Gender Inequality in Unemployment by Age in Spain, Switzerland and the European Union

The paper analyses how unemployment gender inequality of Spain, Switzerland and the European Union, differs by distinct age categories. It is known that Spain is a country with very high and turbulent unemployment rates, Switzerland, on the other hand, had low and steady unemployment rates, while the European Union would represent countries with average unemployment rates, because of which we compare them. We have applied LM univariate unit-root test without a break, with one or two breaks which allowed us to reject the hysteresis hypotheses of gender unemployment inequality in these three territories. Dependence of unemployment gender inequality on different age categories was analysed by Pesaran Cross-dependence test, from which follows that dependence doesn’t exist. Hysteresis hypotheses were also rejected for the country panel data by ILT test. Unemployment gender inequality series behaved as stationary process, when two breaks were included, and consequences from economic disturbances disappeared quickly. This implies that the policies leading toward gender equality are well established and economic disturbances have no impact on their accomplishments. Their straightforward behaviour was also proven with Wald test. Our conclusion is that the unemployment gender inequality decreases over time, but it is still present, and there is no evidence that it would disappear for completely.