Testing Gender and Race Non-linear Unemployment Invariance Hypothesis in South Africa: Evidence from Threshold Regression

This study employed South African data from 2008Q1 to 2021Q1 and a combination of OLS, FMOLS and threshold regression to test the validity of the existence or absence of a nonlinear Unemployment Invariance Hypothesis across race and gender, with the goal of determining whether the relationship between the unemployment rate and labour force participation rate is dependent on the unemployment regimes. The threshold regression results revealed that the relationship between unemployment and labour force participation varies by regimes. In other words, the impact of unemployment on labour force participation varies by gender and race and depends on the state of unemployment.

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