scholarly journals A Contribution to a European Strategy for the Well-being of Citizens in the Face of Automation

Author(s):  
Máximo Plo Seco

This article investigates the current and expected impact of automation technology in the well-being of European citizens. First, we explore the technical, social and economic factors that determine technological progress and the implementation of the new technologies. Second, we review the expected impact of automation on employment. Finally, we assess the impact that automation will have on the well-being of European citizens in light of the two first sections. To this end, we draw on the expected asymmetrical impact of automation in people with different education levels and on current inequality trends. Throughout the article, we use a normative approach, prescribing what European policy makers should take into account in light of our findings. We find that it is unclear what the net effect of technology on employment will be, but automation of non-routine manual and cognitive tasks will displace a significant percentage of workers. We find that current trends of increasing inequalities will intensify due to the fact that automation will affect more low-skilled workers. We find that the current institutional design of the European Union is unfit to tackle educational and social protection challenges. We can therefore expect social resistance to technological progress and political instability in the years to come.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariadna Ramos-Gomez ◽  
Aldo Perez-Escatel ◽  
Elio Atenogenes Villaseñor-Garcia ◽  
Cesar Ramos-Remus

Abstract Background: The global financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent sovereign debt crisis in Europe had a profound multidimensional impact on developed economies, including on the construct of health. Mental health is a key factor for productivity and an indicator of the general well-being of the population. France poses mental health and public policies characteristics that differentiated it from other countries of the European Union. This study aimed to assess whether depression and anxiety increased throughout the course of the 2008 debt crisis in France. Methods: This is an ecological study using an infodemiology approach. The search terms for depression and anxiety were extended with related words according to culture to form a distress index. Google Trends was used to mine the distress index search terms in a period before the debt crisis (2004) until 2018, using open source libraries, and pandas to merge information. Diverse economic- and employment-related datasets for France were used as covariates in multiple linear regression analyses, and the expected seasonal variability as a dummy variable. Results: The results showed that for each additional demand for unemployment benefits, search traffic for the distress index was expected to increase by 0.09% (p< 0.001, r2 0.89), even after controlling for the expected seasonal variations in the distress index. However, there was no significant association with unemployment rate. Conclusions: Contrary to reports from other countries, the mild effect of demand for unemployment benefits on the distress index may be explained by aspects of social protection policies in France.


Author(s):  
Lyudmyla Mishchenko ◽  
◽  
Dmytro Mishchenko ◽  

The actualization of the results of financial decentralization in Ukraine as part of the reform of decentralization of power and the development of proposals for its improvement is explained by the fact that a clear division of functions, powers and financial resources between national and regional levels is the basis for the well-being of our citizens. opportunities for its sustainable socio- economic development on a democratic basis. It is noted that financial decentralization is a process of giving authority to mobilize revenues and expenditures of local governments in order to increase the effectiveness of the implementation of these powers and better management of community budgets. It is established that unlike traditional entrepreneurship, which focuses on profit generation, the purpose of social entrepreneurship is to create and accumulate social capital. Abroad, social enterprises operate successfully in the fields of education, the environment, human rights, poverty reduction and health care, and their development and dissemination is one way to improve the living conditions of citizens. A similar mission is entrusted to local governments, which allows us to consider the revival of social entrepreneurship as an important element in improving self-government policy. It is determined that in modern conditions social entrepreneurship is one of the tools to ensure the ability of the local community to provide its members with an appropriate level of education, culture, health, housing and communal services, social protection, etc., as well as plan and implement programs efficient use of available natural and human resources, investment and infrastructural support of territorial communities. Due to financial decentralization, local governments have received additional resources that can be used to create economic incentives to promote social entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized businesses at the community level.


Author(s):  
Maryana Bil ◽  
Olha Mulska

The article defines the content of welfare as a measure of socially oriented efficiency of economic growth, which reflects the appropriate level of providing the population with material and spiritual goods with the formation of favourable conditions for human development and capitalization of human potential in a competitive mobile space. The modern theory of welfare testifies to the deepening of scientific discussions on the transformation of economic welfare into mobile and inclusive, as well as the opposition of competitive and social protection welfare policy. Another milestone in the evolution of welfare theory is the individualization of its provision. Conditions of competition and mobility increase the importance of households in providing their well-being with further reflection on the processes of economic growth of the community, region, and state. This gives grounds to actualize the issues of household welfare research and strengthening economic growth based on behavioural economics. The needs, interests, motives, and incentives determine the economic behaviour of households. At higher levels, it defines an economic culture that is closely linked to the national mentality. In this regard, the main models of economic and social behaviour of households – socialization, adaptation, integration, values, regulation, and the definition of financial development strategies are outlined. Theoretical approaches to the explanation of economic behaviour are generalized, namely religious-ethical, psychological, substantive theories, theories of motivations and acquired needs, process theories, theories of justice, and others. Based on the ideas of foreign scientists, the main determinants of the economic policy of households are proposed. Political, stabilizing, and economic determinants are distinguished in the group of general determinants. In the group of determinants directly related to households, the financial, demographic, cultural, social, empirical, and psychological are suggested. The author’s emphasis is placed on the importance of the impact of financial determinants of the households’ economic behaviour, the central place among which is occupied by savings.


Noise can be defined as an undesirable sound that pollutes the environment. If noise is continuous and exceeds certain levels, negative effects on health can be observed. In recent years, the impact of environmental noise (road traffic noise, railway traffic noise, air traffic noise and industrial noise) on human health has come under increasingly intense scrutiny. Noise can cause a number of negative effects on health that directly or indirectly affect humans. The occurrence of some certain and harmful health effects drives the onset of others and may contribute to the development of various diseases. Health is not only a state of physical well-being, but also mental well-being. Mental health primarily depends on the quality of life, which can be affected by various environmental factors, such as noise. An important aspect of fighting noise is the most effective protection of the population by avoiding sources of noise and reducing it. This can be achieved by introducing new technical solutions and new technologies, including devices that generate less noise. Another important measure is educating the society and influencing the change of individual and collective behavior, which may contribute to reducing the harmful factor, which is noise in human life, and minimize the resulting negative effects on health.


Author(s):  
Alberto Saez

The bilateral treaty on free mobility between the European Union and Switzerland has adversely affected native private sector low-skilled workers in the lower range of the earnings distribution. If cross-border commuters’ wages are prioritised over the local wages, the (pre-bilateral agreement) wage distribution between cross-border employees and local ones will intersect. This paper considers the statistical methods that can be used to test for this form of spatial interaction affecting the evolution of regional unemployment. Numerical simulations suggest that recently developed tests for distribution-crossing are powerful even when the two distributions under study are fairly similar, and that these tests can be usefully combined with more standard quantile tests to characterise unskilled occupational wages at the bottom. We apply this approach to unemployment data in Geneva and find that workforce participation among the local low-skilled workers was lower than that of low-qualified cross-border commuters.


Author(s):  
Chantal Remery ◽  
Joop Schippers

Today, as an increasing share of women and men is involved in both paid tasks at work and unpaid care tasks for children and other relatives, more people are at risk of work-family conflict, which can be a major threat to well-being and mental, but also physical health. Both organizations and governments invest in arrangements that are meant to support individuals in finding a balance between work and family life. The twofold goal of our article was to establish the level of work-family conflict in the member states of the European Union by gender and to analyze to what extent different arrangements at the organizational level as well the public level help to reduce this. Using the European Working Conditions Survey supplemented with macro-data on work-family facilities and the economic and emancipation climate in a country, we performed multilevel analyses. Our findings show that the intensity of work-family conflict does not vary widely in EU28. In most countries, men experience less work-family conflict than women, although the difference is small. Caring for children and providing informal care increases perceived work-life conflict. The relatively small country differences in work-family conflict show that different combinations of national facilities and organizational arrangements together can have the same impact on individuals; apparently, there are several ways to realize the same goal of work-family conflict reduction.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathanaël Betti ◽  
Gerrit Sarens

Purpose This paper aims to gain an in-depth understanding of how the internal audit function evolves in an increasingly digitalised business environment. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on 29 semi-structured interviews with members of management committees and internal auditors based in Belgium. Findings The analysis reveals that a digitalised business environment affects the internal audit function in three respects. First, it impacts its scope. The agility of the internal audit planning and the required digital knowledge are expected to increase and information technology (IT) risks gain importance, especially cybersecurity threats. Second, the demand for consulting activities performed by internal auditors is higher and third, digitalisation modifies the working practices of internal auditors in their day-to-day tasks. New technologies such as data analytics tools are being implemented progressively in internal audit departments and digital skills are considered a critical asset. Research limitations/implications This research was conducted in the European Union and gathers opinions of members of management committees and internal auditors. Future research could focus on other internal auditing stakeholders in other legal contexts. Practical implications The internal audit function needs to integrate IT and data analytics skills. In addition, the internal audit function should develop consulting activities to help organisations deal with the digitalisation of the business environment. Originality/value The impact of digitalisation on the internal audit function and its effect on internal audit practices is an underexplored area.


Author(s):  
Nicola GALLUZZO

The Farm Accountancy Data Network is an annual survey proposed by the European Union in order to estimate the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy on farmers. Lots of scholars have investigated the technical, economical and allocative efficiency using a non parametric approach such as the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in Romanian farms throughout the Farm Accountancy Data Network dataset pointing out poor levels of technical efficiency, which were lower than the average European value. The purpose of this study was to assess using DEA approach technical, economic and allocative efficiency in Romanian farms part of the FADN dataset over six year time from 2007 to 2012. Findings pointed out an increase of technical efficiency compared to previous studies, as a consequence of a significant turn over of a younger high skill and qualified farmers generation. Poor land capital, in terms of utilized agricultural areas, connected to an increase of new technologies, was the downside of Romanian farms and this implied that the National Rural Development Plan should  have taken into account financial subsides in order to implement agricultural areas scattered in Romanian rural space. 


1998 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Gallie ◽  
Helen Russell

The paper addresses the issue of the nature and determinants of variations between countries in the severity of the implications of unemployment for psychological well-being. It focuses on ten countries in the European Union over the period 1983 to 1994. It establishes that there are consistent differences between countries over time. It then examines a number of potential explanations, in particular relating to the level of unemployment, the social composition of unemployment, the strength of the work ethic in the society and the characteristics of welfare institutions. It concludes that such differences cannot be accounted for in terms of the level of unemployment or its composition in terms of age and sex. They are also unrelated to measures of employment commitment. Rather the severity of the impact of unemployment has to be understood in terms of the interaction between the characteristics of the welfare regime and the composition of the unemployed with respect to household position.


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