Investigations on Responding Behaviour : Case Study for the Business Tendency Survey of Turkey

[EN] This note discusses the responding behaviour of Business Tendency Survey (BTS) participants to the question of general economic situation. The general tendency of perception and attitude change due to economic situation is measured by this question via a three-level Likert scale of “more optimistic; unchanged; more pessimistic” on a monthly basis. The high percentages of middle alternative responses over time draw our attention to look into this topic in more detail from a cognitive point of view. In this study, by implementing an ad hoc interpolation method, how different the balance calculated would be under certain assumptions is studied. The method, for testing purposes, not for data editing, studies firms’ behaviour in choosing the middle category response. The possible different interpretations of this response category do not cause any substantial changes on our interpretation of the economic tendencies. While “unchanged” response keeps its information content, relative increase in this response can be a signal for uncertain periods in economy. [TR] Bu notta, Iktisadi Yonelim Anketi katilimci firmalarinin genel gidisat sorusunu cevaplama davranisi tartisilmaktadir. Genel gidisata iliskin algi ve beklentiler, aylik olarak “daha iyimser; ayni; daha kotumser” seceneklerinden olusan uclu Likert olcekli soru ile derlenmektedir. Seceneklerden “ayni” cevaplarinin zaman icerisinde hep yuksek oranda olmasi, bu konuya daha detayli calismak icin ilgi uyandirmistir. Literaturde notr cevap kategorisinin ne sekillerde yorumlanabilecegi tartisilmaktadir. Bu calismada, gerekli varsayimlarla deneysel bir interpolasyon metodu uygulandiktan sonra hesaplanan denge degerinin ne kadar farkli olduguna bakilmistir. Test amacli olup veri yenilemek icin olmayan bu metot, firmalarin “ayni” cevap kategorisini nasil degerlendirebildigi uzerine yogunlasmistir. Olasi farkli degerlendirmeler, beklentileri yorumlama seklimizde kritik degisiklikler yaratmamaktadir. “Ayni” secenegi kendi bilgi icerigini korumakla birlikte bu secenekteki goreceli artis ekonomide belirsiz zamanlarin habercisi olabilir.