Berkeren Buyukeren

PhD Candidate in Economics
Rome Economics Doctorate

Hi! I'm a PhD Candidate at the Rome Economics Doctorate, a PhD program jointly run by the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), LUISS and the University of Rome Tor Vergata. My research interests are in political economy, development economics and the economics of digitization.

Before moving to Rome, I received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics from Koç University, Turkey. I was a visiting scholar at MIT Sloan in Spring 2024 under the supervision of Alexey Makarin.

Twitter | CV

Research

Working Papers

The Impact of Dating Apps on Young Adults: Evidence From Tinder (with Alexey Makarin and Heyu Xiong) – Conditionally accepted at the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. SSRN
Online dating apps have become a central part of the dating market over the past decade, yet their broader effects remain unclear. We analyze the impact of Tinder, the pioneer and market leader in the dating app space, on a segment of the population that was among the earliest adopters of this technology: college students. For identification, we rely on the fact that Tinder's initial marketing strategy centered on Greek organizations (fraternities and sororities) within college campuses. Using a comprehensive survey containing more than 1.1 million responses, we estimate a difference-in-differences model comparing student outcomes before and after Tinder's full-scale launch and across students' membership in Greek organizations. We show that Tinder's introduction led to a sharp, persistent increase in the frequency of sexual activity, but with no corresponding impact on the likelihood of relationship formation. Inequality in dating outcomes increased among male students but not among female students. Further, we observe a rise in the incidences of sexual assaults and sexually transmitted diseases. However, despite these changes, Tinder's introduction did not worsen students' mental health and may have even led to improvements for female students. These results suggest that the transformation of dating due to dating apps has far-reaching and nuanced effects on young adults.

Work in Progress

Remaking the State from Below: Local Government Formation in Ukraine – draft available upon request.

This paper provides new evidence on the drivers of intermunicipal cooperation and its effects on economic activity and civic national identity. I focus on an administrative reform in Ukraine from 2015 to 2020, which allowed smaller local councils (LCs) to voluntarily amalgamate to retain a larger share of tax revenues and gain greater administrative autonomy. I show that pre-reform characteristics such as nightlight intensity and the proportion of native Ukrainian speakers significantly predicted the likelihood of amalgamation, with similar units more likely to merge. Employing a difference-in-differences model, I find that amalgamation increases per capita personal income tax revenues, enhances competition in public procurement -evidenced by more participants, more lots, a higher share of above-threshold contracts, and more bidders per tender- and boosts local economic activity, proxied by increased nightlight intensity. Finally, a nationally representative repeated cross-sectional survey further reveals stronger self-identification as Ukrainian in rural areas with a higher share of residents in the newly formed hromadas. These findings suggest that local government consolidation can contribute to economic development and influence civic national identity.

Gendered Political Polarization (with Ruben Durante)
Catastrophes, Social Ties and Voting Behavior: Evidence from Turkey (with Taylan Alpkaya)