Regional Youth Unemployment in Turkey: Do Determinants Vary by Gender?

Economic theory addresses unemployment as one of the crucial macroeconomic problems. Given the contributions to the production process, labor market integration of youth population is one of the main focuses of the labor economics literature. In this direction, a great number of studies have analyzed the dynamics of youth unemployment in the Turkish economy. However, a limited number of studies have investigated the issue in the case of Turkey with respect to gender using micro-level data. Given this knowledge, this study attempts to examine the determinants of the youth unemployment in 26 regions categorized under NUTS-2 over the period 2014-2019, and investigate whether those determinants vary by gender. Estimation results indicate that per capita income negatively affects both the total youth unemployment and youth unemployment by gender. Relative cohort size and internal migration positively affects all of the three youth unemployment categories. An increase in inflation rate increases youth female unemployment whereas youth male unemployment decreases with inflation. In addition, while an increase in age at first marriage increases youth female unemployment, it decreases youth male unemployment. Overall, the findings reveal that the impact that regional youth unemployment dynamics has on youth female unemployment is greater than on youth male unemployment. This study emphasizes that gender-based differences should be taken into account while developing policies towards the integration of youth into the labor market.