The Gender Unemployment Gap Across the Euro Area: The Role of Macroeconomic Shocks and Labour Market Institutions

Alexander Mihailov (a.mihailov@reading.ac.uk), Giovanni Razzu (g.razzu@reading.ac.uk) and Zhe Wang (z.wang6@reading.ac.uk)
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Giovanni Razzu: Department of Economics, University of Reading
Zhe Wang: Department of Economics, University of Reading

No em-dp2020-26, Economics Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Reading

Abstract: We examine the gender unemployment impact from four types of macroeconomic shocks under single monetary policy in the Euro Area. We also explore the role in shock absorption and transmission played by different labour market institutions. We apply panel data estimation to 11 Euro Area countries over the 2000-2013 period, disaggregated by age, marital status and education. We find that adverse macro-shocks, such as reductions in labour demand, similar to those experienced during the current COVID-19 pandemic, or a contractionary monetary policy, as in the build-up to the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, are associated with a larger increase in unemployment rates for women than for men, specifically for the young and less-educated. However, labour market institutions, in particular unionisation or labour tax wedge abatement, mitigate the widening of the gender unemployment gap.

Keywords: gender unemployment gap; demographic composition of unemployment; macroeconomic shocks; labour market institutions; monetary policy; Euro Area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 E32 E52 F45 J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2020-12-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-mac
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