Austerity and gender wage inequality in EU countries

Perugini, Cristiano and Žarković Rakić, Jelena and Vladisavljević, Marko (2016): Austerity and gender wage inequality in EU countries.

Abstract

The great recession, and the countercyclical responses by European governments that followed, triggered an extensive wave of fiscal adjustments. The implementation of these austerity measures, although underpinned by a widespread consensus, underwent severe criticism. While their effects on output and employment have been extensively investigated, their impacts on wage inequality have received relatively less attention. In this paper we focus on the consequences of austerity measures on gender wage inequalities. After having described the literature-based conceptual framework of our analysis, we provide empirical evidence on the effects of austerity measures on: (i) the adjusted gender wage gap; and (ii) the patterns of gender horizontal segregation. The analysis covers the group of EU-28 countries in the years from 2010 to 2013. Results show that austerity measures (both tax-based and expenditure-based) impacted significantly on various sides of gender wage inequality, putting at risk the relatively little progress achieved in Europe so far.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: austerity, gender wage inequality, gender segregation, EU-28
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E6 - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook > E62 - Fiscal Policy; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O52 - Europe

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