Unemployment gender inequality: evidence from the 27 European Union countries

Abstract

Gender inequality is persistent in the labor market despite equality between genders being one of the fundamental principles of the EU law. This is a reason why we have decided to analyze gender inequality in unemployment rates of the 27 European Union countries. Unemployment gender inequality differs across EU countries. There are countries where gender gap is persistent, but there are also countries where gender gap changed during the observed period of 2005Q1–2017Q2. Moreover, in some countries gender inequality decreased, while in others it was steady. Unemployment rates differ across countries similarly as unemployment gender inequality does, therefore, by choosing these countries, we have obtained a portfolio of distinct behaviors throughout the time. We have also obtained the relations between them. We test the hypothesis of the hysteresis to check the relation between the unemployment gender inequality and the unemployment rate levels, gender disadvantaged through unemployment gender inequality and the unemployment rate levels. This hypothesis was tested for both univariate and panel data country series. We could not reject the hypothesis of the hysteresis in univariate country series using a battery of GLS unit root tests proposed by Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. (Econ Theory 25:1754–1792, 2009). However, ILT test of Im et al. (Oxf Bull Econ Stat 67:393–419, 2005) rejected the hypothesis of the hysteresis for panel data of the European Union countries. Finally, the relationship between unemployment gender inequality and disadvantaged gender in inequality depends on the country analyzed. This result suggests that further analysis is needed to identify what causes unemployment gender inequality and what should be done to decrease it.