Dr Orkun Saka receives 2026 Hakan Orbay Research Award

Visiting Senior Fellow Dr Orkun Saka has received the 2026 Hakan Orbay Research Award in the "Young Researcher" category for his paper, "Polarised Media and Inflation Expectations," co-authored with Professor Selva Demiralp and Dr Michael Weber.

The award is given in memory of Hakan Orbay, the late faculty member of Sabancı University Business School.

Please join us in congratulating Dr Orkun Saka for this recognition.

Abstract

"We study how politically polarised television news shapes household inflation expectations in Turkey. We combine new household panel data with transcript-based measures of channel-level inflation coverage during prime-time news and a large-scale randomised information experiment. Inflation coverage differs sharply across politically aligned channels, and viewers sort into outlets consistent with their political affiliations. Within-person estimates show that greater coverage on a respondent’s initially preferred channel leads to higher inflation expectations, with effects concentrated among viewers of politically neutral channels. Experimental evidence indicates that belief updating depends on prior anchoring as well as on source credibility and reveals the political costs of rising inflation expectations."