Man-Cessions, Fiscal Policy, and the Gender Composition of Employment

30 Pages Posted: 6 Apr 2015

See all articles by Christian Bredemeier

Christian Bredemeier

University of Dortmund - Ruhr Graduate School in Economics

Falko Juessen

University of Dortmund - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Roland Winkler

Dortmund University, Faculty of Business, Economics, and Social Sciences,

Abstract

In recessions, predominantly men lose their jobs, which has given rise to the term "man-cessions". We analyze whether fiscal expansions bring men back into jobs. To do so, we estimate vector-autoregressive models and identify the effects of fiscal shocks and non-fiscal shocks on the gender composition of employment. We show that contractionary non-fiscal shocks lead to man-cessions, i.e. employment falls and more strongly so for men. By contrast, an expansionary fiscal shock predominantly raises the employment of women. Taken together, these results imply a trade-off dilemma for policy that seeks to stabilize the level of employment along with its composition.

Keywords: employment, gender, fiscal policy, business cycles

JEL Classification: E24, E32, J10, J21

Suggested Citation

Bredemeier, Christian and Juessen, Falko and Winkler, Roland, Man-Cessions, Fiscal Policy, and the Gender Composition of Employment. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8948, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2589810 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2589810

Christian Bredemeier (Contact Author)

University of Dortmund - Ruhr Graduate School in Economics ( email )

Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
Essen, NRW 45128
Germany

Falko Juessen

University of Dortmund - Department of Economics ( email )

D-44221 Dortmund
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Roland Winkler

Dortmund University, Faculty of Business, Economics, and Social Sciences, ( email )

United States

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