Gender differences in Okun's law across the Italian regions

This article provides the estimation of a basic version of the Okun's law in the Italian regions, distinguishing between male and female unemployment rate. It shows that relevant differences exist across the regions, concerning not only the size of the Okun's coefficients, but also the different sensitivity of the male and female unemployment rate to GDP growth. While in the Northern regions of Italy, the change of female unemployment is more sensitive to the variation of GDP as compared to the male unemployment, the opposite occurs in the Southern regions (characterized by lower GDP and higher unemployment rates), where the Okun's coefficient is insignificant for women in several cases. Relevant gender asymmetry is also documented as far as spatial effects concern: In particular, in the Southern regions, inter-regional spatial effects are absent for females, differently from what emerges for males.