Journal articles on the topic 'Unemployment – Effect of unemployment insurance on – European Union countries'

The level of union density in Norway is medium high, in contrast to the other Nordic countries where high density levels are supported by unemployment insurance funds. Developments in union density over time are stable in Norway, contrary to developments in most western European countries outside the Nordic region. This article traces the effects of unemployment insurance funds by comparing density levels in Norway with those in Finland and Sweden. In addition, the stability witnessed in union density in Norway over time is a particularly puzzling phenomenon, and the authors seek to explain it on the basis of specific institutional and labour market factors.

Social protection systems are a key factor for ensuring the long-term sustainability and stability of economies in the European Union, their reform being nowadays present in the political agenda of member states. Aging and the dependence on mandatory levies applied to the employed population on the labor market represent a threat for the sustainability of public social protection systems. In terms of sustainability, our purpose was to highlight the factors influencing social insurance budgets, considering the fiscal policies implemented in six countries of Central and Eastern Europe and their particular labor market characteristics. Therefore, a panel study based on a regression model using the Ordinary Least Squares method (OLS) with cross section random effects was used to determine the correlations between funding sources and labor market specific indicators. The data analyzed led to relevant results that emphasize the dependence of social insurance budgets on positive factors such as the average level of salaries, the share of compulsory social contributions, the unemployment rate, and the human development index, suggesting the continuing need for professional and personal development of the workforce.

ABSTRACTBefore 1936, private insurance against unemployment was mostly run by trade unions. Commercial companies, meanwhile, did not penetrate into this insurance branch, which is probably due to the advantages that trade unions had when dealing with adverse selection and moral hazard problems. Nevertheless, union-based unemployment insurance reached a lower level of development than other private social insurance schemes, like sickness insurance, perhaps because of the financial difficulties that economic crisis involved for unemployment funds. Also, unemployment insurance spread specially among urban and high-wage workers, although coverage rates in Spain were below those of other European countries with higher income levels. However, even in the latter private coverage against unemployment did not reach 10% of the working population. As in other European countries, Spanish unemployment union-funds implemented strict economic incentives to deal with moral hazard, but precisely this hindered the spreading of private unemployment insurance.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine Okun’s Law in European countries by distinguishing between the transitory and the permanent effects of output changes upon unemployment and by examining the effect of labor market protection policies upon Okun’s coefficients. Design/methodology/approach – Quarterly data for 13 European Union countries, from the second quarter of 1993 until the first quarter of 2014, are used. Panel data techniques and Mundlak decomposition models are estimated. Findings – Okun’s Law is robust to alternative specifications. The effect of output changes to unemployment rates is weaker for countries with increased labor market protection expenditures and it is more persistent for countries with low labor market protection. Originality/value – The paper provides evidence that the permanent effect of output changes upon unemployment rates is quantitatively larger than the transitory impact. In addition, it provides evidence that increased labor market protection mitigates the adverse effects of a decrease in output growth rate upon unemployment.

In the study, the decisions of the European Court of Justice regarding the unemployment insurance of migrant workers were examined. In decisions; It has been stated that migrating to benefit from unemployment insurance cannot be interpreted against the worker. It has been stated that immigrating from the country of citizenship to another country and residing there will not prevent him from receiving unemployment benefits. A migrant worker must be insured for a certain period of time to benefit from unemployment insurance. Each country regulates this period of employment with its own domestic laws. The length of service in different member states of the European Union, excluding the domestic law rules in the countries of employment, by the Court of Justice, It has been determined that it has been interpreted that it can be combined to benefit from unemployment insurance.

SUMMARYIn 1900, a special type of unemployment insurance was set up in Belgium: the so-called “Ghent system”, which had some influence on the development of unemployment insurance in many European countries. This particular system was characterized by the important role played by the trade-union unemployment societies. The public authorities (in Belgium, from 1920 onwards, the central government next to the towns and provinces) encouraged the affiliation of the labourers to these societies by granting different sorts of financial support to the unemployed society members and to the societies themselves. During the crisis of the 1930s, this led to an important growth of Belgian trade-union membership. On the other hand, the quantitative growth of the labour movement due to this particular organization of unemployment insurance, led to many negative sideeffects for the trade unions (administrative chaos, financial problems, loss of combativity). Moreover, the employers' organizations strongly opposed this system of unemployment insurance, because they thought it reinforced the labour movement's power in society (strengthening of union membership, influence on wage formation, obstruction of deflation policy). This article examines the heated debates waged in the labour movement itself and between this actor, the employers' organizations and the government, to solve the many important problems posed by this type of social insurance. The Belgian pre-Second World War debate concerning unemployment insurance was of great importance for the shaping of the Welfare State in Belgium, which took its present-day form in 1944.

Many studies have found that countries with union-administered unemployment insurance have higher rates of unionization than countries with state-administered unemployment insurance. With data going further back in history, this article demonstrates that the introduction of so-called “Ghent systems” had no effect on unionization rates. We argue that the Ghent effect identified by the existing literature came about as a result of increasing state subsidization and benefit generosity in the 1950s and 1960s. Exploring the partisan politics of unemployment insurance, we show that progressive Liberals (“Social Liberals”) favored Ghent designs while Social Democrats favored state-administered unemployment insurance before the Second World War. We also present some evidence suggesting that Left governments, inheriting Ghent systems that were not of their choosing, promoted state subsidization in the postwar era and thus helped generate the Ghent effect identified by the existing literature.

AbstractIn the early twentieth century, like many of their European counterparts, labour unions in the Netherlands established mutual unemployment insurance funds for their members. Various funds made agreements with labour unions in a number of European countries to recognize each other's insurance schemes, enabling union members to work in the Netherlands without losing their entitlement to benefits accumulated in their home countries, and vice versa. Whereas up until the 1930s some of the alliances between Dutch and foreign funds had flourished, in the 1930s the number of non-Dutch workers in the Netherlands making use of such agreements decreased drastically. This article analyses those transnational alliances and explores various causes for their demise, concluding that in the 1930s formal regulation of foreign labour by the Dutch government substantially reduced the number of potential foreign members of insurance funds while government interference in unemployment insurance abroad, and especially in Germany, made the transnational agreements effectively void.

Innovation and unemployment are two economic elements related to each other that have been constantly analyzed in the economic debates from the beginning of the 21st century. A classical question is whether innovation creates or destroys jobs. The conventional approach contemplates innovation as a transformation instrument of an economy, resulting in economic growth and jobs creation. Another approach points out to various mechanisms which can compensate the primary effect of innovations and cause an ultimate effect of innovations on labour demand to be unclear. In view of the fact that there are many different explanations about the impact of innovations on labour demand, this paper, after the analysis of theoretical and empirical scientific literature in this field, provides an empirical analysis with unemployment as the dependent variable. The authors use data from 28 European Union countries for the period of 1992–2016 and pursue to research how technological innovations affect unemployment rate. There are two core independent variables – expenditure on R&D (research and development) and number of patent applications – as the main proxies for technological innovations. Control variables that affect unemployment are included to the model as well. The model was estimated using a dynamic two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) of a panel data system. After the composition of 12 different estimations of the model, the results suggest that, in some cases, technological innovations affect unemployment.

This article empirically examines the relationship between alternative measures of financial development and the unemployment rate in a selected group of ten EU countries. Using annual data for the sample period of 1991–2012, we first perform different panel regressions (using averaged and non-averaged versions of data) for unemployment rate. These panel regressions are based on a regression equation that includes inflation rate and growth rate of GDP, in addition to the level of financial development, as explanatory variables. Secondly, we apply Granger causality tests to investigate the nature of the causality between financial development and the unemployment rate for each country in our sample. The empirical findings suggest that unemployment rate and financial development are negatively correlated, and there is a statistically significant causal effect of financial development on unemployment in certain countries. However, the results are not robust to the choice of proxy measure for financial development.

The past decade was a period that was characterized by massive migration flows in European Union countries, a situation like none other before. Different migration flows contributed to inflow of working force from conflict areas of the Middle East, countries from the Western Balkans, and also migration within the European Union. While immigration is dominant, emigration also has large impact in the migration flow in the EU. The purpose of this paper is to determine the main factors that contribute to emigration in the 28 EU countries. The panel regression model with random effects is used where seven factors were examined in order to determine their influence on the emigration. Macroeconomic determinants include GDP per capita and unemployment rate, demographic factors include total population, young male population and young female population and other factors include level of corruption and enrollment in tertiary education. Analysis includes 28 EU countries, while the analyzed period is 1999-2017 (19 periods), and the total number is 560 observations. The results confirm that emigration is driven by unemployment rate, total population, young male and young female population. When the unemployment rate increases, the emigration also increases, which is logical. If the national labor market cannot provide vacancies for the increasing supply of work force, the next option would be emigration in another country due to eligible working positions. Population, as demographic factor, also influences emigration. The bigger the population, the larger emigration is expected. Also, young female and male population have statistically significant effect on the emigration, yet the direction of the relationship is different. Increase in young male population can contribute to increase in emigration. On the other side, increase in young female population reduces the number of emigrants. From the results it would seem that demographic factors dominate over macroeconomic and other factors. Policy makers in the countries with accentuated emigration component should be concerned that young male population is leaving, and this labor force is or soon will become deficitary. Also, unemployment is another issue that should be addressed. National governments should create policies that contribute to increased economic growth that produces vacancies. Otherwise, the high unemployment rate would soon drain the country out of its working source. Other factors such as level of corruption, GDP per capita and enrollment in tertiary education seem not to have statistically significant impact on emigration in the countries of the European Union.

The study analyses the unemployment situation of socially vulnerable groups in the Baltic States in the context of the European Union. The analysis of the unemployment rate is based on gender, age and duration of unemployment. Statistical analysis identified the most vulnerable groups in the labour market and those most sensitive to economics fluctuations. The study also evaluated the relationship of economic growth with employment of these groups. The research highlighted that in the Baltic countries, the global financial crisis more significantly affected vulnerable groups, mainly because of the impact of the crisis in 2009–2010. Hence these results differ from the general trend in unemployment rate of the target groups in the countries of the European Union. Unemployment rate at the EU level did not coincide with similar trends observed in the target groups in the Baltic States. In the Baltic States, the unemployment rate of the target groups started to grow earlier and faster than in the EU countries and it started to decrease much earlier than the EU unemployment rate indicators. In addition, in the Baltic countries, the growth of target group unemployment was significantly higher than the EU average. The fast and volatile growth of unemployment within the mentioned target groups shows that they had difficulties adapting to dramatically worsening conditions in the labour market in the Baltic States. The current pandemic situation in comparison to the global financial crisis of 2009–2010 has a less negative effect. The study revealed that unemployment rates in the Baltic States were close to the EU average. The research results also showed that men and the youth are sensitive to economic fluctuations in the Baltic States. On the one hand, unemployed men and the youth tend to more easily enter the labour market during economic upturns. On the other hand, in an economic downturn, these jobseekers face significant integration difficulties into the labour market and become more socially vulnerable. It is important to note that long-term unemployed people belong to the most vulnerable groups. People with low skills or qualifications face multiple barriers to labour market integration. Long-term unemployment leads to a loss of income, an erosion of skills, a higher incidence of health problems and increased household poverty.

The effect of generous welfare benefits on unemployment is highly contested. The dominant perspective contends that benefits provide disincentive to work, whereas others portray benefits as job-search subsidies that facilitate better job matches. Despite many studies of welfare benefits and unemployment, the literature has neglected how this relationship might vary across institutional contexts. This article investigates how unemployment benefits and minimum income benefits affect unemployment across levels of the institutional insider/outsider divide. I analyze the moderating role of the disparity in employment protection for holders of permanent and temporary contracts and of the configuration of wage bargaining. The analysis combines data from 20 European countries and the United States using the European Union Labour Force Survey and the Current Population Survey 1992–2009. I use a pseudo-panel approach, including fixed effects for sociodemographic groups within countries and interactions between benefits and institutions. The results indicate that unemployment benefits and minimum income benefits successfully subsidize job search and reduce unemployment in labor markets with a moderate institutional insider/outsider divide. However, when there is greater disparity in employment protection and when bargaining either combines low unionization with high centralization or high unionization with low centralization, generous benefits create a disincentive to work, plausibly because attractive job opportunities are scarce.

This article investigates the responsiveness of women’s labor supply to their husband’s job loss—the so-called added worker effect. The authors contribute to the literature by taking an explicit internationally comparative perspective in analyzing the variation of the added worker effect across welfare regimes. Using longitudinal data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey covering 28 European countries from 2004 to 2013, they find evidence of an added worker effect, which, however, varies over both the business cycle and the different welfare regimes in Europe. The latter result might be explained, in part, by differences in the design of the unemployment benefit system across countries, which create different incentives for the labor supply of wives of unemployed men.

Union density still varies considerably across Europe. This cross-national diversity has inspired multiple explanations ranging from institutional to workplace or socio-demographic factors. In this comparative multilevel analysis, we combine personal, workplace and macro-institutional explanations of union membership using the European Social Survey. By controlling for individual factors, we test the cross-national effect of meso- and macro-level variables, in particular workplace representation, establishment size, Ghent unemployment insurance and a society’s social capital. We conclude that all these institutional and social contextual factors matter in explaining differences in union membership.

Using individual-level data from the 2010 wave of the European Working Conditions Survey (ewcs), and country-level data on unemployment, employment protection legislation and union density for 21 European countries, this paper provides a comprehensive multi-level analysis of the determinants of indefinite employment contracts. The authors find that workers’ autonomy on the job, the intensity of computer use, and the presence of general and specific skills are associated with greater contract security. Perhaps more importantly, the authors find a strong negative effect of unemployment, particularly on workers cumulating multiple sources of labor market vulnerability, such as young age, low skill, low autonomy, and immigrant status, especially but not exclusively in the Mediterranean countries most affected by the crisis.

Abstract This paper investigates the long-run effect of a wide set of labor market institutions (LMIs) and macroeconomic variables on aggregate unemployment for a panel of 22 European countries over the period 1990–2019. First-difference feasible generalized least squares model, Prais-Winsten regression with panel-corrected standard errors, two-step generalized method of moments estimation of the fixed effects, and fixed-effects regression with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors are estimated. The results suggest that employment protection legislation, wage bargaining coordination and centralization, minimum wage, and immigration inflows are significantly and negatively associated with the aggregate unemployment rate. Conversely, union density, product market regulation (PMR), and tax wedge have a positive and significant correlation with unemployment rate. The impact of corporate tax rate and government size is mostly positive. Moreover, the interaction between LMIs does matter and may sometimes change the interpretation of some reforms taken in isolation. Stronger wage-setting institutions may offset the negative impact of PMR and the tax wedge. Macroeconomic variables are generally consistent with the major literature and do not change LMIs interpretation. Among macroeconomic factors, capital accumulation plays the most important role in reducing the unemployment rate. Finally, my findings suggest the implementation of economic policies consistent with Keynesian theory and all those economists—such as Solow (1990)—who look at the labor market as a social institution.

Abstract We investigate whether the European Union can be considered as a convergence machine after the 2008/2009 financial crisis. To do so, we econometrically test the relationship between the per capita GDP growth rate and macroeconomic variables in the period of 2004–2018, further subdivided into three periods: 2004–2008, 2009–2013 and 2014–2018. We hypothesize that the 2008/2009 financial crisis had a negative effect on the σ and β-convergence process. Our results support the convergence hypothesis, namely that the poor countries tend to grow faster than the rich countries. The convergence rates ranged between 1.71% and 4.51%. The negative effects of the crisis on convergence have been identified only for the absolute convergence. Our findings demonstrate that economic openness, inflation and government integrity have a positive impact on growth. The effects of unemployment have not been identified.

Abstract. Introduction. The correlation between inflation and unemployment is a very relevant topic for both Ukraine and other countries. The connection between them is so strong that they are like a natural disaster with severe socio-economic consequences directly for the population of the countries on whose territory these processes are taking place. The level of food supply in modern conditions is one of the priority areas of state policy in the vast majority of countries in the world. The categorical apparatus of the sphere of food supply was formed in the 70s of the 20th century, when the problem of hunger acquired special importance for most countries of the world. The main priorities in this field at that time were quantitative satisfaction with food products and their financial availability for each person. And although almost half a century has passed since that time, this question has not only not lost its relevance today, but has also become one of the most important and priority ones. Purpose. The aim of this study is to thoroughly analyze the current trends of inflation in the countries of the European Union and the impact of these factors on the level of unemployment and the sustainable development of agro-food production as a component of food security in the region. Results. The results of empirical and regression analysis have shown that there is a direct causal relationship between inflation and unemployment, with inflation being the cause and unemployment being the effect. This made it possible to assert that the maintenance of macroeconomic stability in the EU countries should, first of all, consist in ensuring stable prices and a stable exchange rate. Maintaining the stability of the country's economic condition will prevent violations of the system of sustainable development of enterprises and contribute to the strengthening of food security trends. Conclusions. Inflation and unemployment threaten the economy of any country. However, as a rule, the most vulnerable strata of the population suffer, which affects food security. The relationship between inflation and unemployment exists and is legally regulated by the state administration. As practice shows, modern analytical software tools are used in various states, which are based on macro-, regional, and micro-level statistical data for modeling socio-economic situations, which helps to make the most realistic forecasts of the economic situation. In the future, it will be expedient for the EU government to set the following key tasks: first, use the entire arsenal of measures aimed at further suppressing inflationary factors; secondly, optimization of the nature and structure of public expenditures, while not abandoning the state's duties to protect socially vulnerable segments of the population, which is necessary for successful state regulation of food security processes; to establish the mechanisms and algorithm for achieving national food security, which will include scientific support, the formation of a regulatory and legal framework, increasing production volumes and increasing food security.

IntroductionSince 1897, Émile Durkheim noted that suicides occur more often during the economic changes that disrupt the social structure of society.Objective and aimsThe objective of this study is to analyze the consequences of last global economic crisis on mortality by suicide in the EU countries in period 2007–2012.Material and methodWe extracted data on mortality from the WHO database and unemployment trends from the EUROSTAT database. We had used this data to calculate the effect of unemployment on suicide rate, in pre-2004 and post-2004 EU countries.ResultsIf the number of suicides from 2007 was maintained in 2008–2012 period, EU 27 countries would have registered with 16,572 fewer suicides. The increase of suicides is based on the increasing number of suicides in men. The small increase in the suicide rate was recorded in Austria, France, Hungary and Slovenia. Luxembourg was the only country where the number of suicides was lower compared to 2007. In 2008, we can notice a slight decrease in the unemployment rate compared to 2007 and an increase in suicide by 3% in both groups of countries, followed by increasing suicide only in the post-2004 EU, where reach 10% in 2010, followed by a slight decrease in the coming years, while the unemployment rate gradually increases to 46% compared with 2007.ConclusionsIn European Union countries, suicides have increased both before and during the crisis, in periods in which unemployment rose. States that joined the EU after 2004 are more vulnerable in times of crisis.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

During the last few decades, economists have tried to find a solution to eradicate poverty, especially since the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals were launched. The target of Goal 1 is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. While income inequality and unemployment have played a major part in contributing to poor wellbeing in the world, other factors such as political instability, a lack of good investment opportunities, and living conditions have contributed to it as well. Thus, in this work, the authors analyze the factors that impact poverty and compare these results between countries within the European Union and post-communist countries that include the Western Balkan (WB) countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. The method used consists of both descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis using the fixed effect model where poverty is taken as the dependent variable. The data used in this study are gathered from the World Bank and Legatum Prosperity, during the period between 2009 and 2018. The results show that income inequality does indeed impact the further progress of poverty for both the EU and WB, while economic development in terms of GDP is shown to have a more significant impact on EU than in WB, where the most significant impact was through income per capita. Other factors such as education, investment environment, and especially unemployment also significantly impacted on decreasing the poverty rate in both economic zones.

This paper presents an empirical assessment of bilateral migration flows into the EU-15 countries. Using an extended gravity model, it identifies economic, welfare state, geospatial and linguistic variables as the principal determinants of migration flows into the EU-15 countries. As long as its effect is not offset by a high unemployment rate in the host country, the level of social protection expenditure influences migrants' choice of destination. However, albeit acting as a joint force with other economic, cultural and geospatial variables, the welfare state characteristics of the host country need to be reckoned with when studying European migration flows. Our empirical findings lend some support for a more unified or at least better coordinated social policy across the European Union.

The 2008 financial crisis triggered the first contraction of the world economy in the post-war era. This article investigates the effect of the Great Recession on child poverty across the EU-27 plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland and studies the extent to which social protection spending may have softened the negative impact of the economic crisis on children. While the risks of child poverty are substantially higher in countries with higher rates of working-age unemployment, suggesting a significant impact of the Great Recession on household incomes via the labour market, the study finds evidence for social protection spending cushioning the blow of the crisis at least to some extent. Children were significantly less likely to be poor in countries with higher levels of social protection spending in 2008–2013, even after controlling for the socio-demographic structure of the population, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and the working-age unemployment rate. The poverty-dampening contextual effect of social spending was greater for the poverty risks of children in very low work intensity families and large families. The study uses two complementary thresholds of income poverty, both based on 60 percent of the national median: a relative poverty line and a threshold anchored in 2008. Although the choice of a poverty line makes a difference to aggregate child poverty rates, individual-level risks of a child being poor associated with a range of household-level characteristics are similar for the two poverty lines.

Countries’ institutional configurations and structural characteristics play an important role in shaping transitions from school to work. Recent empirical evidence shows significant regional and territorial differences in youth unemployment and labor market participation. Along this research strand, we argue in favor of a place-sensitive approach to youth labor market integration in order to address the regional disparities of young people’s opportunities. In order to investigate the synergic effect of different contextual configurations, we construct a composite measure, namely, the youth labor market integration (YLMI) index. This considers a wide range of indicators of the access, exclusion, and duration of the transition into employment at the regional level. The YLMI index allows cross-regional and longitudinal comparisons of the European Union (EU) local labor markets and youth employment opportunities.

Abstract In this article the relationship between shadow economy and its’ determinants has been examined. Ten Eastern countries from European Union were chosen due to specific particularities, which may cause higher shadow economy levels in the investigated countries compared with the EU average. Time span of 2003-2016 was selected, as 2017 data has yet to be released at the time of the analysis. Article consists of examination of the current situation and shadow economy trends in Eastern European countries; overview of shadow economy scientific literature followed by hypothesis, which are examined by constructing regression models. Models aim to distinguish the relationship between selected determinants and shadow economy size. Scientific literature analysis revealed that increase of tax burden on labor is seen as a primary reason for the increase of shadow economy, however, such relation has not been identified. Furthermore, results show that unemployment and self-employed people ratio affect shadow economy insignificantly. This suggests that further analysis is needed. Nonetheless, regression model has not rejected the hypotheses of corruption level, income inequality, business freedom and GDP per capita effect on shadow economy. Thus, it can be stated that these variables are determinants of shadow economy in Eastern European countries.

The level of tax revenue represents one of the most important issues for every country, especially in extraordinary circumstances. The aim of this paper is to identify which macroeconomic determinants are important to total tax revenue in order to determine which variables are the key generators of tax revenue collection. The subject of this research represents the estimating effects of selected macroeconomic determinants on total tax revenue in European Union countries from 2006 to 2018. Empirical analysis includes three panel regression models where total tax revenue, direct tax revenue and indirect tax revenue are determined as dependent variables. Results of fixed effects model show that 1% increase of GDP enhances total tax revenue for 6.91%. Government expenditure, total investment and population have positive effect on total tax revenue where 1% increase of these determinants raise total tax revenue for 2.38%, 0.001% and 0.57% in these countries. Contrary, inflation, unemployment and gross national savings negatively affect the total tax revenue where their growth by 1% cause lower level of total tax revenue for 3.72%, 0.001% and 1.48%. Likewise, gross domestic product and total investment lead to greater change of direct tax revenue and indirect tax revenue. Empirical findings show that governments.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain relations between socioeconomic factors and gender longevity gap and to test a number of contradicting theories. Design/methodology/approach Fixed effects models are used for cross-country panel data analysis. Findings The authors show that in developed countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and European Union) a lower gender longevity gap is associated with a higher real GDP per capita, a higher level of urbanization, lower income inequality, lower per capita alcohol consumption and a better ecological environment. An increase in women’s aggregate unemployment rate and a decline in men’s unemployment are associated with a higher gap in life expectancies. There is also some evidence that the effect of the share of women in parliaments has a U-shape; it has a better descriptive efficiency if taken with a four-year lag, which approximately corresponds to the length of political cycles. Research limitations/implications Findings are valid only for developed countries. Practical implications The findings are important for policy discussions, such as designs of pension schemes, gender-based taxation, ecological, urban, health and labor policy. Social implications The factors that increase male and female longevities also reduce the gender longevity gap. Originality/value The results contradict to a number of studies for developing countries, which show that lower economic development and greater women discrimination result in a lower gender longevity gap. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2019-0082

This study aims to reconsider the role of foreign direct investment determinants for European national development and to analyze the impacts of the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19. Foreign direct investment is a source of development; therefore, this study includes empirical applications, specifically the random effect model, for EU countries, during the pandemic period. This study provides some valuable conclusions regarding the changes caused by the main determinants of foreign direct investment, such as unemployment, interest rates, economic growth, inflation, and business confidence. Additionally, the proxies of COVID-19 are the number of cases and number of deaths, both appearing to positively contribute to FDI outflow, the former with a higher impact than the latter. Based on the availability of the data, this paper deals with 22 European Union countries for Q1, Q2, and Q3 of 2020. Data for all the chosen variables were not available for the fourth quarter (Q4); thus, this period was not considered, which constitutes a limitation of this study, but confirms the need for robust FDI inflows to support the sustainable post-pandemic development recovery of less-developed EU countries. As the need for external funding sources, i.e., FDI inflow, grows in times of crisis, governments should take suitable measures to uplift the confidence of socially responsible foreign investors during difficult times generated by black swan events. There is almost no detailed research regarding the impact of COVID-19 on FDI flows received by European Union countries.

This work aims to integrate defragmented migration perspectives in order to better understand and explain reasons of contemporaneous migration. Accordingly, international migration flows are explained with various socio-economic determinants which address different sources of migration, reinforced by the best-known theories and conceptual frameworks. A panel data analysis is performed at the level of rich and poor countries of the European Union to measure migration flows from the year 2000 until 2013. The results provide evidence indicating that there are some structural similarities and discrepancies between European rich and poor countries. These similarities (or discrepancies) make them responding similarly to certain economic conditions and changes. Thus, the association of earnings, inequalities (measured by the Gini Index) and poverty line could be positive or negative depending on wealth level of countries. Moreover, unemployment is a supply-push factor, but its importance is much higher in rich countries, diminishing in poorer countries. Economic freedom has a very strong positive effect on migration for all countries, but its relevance turned out to be the highest in the group of the poorest countries. Also, the association between Foreign Direct Investment and migration is negative, but it is more significant in the case of poorer countries.

Abstract We present new evidence on whether political parties still matter in economic policy-making. We investigate four policy instruments (changes in product market regulation (PMR), subsidies, business taxation, social spending) in 21 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries between 1980 and 2015. We systematically consider how cabinet duration and the challenges of globalization, the European Union and economic problems (debt, unemployment, economic growth) condition partisan differences. Partisan differences only really make themselves felt after about one term in office. Moreover, with the exception of PMR, partisan differences tend to become more pronounced as globalization increases while European integration does not condition partisan effects. The conditioning effect of domestic economic problems on partisan differences depends on a policy instrument’s salience. In highly salient issue areas (social expenditure, corporate taxation), we only find partisan differences when problems are low; in contrast, economic problems emphasize partisan differences in non-salient issue areas (PMR, subsidies).

In this article, the author presents the legal nature and economic effects of Free Trade Agreements (FTA or RTS according to WTO terminology) on economies of members and third countries. The second aim was an evaluation of the economic effect of TAFTA (TTIP) on the United States and the European Union in the case of Brexit as well as some potential impact on third countries and alternative FTAs as counterweights to TTIP. To identify the mathematical and statistical relationships, I constructed correlation and regression models between dependent and independent variables. The dependent variables are GDP, independent variables of GDP per capita, unemployment, exports and imports, price index and investment, as well as the country’s participation in the free trade zone. To evaluate the independent variable (specifically the participation in the free trade zone), a “dummy variable” I used with values “0” during ten years prior the entrance intro free trade zone and “1” during ten years after the entrance of a particular country into the free trade zone. The general conclusions following from my study is that RTS allows many countries to negotiate and achieve much more preferential trade conditions than is possible at the multilateral level.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of empirical research on welfare magnetism and to assess the size and scope of the welfare magnet effect on the non-EU migrants in selected immigration countries of the European Union. Design/methodology/approach A conditional logistic regression model with interactions is used to estimate the strength of the welfare magnet effect, while controlling for demographic characteristics of the migrants and country-specific economic indicators. Data, used for estimation, comes from the Immigrant Citizen Survey, which provides a large, representative sample of first-generation (i.e. non-EU born) migrants. Various measures of welfare generosity are tested to assure the robustness of the results. Findings The coefficients suggest that the welfare magnet effect is present and significant in some immigrant groups, although it can have a negative impact on location decisions in other cases. Similar results are obtained for wage and unemployment indicators. Research limitations/implications Results corroborate the welfare magnet hypothesis, which states that more generous welfare states should expect greater clustering of negatively-selected (i.e. lower educated) migrants. One potential limitation comes from the sample size, which does not allow for more general conclusions. Practical implications Heterogeneous effects of basic economic indicators in different demographic groups show that aggregate immigrant flows, used widely in the literature, can provide biased estimates of welfare magnet effect. Originality/value This paper adds to the available literature by using representative, recently collected data and employing a more complete list of controls in a quantitative analysis of migration decisions.

The accelerated development of information and communication technology (ICT) over the past two decades has encouraged an increasing number of researchers to examine and measure the impact of this technology on economic growth. Our study aims to identify and evaluate the effect of using ICT infrastructure on economic growth in European Union (EU) countries for a period of 18 years (2000–2017). Using panel-data estimation techniques, we investigate empirically how various indicators of ICT infrastructure affect economic growth, proxied in our study by GDP per capita. Within the estimates, we have included some macroeconomic control variables. Our results indicate a positive and strongly effect of using ICT infrastructure on economic growth in the EU member states, but the magnitude of the effect differs depending on the type of technology examined. Regarding the impact of macroeconomic factors, our estimates indicate that inflation rate, unemployment rate, the degree of trade openness, government expenditures, and foreign direct investments would significantly affect GDP per capita at EU level. The findings are broadly similar to the theoretical predictions, but also to the findings of some relevant empirical studies. Our research reveals that ICT infrastructure, along with other macroeconomic factors, is an important driver of economic growth in EU countries.

When the global financial erupted, European Union (EU) had suffered from unprecedented economic downturn. Unemployment soared and consumption declined, causing negative effects on Europes per capita income growth. EU then started to realize the need for the utilization of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), to alleviate the low growth trend of European economy. As the first initiative of EU Global Strategy, which was intended to significantly expand EUs export markets to offshore countries through FTAs, South Korea was selected as one of the first targets. After eight rounds of FTA negotiations started from 2006, FTA between EU and South Korea came into effect in 2011. Using UN Comtrades export and import data from 2000 to 2017, this paper discusses about changes in trade patterns of EU and South Korea before and after the EU-South Korea FTA, and empirically analyzes the impact of EU-South Korea FTA. The results of our regression models show that the FTA indeed has positive effects on growth of both trade volume and trade share in the world, between South Korea and the EU, with significance. The fact that there were increases not only in commodity trade, but also in service goods trade and foreign direct investment suggests that the virtuous cycle of EU-South Korea FTA can expand to related areas. Furthermore, as South Korea is East Asias FTA-centered country which signed FTAs with both US and China, the two largest economies in the world, the indirect benefits from the EU-South Korea FTA will become greater for the EU. This advantage is expected to help creating a virtuous cycle that induces economic growth of EU through increases in trade, productivity, and job creation.

The influence of the migration of the Ukraine’s population to the countries of the European Union on their labor potential during the Russian Federation’s military aggression against Ukraine has been studied. It has been established that since the beginning of spring 2022, Ukrainian war refugees represent a highly educated workforce for a number of European countries. The paper has assessed the labor potential of Ukrainian war refugees, which consists mainly of the economically active population, highly educated people, scientists, employees, young people with higher education, with prevailing share of women with children. Currently, the EU countries consider the prospect of a transition to a climate-neutral economy, which will influence such sectors as construction, energy, manufacturing and transport that, in turn, will require additional labor force with new skills. It is the significant intellectual component of the labor potential of Ukrainian war refugees that contributes to the rapid transition of the EU countries to a green and digital economy, which requires economic restructuring and transformation of labor markets. It has been proven that the massive migration flow of Ukrainian war refugees to the EU countries during the war will have a positive effect on thei labor potential and economic development. This is indicated by factors such as unemployment decrease and per capita GDP growth in the EU countries. It has been proved that there is a need for labor in the host countries. The study of political issues will enable migrants to live profitably in areas with a large number of representatives of the same ethnic group. The positive influence of the labor potential of the migration movement of the Ukraine’s population on the labor market of European countries has been proved. This will result in the improvement of the economy and increase in the relatively high employment rates among the mono-ethnic population. Therefore, it is important to monitor the situation closely to avoid any potential problems at the local labor level or in specific occupations.

The article analyses the most recent experience of anti-recessionary policies in several EU member nations, such as UK, Nordic countries (especially Sweden), Ireland, Baltic countries and Greece. As for Great Britain, its government implemented traditional package of anti-crisis measures aimed at support of national financial system and stimulation of economic growth. By 2010 the nation reached relative economic stability and then proceeded into a slow recovery. Still, the crisis highlighted serious risks of ongoing financialization and de-industrialization in the UK. So, the government began to develop a long-term program of modernization and structural reshaping of national economy. Nordic countries also actively used Keynesian-type anti-crisis measures. The most interesting is Swedish case. The nation passed the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009 smoother than other EU members due to deep institutional reforms undertaken after the acute crisis of 1991-1993. Then Sweden experienced a deep fall of GDP combined with a crisis of local banks, surge of interest rates and unemployment level, weakening of national currency. This pushed Riksbank to introduce strict measures for limiting the inflation rate, Riksdag – caps for state budget expenditure. State sector of national economy was substantially decreased. These measures proved to have long-term positive implications. In contrast, Ireland that enjoyed an impressive economic growth before 2008 was badly prepared to external shocks. The Irish government’s reactions to financial and economic turmoil were rather spontaneous. The main task was to stabilize the local financial system that suffered from excessive dependency on foreign markets. Only by 2014 Ireland showed signs of economic recovery. Similarly, Baltic countries found themselves to be ill prepared for functioning under economic crisis conditions. Neither national governments nor EU Commission succeeded to propose efficient anti-crisis actions. As a result, population of Baltic nations most heavily suffered from the crisis. In Greece crisis made inevitable substantial revision of national social and economic model, as well as the political parties’ system. Under strong pressures from the EU Greece at last started to implement long-needed reforms in such spheres as budget planning, labor legislation, social insurance, healthcare and education. Acknowledgments. The article has been supported by a grant of the Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation. Project № 14-07-00047a “European Union as a Testing Site of New Anti-Crisis Technologies under Conditions of Globalization”.

The article analyzes the main consequences of Brexit for socio-economic and political development of the UK and the EU. The issuesof British identity, security, migration crisis, as well as the financial and economic crisis have turned to be the key factors that have, in some ways, led to the Brexit referendum and its results. Brexit means a crisis of a single European identity, European integrity and unity. The United Kingdom joined the EEC and then the EU on special terms, which it consistently defended in the future, staying away from most of integration processes. Brexit has political and socio-economic consequences for the development of both the UK and the EU. Adropin GDP and in the pound sterlingrate, rising unemployment, the outflow of migrants, real estate crashmay be the possible consequences of Brexit. A further fragmentation within Britain itself can also be the consequence of Brexit. In London today, there are many contradictions in relations with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the unity of the autonomous regions of Great Britain may be threatened by the strengthening of nationalist movement there.Today, Brexit is considered to be an irrational event that occurred due to a combination of factors and circumstances. Britain is the only country wherethe ruling party raised the question of EU membership. In other EU countries, similar proposals do not come from the majority parties, but from the semi-marginal far-right ones. Brexit has revealed a deep rift in British society on regional, age, social, educational and in general on a class basis. Negotiations on the terms of Brexit were tough and the possibility of Brexit without an agreement was not ruled out.With the exit of the UK, the EU loses its second union economy and the EU budget revenues willbe significantly reduced. The rupture of economic ties with the UK will have a mirror effect on EU countries and their businesses.

Statement of the problem. Employment of the population and reduction of unemployment rate are priority objectives for economic recovery in the country suffering from the hybrid war for many years, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic for two years, and involved into the full-scale war since February 24, 2022 that results in joblessness for thousands of people, destruction of the businesses, equipment and facilities, as well as the natural resources of Ukraine. These and other factors are undermining the normalfunc- tioning of the labor market that currently features high unemployment rate, essential territorial differentiation in the area of employment in connection with the temporary occupation of the territories and warfare, imbalances between the vacancies and the qualifications in demand, negative demographic processes (increase in the rate of mortality, disability, migration within and outside the country). Today, governmental regulation of the labor market is a necessity because coordination between the interests of the workforce and the employers has to be supported and monitored by the government to enable fast recovery from the crisis and integration of Ukraine into the world economic space, increase of the economic competitiveness and acceptance of Ukraine as the member of the European Union. Analysis of the latest researches and publications. The war in Ukraine that has caused social and economic crisis has also adversely affected the national labor market and employment industry. The vacancies have been curtailed as a result of emigration of people and relocation of businesses, employment has become problematic or impossible, accordingly, there is increase in unemployment rate stemming from the pandemic and economic crisis emerging before the war. That is why a lot of scientists have started researching this problem, namely, N. Balashova, O. Bokov, M. Butko, V. Vasylchenko, R. Voitovych [4], S. Honcharova, K. Dubych [4], M. Kravchenko, O. Krainyk, E. Libanova, Y. Marshavin, L. Novak-Kaliaieva, V. Onikienko, N. Savchenko, K. Suprun [5], N. Titchenko. Addressing the previously untouched points of the general problem. The subject of the research constitutes study of the particulars of formation of offer and demand in the labor market of Ukraine amid improvement of its governmental regulation, with due regard to the European Integration ambitions of Ukraine. Presentation of the basic research material. Employment of the population is one of the most important criteria influencing the state of economy and efficiency of public administration in any country. The purpose of the governmental policy in this area is to ensure the fullest involvement of the population in the socioeconomic development processes. Public administration of employment includes ensuring balance between the labor offer and demand for the people with different occupational qualifications, increase of the income and improvement of the quality of life of the people, facilitation of staff support in order to generate and fulfill the creative and business ideas. Public administration of employment plays an important rolein the socioeconomic development policy, offersso- lution to the multidimensional problems, and not only furthers achievement of quantitative target values, but also encourages qualitative economic changes, human capital development, especially in the context of the European integration. Based on the completed analysis, the key measures aimed at improvement of the governmental regulation of the labor market amid the crisis are creation of equal opportunities for the unemployed in the Employment Center of the region, provision of access to the training programs and job offers, introduction of the mechanisms of cooperation and interaction among the State Employment Service and private employment agencies; elimination of imbalance between the workforce offer and demand revealed while analyzing the number of vacancies and unemployed in the labor market of Ukraine, which is especially necessary in times of war, by achieving the balance between the workforce offer and demand in the market through generation of the system of monitoring and forecasting, and estimation of the numbers of the state order in the educational institutions; career guidance organization and promotion, training and re-training of staff; harmonization of the legislative regulation of labor relations of the market participants; in view of the experience gained from the developed countries, prioritization of the social protection of the unemployed population (financial aid, unemployment benefits, unemployment insurance, etc.), which shall definitely decrease emigration of the staff and reduce the criminal rate; generation of the competitive environment, both in the labor market and in the businesses, with due regard to the economic and regional aspects; increase of motivation among the unemployed, etc. Conclusions. The research addresses the evident lack of balance between the offer and demand in the labor market occurring as a result of the pandemic, as well as substantial worsening of this situation since February 24, 2022. In 2018–2019, the difference between the vacancies and the unemployed was not essential, in 2020, the number of unemployed exceeded the number of vacancies 1.5 times, in 2021, 1.7 times, and in 2022, 2.7 times. In addition to the social crisis when the war destroys the life of people and families, ruins or paralyzes the state and private economy sector, the governmental regulation of the labor market is required both at the state and the regional levels. Today, the worst situation is in the occupied territories or the area affected by fighting, and despite partial relocation of businesses, many companies are staying in the danger area any putting the life of their employees at stake every day due to impossibility to move their business to another area, desire to keep the jobs or for other reasons, for stabilization of economic processes and the future without war.

The article summarizes scientific approaches to the economic security of the region in the context of its positioning. The key risks of economic security of the Ukrainian regions have been identified as well as the most important criteria for regions positioning: the gross regional product (GRP) structure, the volume and rates of industrial development, the volume and dynamics of investments; natural resource production and scientific and technical potential; resource efficiency; competitiveness of the region's economy; unemployment rate; the quality of life, the degree of income differentiation, the provision of the population with material benefits and services; energy dependence; integration into the national economy etc. It is noted that the main problem of economic security is to ensure effective management of regional policy, as well as the evaluation of the regions positioning in the context of economic security can be carried out in the main directions: the level of poverty and unemployment in the region; the quality of life of the population; demographic component of the socio-economic security of the region; the ability of the region's economy to sustainably grow; stability of the region's financial system; support of the scientific potential of the region; dependence of the region's economy on imports of the most important types of products; relations of the region with the countries of the European Union. The modern positioning of some security sectors and the consequences of such positioning have been characterized. A system of main indicators has been formed that allows to quantify the level of economic security of the region in the context of its positioning. The methodical approach to evaluating the economic security of a region in the context of its positioning is highlighted. It is noted that despite the goals that are taken into account when positioning the region, the whole process can be structured into the following blocks: organizational and analytical support; methodical and informational support; conceptual software. The article presents the functional components of the mechanism for ensuring the economic security of regions in the context of their positioning. It has been proved that the effective functioning of the mechanism for ensuring the economic security of regions in the context of their positioning requires the effective functioning of all subjects synchronously, which made it possible to formulate a synergistic effect in a formalized form.

A combination of the economic significance of international tourism, the increased mobility of individuals, and their greater willingness and desire to manage their own movements has significant implications for insurers which currently remain under-appreciated. International visitors to Australia are more likely to die or suffer injury as the result of a motor vehicle accident than in any other way. While attention has been focused on the complex jurisdictional issues that may arise, other equally important problems such as the potential for action in double recovery have gone largely unnoticed. The need is particularly acute because, as many studies attest, the prospect of death and injury in motor vehicle accidents involving foreign licensees is only likely to increase. Injured third parties returning to home jurisdictions with national health systems will rightly draw on the resources of the state, public welfare, and sometimes private insurance to meet their health care needs. To complicate matters further, European countries typically view the state as a guarantor of individual and collective social rights, and, to varying extents, constitutionally guarantee health care and other relevant benefits such as unemployment payments. In effect, an injured third party receiving a payout for the cost of those injuries from an Australian insurer returns home as a citizen or resident of a state in which she or he draws on publicly funded health care and benefits. In Italy, for example, the needs of the injured third party are met by a devolved health care system which places the greatest burden of responsibility for the delivery and funding of services on regionally governed public enterprises, and to a lesser extent on other entities. Some of those providers have mounted actions in recovery for money spent and goods supplied for the treatment of the same injuries that are the subject of the insurance. The aim of this article is to address the theoretical basis and practical implications of actions taken against the insured injured party in the context of foreign constitutional and personal injuries law (or constitutionalised personal injuries law).

Purpose: This research has analyzed the structural differences observed comparing medium size Spanish and German firms in the food industry, specifically biscuit production. A second objective has been to analyze if the different macroeconomic conditions in Spain and Germany have affected the performance of firms.Design/methodology/approach: Using financial information from AMADEUS data base, a sample of firms (135 observations) in the food industry from Spain and Germany have been analyzed, considering the changes observed in the periods 2007-2009, 2010-2012 and 2013-2015. Productivity, real investment, cost per employee, profitability and interests paid by the firms are among the variables considered. The different hypotheses proposed have been tested using non-parametric tes, mainly, Mann-Whitney test and Rho Spearman coefficient.Findings: Medium size German firms are bigger, using number of employees, than Spanish firms and show a higher profitability (using ROE) whatever the period consider. The evidence suggests that after a certain threshold size the correlation between size and productivity is negative. An interesting result is the negative correlation between interest rate and labour productivity; financial conditions can have a clear effect on firm’s performance. At this sector level there is no evidence of the process of internal devaluation, probably because the growth observed either by increase in real investment or sales have been accompanied by the need to hire skilled labour.Research limitations/implications: The main limitation is that this research has only focused on particular economic activity, biscuit producers, to include others firms in the food industry must be considered in future research.Practical implications: Size is a strategic decision that managers must face, to understand how labour productivity and financial performance is affected by size will help to take the optimum decision. The performance of the firm is also partially affected by the interest rate that the firm faces, the negative correlation found between interest rate and labour productivity is important in informing right decisions about increasing firm’s debt level.Social Implications: Europe is rethinking industrial policy in the aftermath of the financial crisis (2008-2009) and in a global context with an increasing number of industrial activities locating in low labour costs destinations. Understanding the structural differences that industries across the European countries show is a key factor in deciding an efficient industrial policy.Originality/value: The last decade has accentuated the macroeconomic differences, in terms of long term interest rates or levels of unemployment between the core of Europe, Germany, and the periphery, including countries like Spain. This research is one the first ones in analyzing how these differences are affecting financial performance and structural differences in a particular industry, that is one of the most important exporters of the European Union.

Social innovations are activities aiming at implementation of social objectives, including mainly the improvement of life of individuals and social groups, together with public policy and management objectives. The essay indicates and discusses the most important contemporary problems, solving of which requires social innovations. Social innovations precondition the progress of civilisation. The world needs not only new technologies, but also new solutions of social and institutional nature that would be conducive to achieving social goals. Social innovations are experimental social actions of organisational and institutional nature that aim at improving the quality of life of individuals, communities, nations, companies, circles, or social groups. Their experimental nature stems from the fact of introducing unique and one-time solutions on a large scale, the end results of which are often difficult to be fully predicted. For example, it was difficult to believe that opening new labour markets for foreigners in the countries of the European Union, which can be treated as a social innovation aiming at development of the international labour market, will result in the rapid development of the low-cost airlines, the offer of which will be available to a larger group of recipients. In other words, social innovations differ from economic innovations, as they are not about implementation of new types of production or gaining new markets, but about satisfying new needs, which are not provided by the market. Therefore, the most important distinction consists in that social innovations are concerned with improving the well-being of individuals and communities by additional employment, or increased consumption, as well as participation in solving the problems of individuals and social groups [CSTP, 2011]. In general, social innovations are activities aiming at implementation of social objectives, including mainly the improvement of life of individuals and social groups together with the objectives of public policy and management [Kowalczyk, Sobiecki, 2017]. Their implementation requires global, national, and individual actions. This requires joint operations, both at the scale of the entire globe, as well as in particular interest groups. Why are social innovations a key point for the progress of civilisation? This is the effect of the clear domination of economic aspects and discrimination of social aspects of this progress. Until the 19th century, the economy was a part of a social structure. As described by K. Polanyi, it was submerged in social relations [Polanyi, 2010, p. 56]. In traditional societies, the economic system was in fact derived from the organisation of the society itself. The economy, consisting of small and dispersed craft businesses, was a part of the social, family, and neighbourhood structure. In the 20th century the situation reversed – the economy started to be the force shaping social structures, positions of individual groups, areas of wealth and poverty. The economy and the market mechanism have become independent from the world of politics and society. Today, the corporations control our lives. They decide what we eat, what we watch, what we wear, where we work and what we do [Bakan, 2006, p. 13]. The corporations started this spectacular “march to rule the world” in the late 19th century. After about a hundred years, at the end of the 20th century, the state under the pressure of corporations and globalisation, started a gradual, but systematic withdrawal from the economy, market and many other functions traditionally belonging to it. As a result, at the end of the last century, a corporation has become a dominant institution in the world. A characteristic feature of this condition is that it gives a complete priority to the interests of corporations. They make decisions of often adverse consequences for the entire social groups, regions, or local communities. They lead to social tensions, political breakdowns, and most often to repeated market turbulences. Thus, a substantial minority (corporations) obtain inconceivable benefits at the expense of the vast majority, that is broad professional and social groups. The lack of relative balance between the economy and society is a barrier to the progress of civilisation. A growing global concern is the problem of migration. The present crisis, left unresolved, in the long term will return multiplied. Today, there are about 500 million people living in Europe, 1.5 billion in Africa and the Middle East, but in 2100, the population of Europe will be about 400 million and of the Middle East and Africa approximately 4.5 billion. Solving this problem, mainly through social and political innovations, can take place only by a joint operation of highly developed and developing countries. Is it an easy task? It’s very difficult. Unfortunately, today, the world is going in the opposite direction. Instead of pursuing the community, empathic thinking, it aims towards nationalism and chauvinism. An example might be a part of the inaugural address of President Donald Trump, who said that the right of all nations is to put their own interests first. Of course, the United States of America will think about their own interests. As we go in the opposite direction, those who deal with global issues say – nothing will change, unless there is some great crisis, a major disaster that would cause that the great of this world will come to senses. J.E. Stiglitz [2004], contrary to the current thinking and practice, believes that a different and better world is possible. Globalisation contains the potential of countless benefits from which people both in developing and highly developed countries can benefit. But the practice so far proves that still it is not grown up enough to use its potential in a fair manner. What is needed are new solutions, most of all social and political innovations (political, because they involve a violation of the previous arrangement of interests). Failure to search for breakthrough innovations of social and political nature that would meet the modern challenges, can lead the world to a disaster. Social innovation, and not economic, because the contemporary civilisation problems have their roots in this dimension. A global problem, solution of which requires innovations of social and political nature, is the disruption of the balance between work and capital. In 2010, 400 richest people had assets such as the half of the poorer population of the world. In 2016, such part was in the possession of only 8 people. This shows the dramatic collapse of the balance between work and capital. The world cannot develop creating the technological progress while increasing unjustified inequalities, which inevitably lead to an outbreak of civil disturbances. This outbreak can have various organisation forms. In the days of the Internet and social media, it is easier to communicate with people. Therefore, paradoxically, some modern technologies create the conditions facilitating social protests. There is one more important and dangerous effect of implementing technological innovations without simultaneous creation and implementation of social innovations limiting the sky-rocketing increase of economic (followed by social) diversification. Sooner or later, technological progress will become so widespread that, due to the relatively low prices, it will make it possible for the weapons of mass destruction, especially biological and chemical weapons, to reach small terrorist groups. Then, a total, individualized war of global reach can develop. The individualisation of war will follow, as described by the famous German sociologist Ulrich Beck. To avoid this, it is worth looking at the achievements of the Polish scientist Michał Kalecki, who 75 years ago argued that capitalism alone is not able to develop. It is because it aggressively seeks profit growth, but cannot turn profit into some profitable investments. Therefore, when uncertainty grows, capitalism cannot develop itself, and it must be accompanied by external factors, named by Kalecki – external development factors. These factors include state expenses, finances and, in accordance with the nomenclature of Kalecki – epochal innovations. And what are the current possibilities of activation of the external factors? In short – modest. The countries are indebted, and the basis for the development in the last 20 years were loans, which contributed to the growth of debt of economic entities. What, then, should we do? It is necessary to look for cheaper solutions, but such that are effective, that is breakthrough innovations. These undoubtedly include social and political innovations. Contemporary social innovation is not about investing big money and expensive resources in production, e.g. of a very expensive vaccine, which would be available for a small group of recipients. Today’s social innovation should stimulate the use of lower amounts of resources to produce more products available to larger groups of recipients. The progress of civilisation happens only as a result of a sustainable development in economic, social, and now also ecological terms. Economic (business) innovations, which help accelerate the growth rate of production and services, contribute to economic development. Profits of corporations increase and, at the same time, the economic objectives of the corporations are realised. But are the objectives of the society as a whole and its members individually realised equally, in parallel? In the chain of social reproduction there are four repeated phases: production – distribution – exchange – consumption. The key point from the social point of view is the phase of distribution. But what are the rules of distribution, how much and who gets from this “cake” produced in the social process of production? In the today’s increasingly global economy, the most important mechanism of distribution is the market mechanism. However, in the long run, this mechanism leads to growing income and welfare disparities of various social groups. Although, the income and welfare diversity in itself is nothing wrong, as it is the result of the diversification of effectiveness of factors of production, including work, the growing disparities to a large extent cannot be justified. Economic situation of the society members increasingly depends not on the contribution of work, but on the size of the capital invested, and the market position of the economic entity, and on the “governing power of capital” on the market. It should also be noted that this diversification is also related to speculative activities. Disparities between the implemented economic and social innovations can lead to the collapse of the progress of civilisation. Nowadays, economic crises are often justified by, indeed, social and political considerations, such as marginalisation of nation states, imbalance of power (or imbalance of fear), religious conflicts, nationalism, chauvinism, etc. It is also considered that the first global financial crisis of the 21st century originated from the wrong social policy pursued by the US Government, which led to the creation of a gigantic public debt, which consequently led to an economic breakdown. This resulted in the financial crisis, but also in deepening of the social imbalances and widening of the circles of poverty and social exclusion. It can even be stated that it was a crisis in public confidence. Therefore, the causes of crises are the conflicts between the economic dimension of the development and its social dimension. Contemporary world is filled with various innovations of economic or business nature (including technological, product, marketing, and in part – organisational). The existing solutions can be a source of economic progress, which is a component of the progress of civilisation. However, economic innovations do not complete the entire progress of civilisation moreover, the saturation, and often supersaturation with implementations and economic innovations leads to an excessive use of material factors of production. As a consequence, it results in lowering of the efficiency of their use, unnecessary extra burden to the planet, and passing of the negative effects on the society and future generations (of consumers). On the other hand, it leads to forcing the consumption of durable consumer goods, and gathering them “just in case”, and also to the low degree of their use (e.g. more cars in a household than its members results in the additional load on traffic routes, which results in an increase in the inconvenience of movement of people, thus to the reduction of the quality of life). Introduction of yet another economic innovation will not solve this problem. It can be solved only by social innovations that are in a permanent shortage. A social innovation which fosters solving the issue of excessive accumulation of tangible production goods is a developing phenomenon called sharing economy. It is based on the principle: “the use of a service provided by some welfare does not require being its owner”. This principle allows for an economic use of resources located in households, but which have been “latent” so far. In this way, increasing of the scope of services provided (transport, residential and tourist accommodation) does not require any growth of additional tangible resources of factors of production. So, it contributes to the growth of household incomes, and inhibition of loading the planet with material goods processed by man [see Poniatowska-Jaksch, Sobiecki, 2016]. Another example: we live in times, in which, contrary to the law of T. Malthus, the planet is able to feed all people, that is to guarantee their minimum required nutrients. But still, millions of people die of starvation and malnutrition, but also due to obesity. Can this problem be solved with another economic innovation? Certainly not! Economic innovations will certainly help to partially solve the problem of nutrition, at least by the new methods of storing and preservation of foods, to reduce its waste in the phase of storage and transport. However, a key condition to solve this problem is to create and implement an innovation of a social nature (in many cases also political). We will not be able to speak about the progress of civilisation in a situation, where there are people dying of starvation and malnutrition. A growing global social concern, resulting from implementation of an economic (technological) innovation will be robotisation, and more specifically – the effects arising from its dissemination on a large scale. So far, the issue has been postponed due to globalisation of the labour market, which led to cheapening of the work factor by more than ten times in the countries of Asia or South America. But it ends slowly. Labour becomes more and more expensive, which means that the robots become relatively cheap. The mechanism leading to low prices of the labour factor expires. Wages increase, and this changes the relationship of the prices of capital and labour. Capital becomes relatively cheaper and cheaper, and this leads to reducing of the demand for work, at the same time increasing the demand for capital (in the form of robots). The introduction of robots will be an effect of the phenomenon of substitution of the factors of production. A cheaper factor (in this case capital in the form of robots) will be cheaper than the same activities performed by man. According to W. Szymański [2017], such change is a dysfunction of capitalism. A great challenge, because capitalism is based on the market-driven shaping of income. The market-driven shaping of income means that the income is derived from the sale of the factors of production. Most people have income from employment. Robots change this mechanism. It is estimated that scientific progress allows to create such number of robots that will replace billion people in the world. What will happen to those “superseded”, what will replace the income from human labour? Capitalism will face an institutional challenge, and must replace the market-driven shaping of income with another, new one. The introduction of robots means microeconomic battle with the barrier of demand. To sell more, one needs to cut costs. The costs are lowered by the introduction of robots, but the use of robots reduces the demand for human labour. Lowering the demand for human labour results in the reduction of employment, and lower wages. Lower wages result in the reduction of the demand for goods and services. To increase the demand for goods and services, the companies must lower their costs, so they increase the involvement of robots, etc. A mechanism of the vicious circle appears If such a mass substitution of the factors of production is unfavourable from the point of view of stimulating the development of the economy, then something must be done to improve the adverse price relations for labour. How can the conditions of competition between a robot and a man be made equal, at least partially? Robots should be taxed. Bill Gates, among others, is a supporter of such a solution. However, this is only one of the tools that can be used. The solution of the problem requires a change in the mechanism, so a breakthrough innovation of a social and political nature. We can say that technological and product innovations force the creation of social and political innovations (maybe institutional changes). Product innovations solve some problems (e.g. they contribute to the reduction of production costs), but at the same time, give rise to others. Progress of civilisation for centuries and even millennia was primarily an intellectual progress. It was difficult to discuss economic progress at that time. Then we had to deal with the imbalance between the economic and the social element. The insufficiency of the economic factor (otherwise than it is today) was the reason for the tensions and crises. Estimates of growth indicate that the increase in industrial production from ancient times to the first industrial revolution, that is until about 1700, was 0.1-0.2 per year on average. Only the next centuries brought about systematically increasing pace of economic growth. During 1700- 1820, it was 0.5% on an annual average, and between 1820-1913 – 1.5%, and between 1913-2012 – 3.0% [Piketty, 2015, p. 97]. So, the significant pace of the economic growth is found only at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Additionally, the growth in this period refers predominantly to Europe and North America. The countries on other continents were either stuck in colonialism, structurally similar to the medieval period, or “lived” on the history of their former glory, as, for example, China and Japan, or to a lesser extent some countries of the Middle East and South America. The growth, having then the signs of the modern growth, that is the growth based on technological progress, was attributed mainly to Europe and the United States. The progress of civilisation requires the creation of new social initiatives. Social innovations are indeed an additional capital to keep the social structure in balance. The social capital is seen as a means and purpose and as a primary source of new values for the members of the society. Social innovations also motivate every citizen to actively participate in this process. It is necessary, because traditional ways of solving social problems, even those known for a long time as unemployment, ageing of the society, or exclusion of considerable social and professional groups from the social and economic development, simply fail. “Old” problems are joined by new ones, such as the increase of social inequalities, climate change, or rapidly growing environmental pollution. New phenomena and problems require new solutions, changes to existing procedures, programmes, and often a completely different approach and instruments [Kowalczyk, Sobiecki, 2017].

This study analyses the moderating effect of union density on industrial employment and unemployment in advanced economies facing exposure to industrial robots. Applying random effects within-between regression models to a pseudo-panel of observations from 27 European countries and the United States over 1998–2019, the study finds that higher union density is associated with a greater decline in industry-sector employment for younger workers and workers with lower secondary education when robot exposure increases. It is also found that the unemployment rate declines more strongly in countries with low union density when robot exposure increases. These findings suggest that exposure to industrial robots promotes labour market dualization in strongly unionized countries, whereas workers with tertiary education and labour market tenure are the main beneficiaries from technological change.

The paper deals with the suitability of the introduction of unemploymentreinsurance in the countries of the European Union (URS EU) in terms ofmaintaining the level of consumption of the unemployed and promotingeconomic efficiency. Based on the literature review, the analysis of the usreinsurance system and the analysis of existing unemployment insurancein the EU, a model of the reinsurance system for unemployment in the EUis developed. The model simulation, based on the data of existing EU-20unemployment insurance systems in the period 2003–2019, is used to determinethe amount of reinsurance payments to countries and the levelof contributions needed, while employing various ways of defining paymenttriggers. We have demonstrated that the urs EU would contributeto better income protection by having a direct impact on the income of theunemployed and at the same time acting as an automatic stabilizer of theeconomy.

PurposeThis research considers the question of whether unemployment insurance benefit and labour-market activation measures induce the likelihood of re-employment and whether this effect differs for natives and immigrants.Design/methodology/approachStatistical processing was carried out on the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions cross-sectional data for Finland for the period 2004 to 2016. Propensity score matching analysis was undertaken to investigate whether a treatment effect (unemployment insurance benefit) was a predictor of success in increasing re-employment rates, when controlling for participation in labour-market policy measures, subsidized employment and personal background characteristics.FindingsWe find that the probability of re-employment for recipients of unemployment benefits is half that of non-recipients of benefits. Due to the influence of subsidized employment, subsequent employment income decreases for recipients of unemployment benefits and especially for immigrants. Finally, we find that due to the influence of subsidized employment, time spent as a full-time employee decreases for recipients of unemployment benefits and especially for immigrants.Originality/valueAlthough our results indicate that benefit determination has a marked impact on re-employment probabilities, unobserved variables turn to play a significant role in selection of labour-market activation measures. In this respect, we find the treatment assignment to activation policy measures depends on influence of unobserved variables and this effect is more important for the re-employment rates of natives than it is for immigrants.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2019-0668.

The article analyses the content and institutional and legal framework for the coordination of social welfare systems in the European Union. Analysing documents in particular, EU Acts and Regulations, as well as taking into account modern scientific research, the material substantiates the existence of a separate area of scientific and practical activities in the European Union, namely, social welfare. It is specified that «social welfare» as a theoretical construct and direction of public policy should be considered within the concept of «social security». In a narrower context, social security can be interpreted as a basic social standard, which in most cases is implemented through social insurance. The social welfare coordination system in the European Union is quite complex and undergoing constant change. The need for modernization in view of changes in working conditions in the modern world has been updated in the period of the coronavirus pandemic. According to European Union regulations, the main areas of social welfare in the EU cover payments in connection in specific situations. Such situations are included: sickness benefits, maternity and paternity benefits, invalidity benefits, old-age benefits, survivors’ benefits, benefits related to accidents at work and occupational diseases, and benefits in connection with death, unemployment benefits, pre-retirement benefits and family benefits. The article identifies the basic principles of coordination of social welfare systems in the European Union. Among others, the most important of these is equal treatment of all people; free movement of people; unity of legislation applicable in this field in different countries; the provision that rights acquired in one country are retained in another; and the idea that insurance periods acquired in other countries summed up. In addition, the material offers a comprehensive analysis of all major EU legal acts coordinating social security systems at national levels.

The intergovernmental institutions recommend tourism development as a policy goal for reducing gender inequality through employment channels. However, such approaches ignore the indirect and induced effects of tourism sector development on women’s employment through male dominated forward and backward linkages. Adverse spillover effects of tourism-related sectors limit the impact of tourism on generating women’s employment. With this goal in mind, the study estimates the spillover effect of tourism sector development on the gender gap in selected employment indicators of 27 European Union countries between 2008 and 2019. Results show that development in the tourism sector, measured by the number of tourists per active population, improves the gender gap in labor force participation, employment, and unemployment among EU countries. Considering the precarious working conditions of the tourism sector, results only reflect a limited aspect of women’s empowerment.

Purpose The paper aims to explore the mechanisms linking the impact of financial development on economic growth and focuses on the long-term post-global financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach The study employs panel data for twenty-five European Union countries over the period 1995–2017. Principal Component Analysis is employed to produce two aggregate indices, namely financial banking sector development and stock market sector development. The empirical analysis is based on estimates through the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method. Findings The results suggest that the outbreak of the crisis has led to a disruption of the positive finance-growth relationship, and the banking sector dominates in this adverse effect. The foreknowledge of the current study is that the linking mechanisms of the negative impact of financial development on economic growth, ten years after the global financial crisis, are household debt, private debt, and non-performing loans for the banking sector, while for the equity market this is the case through savings. Interestingly, the results reveal that unemployment increase excessively the borrowers' debt level and then the non-performing loans. Research limitations/implications An implication is that the increase of credit supply and any monetary expansion along with lack of regulatory control and monitoring can lead banks to a higher risk exposure through household and private debt as well as non-performing loans. Besides, the higher levels of unemployment rates call attention for the trade-off between prudential regulation on the supply of loans and economic activity, since higher unemployment affect the non-performing loans and, as a consequence discourage the demand, increase precautionary savings, and cancel or postpone investment decisions, thus, affecting the equity market. Originality/value The paper provides useful insights to economists and policymakers who are interested in understanding the weakness of banking and stock market sectors to promote economic growth for a long time after the global financial crisis.

Economic shocks test the resilience of families around the world. Lockdowns, extended periods of unemployment, and inflation challenge the capabilities of private households to maintain their living standards whilst keeping their budgets in balance. Asset poverty is a concept invoked frequently to measure the capacity of private households to mitigate income loss by relying exclusively on their savings. In contrast to conventional asset poverty measures, we quantify the combined cushioning effect of private and public safety nets. Highlighting the importance of public safety nets and familial networks, this article devises a modified concept of asset poverty: Rather than purely simulating a household’s asset decumulation without replacement income, the modified indicator accounts for replacement income in a static setting. The empirical assessment of modified asset poverty in Europe and America combines harmonised microdata on household finances with simulations of institutional rules set by social insurance systems. Our results reveal how differences in social relations and institutional rules shape cross‐country variation in the vulnerability of private households. We find that, in contrast to the US, where the asset poverty of families is particularly low, households in most European countries are less vulnerable because generous social security systems coexist with low private assets. However, in some European countries, benefit generosity decreases the longer income losses last, exposing time dynamics in vulnerability. Complementing social insurance mechanisms, in countries such as Greece, households are more likely to receive financial support from family or friends. Cross‐national heterogeneity in vulnerability suggests that a shock may have different implications across countries.