Assoc. Prof. BORA ALTAY

Bora Altay, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the Department of Economics at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBU), Türkiye. He received his Ph.D. from the same university in 2018, where his academic career began in 2011, as a research assistant. His research lies at the intersection of economic history, institutional economics, and political economy, with particular emphasis on the long-term development and economic performance of societies.

Dr. Altay’s work primarily employs the analytical tools of new institutional economics, drawing on agency theory, game theory, and contract theory, to study how institutions evolve and function under information asymmetries and incentive constraints. His research focuses on the Ottoman Empire and examines how the institutional and contractual frameworks of state shaped economic behavior, efficiency, and fiscal capacity. By combining theoretical modeling with historical evidence, he investigates how principal–agent relations and strategic interactions influence governance outcomes in early modern fiscal systems.

He is the author of Rules, Contracts, and Law Enforcement in the Ottoman Empire: The Case of Tax-Farming Contracts (Palgrave Macmillan), which provides an in-depth analysis of the contractual logic and enforcement mechanisms of Ottoman tax-farming institutions. He also serves as the editor of the book Revenue-Raising Institutions, State Organization and Economic Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire: The Evolution of Fiscal Mechanisms, Legal Frameworks, and State Capacity (Palgrave Macmillan). In this volume, Dr. Altay contributes chapters on game theory, agency relations, and Ottoman tax-collection systems, offering new perspectives on the relationship between fiscal organization, institutional constraints, and economic change.

In addition, Dr. Altay is one of the editors of Islamic Financial Institutions from the Early Modern Period to the 20th Century: Comparative Perspectives on the History and Development of Cash Waqfs (Palgrave Macmillan), which explores the evolution of Islamic charitable finance across different regions and historical contexts. His peer-reviewed publications focus on the determinants of cash waqf capital formation, regional and gender-based patterns of charitable endowments, and comparative analyses of financial institutions across Ottoman provinces, integrating quantitative and historical approaches to the study of institutional development.

Dr. Altay currently leads two TÜBİTAK 1001 research projects. The first, “Continuity and Early Termination Probability in Ottoman Tax-Farming Contracts, 1500–1800: An Empirical Approach,” applies historical microdata and econometric models to explore the stability and longevity of fiscal contracts under varying institutional conditions. The second project, “Tracing the Wealth of Individuals through Inheritance Records in the Ottoman Empire: A Comparative Analysis According to Different Regions and Socioeconomic Groups, 1710–1919,” investigates regional and class-based patterns of wealth inequality using probate inventories.

Dr. Altay’s research focuses on understanding how institutions, incentives, and enforcement mechanisms interact to shape economic outcomes in pre-modern economies. He continues to work on issues related to state formation, fiscal capacity, and institutional foundations of economic performance.