Resumen de Unemployment disparities and persistence Assessing the evidence from Greek regions, 1981-2008

Sarantis Lolos, Evangelia Papapetrou

• This paper brings fresh empirical evidence on the factors responsible for the existence of regional unemployment disparities and unemployment persistence, the case of Greece (1981-2008) been taken as an example. The GMM methodology used in the study enables us to test for the existence of deterministic factors of regional unemployment and to account for spatial unemployment interactions. The empirical results of the dynamic model we used, point to the existence of significant spillover among regional labour markets that are responsible for the asymmetric and persisting behaviour of regional unemployment in Greece. Our results leave great scope for European regional policy to operate for the reduction of regional unemployment.