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Is there hysteresis in South African unemployment? Evidence form the post-recessionary period

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  • Vuyo Pikoko

    (Department of Economics, Nelson Mandela University)

  • Andrew Phiri

    (Department of Economics, Nelson Mandela University)

Abstract

High unemployment in South Africa possess as the country’s most problematic economic issue faced by South African policymakers and hence is considered an overriding priority within the design of large scale government expenditure programmes. In this study, we investigate the hysteresis hypothesis for 8 categories of unemployment in South Africa using a battery of individual and panel unit root testing procedures applied to quarterly data collected in the post-recession period of 2008:q1 to 2017:q2. Indeed our empirical results confirm the hysteresis hypothesis for a majority of unemployment classifications with the exception of unemployment associated with persons aged 55 to 64 years old. Overall, our obtained empirical results hold far reaching ramifications towards domestic policymakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Vuyo Pikoko & Andrew Phiri, 2018. "Is there hysteresis in South African unemployment? Evidence form the post-recessionary period," Working Papers 1803, Department of Economics, Nelson Mandela University, revised Jan 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:mnd:wpaper:1803
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment; Hysteresis; Unit root tests; Stationarity; tests; South Africa; Sub Saharan Africa (SSA).;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General

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