Labor market effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by gender
No Thumbnail Available
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Unless otherwise stated, all rights belong to the author. You may download, display and print this publication for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Authors
Date
2023
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Economics
Language
en
Pages
56 + 8
Series
Abstract
This thesis studies how the COVID-19 pandemic and the following recession have affected the labor market outcomes of men and women in developed economies. The pandemic recession increased unemployment drastically all over the world through job terminations and furloughs. Empirical evidence shows that in many Western countries the employment effects have been larger for women due to both demand- and supply-side effects. First, women tend to work on service industries which were more affected by the pandemic. Second, school and daycare closures increased parents’ childcare responsibilities, which led to parents and especially mothers lowering their labor supply, leading to a larger decrease in the aggregate employment of women. However, cross-country analysis reveals that the pandemic-related labor market effects on men and women vary between countries. The division of men and women into different industries and occupations prior to the pandemic is an important explaining factor behind the gender gap in employment changes. In addition, it seems that overall employment effects and the employment gender gap have been larger in countries with a lower level of employee protection, such as in the US. Furthermore, empirical evidence shows that the use of furlough and short-time work programs has attenuated the probability of unemployment spells which is likely to strengthen gender equality especially in the long-term. On the other hand, the employment losses of women have been relatively larger in countries that adopted longer and stricter school and daycare closures during the pandemic. Lastly, the gender gap in employment effects seems to be very small or even non-existent in Finland and Sweden, which could partly stem from the long tradition of labor market gender equality in the Nordic countries. A descriptive analysis of the Finnish labor market suggests that women and female-dominated occupations faced slightly more furloughs during the first few months of the pandemic. Overall, there are no systematic differences in new furlough and unemployment spells between genders. Finally, the pandemic did not have any significant effect on new unemployment spells, which is likely due to the efficient furlough scheme used in Finland.Description
Thesis advisor
Huttunen, KristiinaKeywords
COVID-19 pandemic, gender, job loss, layoff, furlough, developed economies, Finland