Gender equality and labour market liberalisation: empirical evidence from the E.U.

Abstract Labour markets are responsible for large part of the levels of gender inequality present in the world and many countries enacted liberal reforms of their labour markets since the 1980s. The present empirical analysis aims at understanding their impact on gender inequalities in the labour market. Using data on gender gaps in the labour market from the European Institute for Gender Equality and economic freedom from the Fraser Institute, this paper shows that liberal aspects of labour market regulations may increase or decrease gender inequality, depending on several factors. In general, it seems that labour market reforms were not accompanied by interventions in other fields (such as the provision of childcare and eldercare facilities), thus resulting in ambiguous effects in terms of gender equality. However, long-run effects could be more positive for women than they appear in the short run, thus leading to narrowing the gender gaps.