.
I decided to pursue PhD in economy, and to specialize in Behavioral Economics. During my college education, my interest in behavioral economics led me to do double major in psychology. As a student in business administration department, I gain knowledge about both economy and finance, and as a student in psychology department, I learned about cognitive essentials of human behavior. Therefore, I believe that I have achieved the essential education required to study behavioral economics during my undergraduate process. In order to extend my theoretical knowledge with the practical experience, I did an internship for 6 months in Behavioral Public Policy Department in Ministry of Economy. During my internship, I have assisted in every phase of experiments designed to improve effectiveness of public policies. In these processes, designing experimental groups, integration of behavioral elements into trials, random control trials were carried out, and the results were analyzed.
During my PhD education, in addition to courses offered by the university I aim to develop and specialize in conducting research in behavioral economics lab and offering evidence-based practices to literature. I aim to be academician who works behavioral economics in a scientific manner and fills the lack of knowledge about this field as far as I can. In particularly, my purpose is to become an expert who can integrate behavioral elements into public economic policies and offer an evidence-based behavioral economics practices to governmental organizations. Even an economy model supported by behavioral implication attracts great attention from all over the world, but this model has not been considered by academia and governments in Turkey. Therefore, I have determined my career goals due to these reasons.
Personally, there are certain reasons for studying economics in US. Firs of all, best universities in which qualified economics education is given are in USA, regarding this last Nobel Prizes given for behavioral economics studies are created by scientists working in US universities. This achievement of these universities inspired me to study in US. In addition to having one of the largest economies, USA has a significant economic background and knowledge, I believe that I benefit from accumulation of this information. Additionally, USA-Turkey relationship and Turkey's economic condition are also critical for safety of middle eastern, I aim to benefit from studying in the United States to understand the dynamics of both countries, also help to build secure relationship between two countries.
In conclusion, as a both psychology and business administration student, I have a strong educational background and motivation to study economics and specialize in behavioral economics. Thank to my experience in Behavioral Public Policy Unit in Ministry of Economy, I gained insight about behavioral economics practices and behavioral public policies, I also acquired ability to conduct a research systematically and to integrate behavioral elements into experiments. My motivation to obtain PhD degree in this field is that becoming a scientist who raise awareness of behavioral economics implications and evidence-based policies. Also, I want to motivate new generation to have a more open world view and encourage them to benefit from programs such as Fulbright.
