TY - UNPB
T1 - The Natural Rate of Unemployment and the Unemployment Gender Gap
AU - Baussola, Maurizio Luigi
AU - Mussida, Chiara
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Recent labour market developments include an increase in labour market mismatches,
in that high unemployment rates coexist with significant levels of vacancies. This pattern
is particularly evident in the US economy, but is also significant within the European
Union; it implies that the natural rate of unemployment may rise significantly, thus
suggesting that even if policies aimed at reducing it are implemented, the unemployment
rate may remain steady if not increase. An important factor possibly influencing
such an increase is related to the gender differential in employment opportunities. This
is particularly relevant wherever such a differential represents a structural characteristic
of the labour market, as in the case of Italy. The present work focuses on this issue
and presents a methodology to decompose the natural rate of unemployment by gender,
thus defining it in terms of equilibrium labour market flows between the aggregate
states of the labour market (Employment, Unemployment, Non Labour Force). In addition,
we propose estimates of the determinants of the unemployment gender gap, in
order to pinpoint the relative roles of individual characteristics and structural factors in
determining this difference.
AB - Recent labour market developments include an increase in labour market mismatches,
in that high unemployment rates coexist with significant levels of vacancies. This pattern
is particularly evident in the US economy, but is also significant within the European
Union; it implies that the natural rate of unemployment may rise significantly, thus
suggesting that even if policies aimed at reducing it are implemented, the unemployment
rate may remain steady if not increase. An important factor possibly influencing
such an increase is related to the gender differential in employment opportunities. This
is particularly relevant wherever such a differential represents a structural characteristic
of the labour market, as in the case of Italy. The present work focuses on this issue
and presents a methodology to decompose the natural rate of unemployment by gender,
thus defining it in terms of equilibrium labour market flows between the aggregate
states of the labour market (Employment, Unemployment, Non Labour Force). In addition,
we propose estimates of the determinants of the unemployment gender gap, in
order to pinpoint the relative roles of individual characteristics and structural factors in
determining this difference.
KW - differentials, multinomial models
KW - transition probability matrix
KW - unemployment gender gap
KW - differentials, multinomial models
KW - transition probability matrix
KW - unemployment gender gap
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/32442
M3 - Working paper
BT - The Natural Rate of Unemployment and the Unemployment Gender Gap
ER -