Do gender and age impact the time-varying Okun's law? Evidence from South Korea

This study investigates the time-varying Okun's law for different age and gender cohorts in South Korea over the 1980-2014 period. We found that the absolute value of the estimated Okun coefficients for all age cohorts and both genders become larger in a recession than in an expansion. We also found that the youth cohort (15-24 years old) for both genders is more sensitive to a negative economic impact than are older cohorts. These differences imply that when policymakers try to find a way of reducing the unemployment rate, they should consider differences in behaviour among these groups. Furthermore, the policies should be combined with age-specific policies.