The role of gender in the government expenditure and unemployment nexus: An investigation at regional level for Turkey

We aim to explore the role of gender in the government expenditure and unemployment nexus at regional level for Turkey. For this aim, we use the dataset covering the period 2004-2019 for 26 NUTS-2 regions in Turkey and employ a panel ARDL approach. The obtained empirical findings show that government expenditure and gross domestic product per capita provide overall, female, and male unemployment rates to diminish in the long term, which means the Keynesian approach is valid on the long term. Nevertheless, on the short term, government expenditure induces rises in the male and female unemployment rates. This result indicates the validation of the Abrams Curve Hypotesis in male and female unemployment rates on the short term. Also, inflation rate increases overall and male unemployment rate on the long term, but having significant and positive impact on only female unemployment rate on the short term. All these findings show that gender has a significant role in this nexus. The expected contribution of this study to literature is to investigate the impact of government expenditure on unemployment by gender at regional level for Turkey. We are of opinion that our empirical findings can guide policy makers in active plans fighting unemployment.