UNEMPLOYMENT HYSTERESIS IN PIIGS COUNTRIES: A NEW TEST WITH BOTH SHARP AND SMOOTH BREAKS

In this empirical study, we apply the Panel stationary test with both sharp and smooth breaks to re-examine the hysteresis hypothesis of unemployment for five high-debt countries, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain (PIIGS) from 1960 to 2011. We find that our proposed model has greater power than a linear method if the true data-generating process of unemployment is a stationary, non-linear process of unknown form with structural changes. Hysteresis in unemployment is confirmed for all PIIGS countries when traditional unit root tests are employed; however, hysteresis in unemployment is confirmed only for Greece when our proposed Panel stationary test with both sharp and smooth breaks is utilized.