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

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.