Inequality has been growing within and between European countries. Welfare and public policies in Europe are intended to promote more inclusive growth. The EU-funded GI-NI project will improve our understanding of the changes and the joint impact of three major transformations on inequality and inclusive growth: technological progress, globalisation and migration.
GI-NI offers policy and governance solutions. The aim is to equip citizens and companies better so that they secure more equal opportunities and outcomes. In addition to measuring impacts and fostering dialogue, the project will collect and consolidate data and produce future projections. As a result, GI-NI will generate new scientific understanding next to multilateral policy solutions.
GI-NI OBJECTIVES
GI-NI OUTCOMES
- Measure impacts of the transformations on work, skills, and inequality
- Synthesize and analyse their interaction
- Foster dialogue and co-create future options with stakeholders
- Collect and consolidate data and produce future projections
- Identify policy and governance options for inclusion and equality
- New scientific understanding of joint impacts of transformations
- Multilateral policy solutions
- New evidence in support of a robust EU policy strategy
PROJECT PARTNERS
TNO
Steven Dhondt is a senior research scientist at TNO and Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven (chair: Workplace Innovation). Steven has been involved in large scale EU-projects (HiRes; Meadow; the European learning network on Workplace Innovation (EUWIN); SI DRIVE, SIMPACT, SHINE, BEYOND4.0) and projects for international organisations (ILO, EU-OSHA, Eurofound). He is the coordinator of the FWO/SBO Paradigms and the H2020 BEYOND4.0 projects that analyse the impact of digital transformation for manufacturing in Belgium and Europe. In addition, Steven is responsible for the development of a monitor for measuring technology and labour market impacts (Institute GAK (NL); Shift2Rail (EU); air traffic controllers with DG MOVE (EU)). He has written extensively on workplace innovation, quality of work and innovation. He coordinates a major TNO research programme on Smart Work. He is a member of several advisory/management boards for Eurofound, sfs-TUDO and major EU projects (Sweden, Norway, Belgium).
Suhendan Adiguzel-van Zoelen is a Medical Doctor and she did her PhD on Medical Pharmacology in Turkey. She has more than 32 years of professional working experience as Researcher, Head of the Clinical Laboratories and Occupational Health and Safety Department (TR), Medical Doctor, and Project Coordinator (TR and NL). She is also an experienced trainer who introduces blended learning approaches.
Paul Preenen is senior researcher at TNO. He holds a PhD in Work and Organisational Psychology. His research focuses on the consequences of digitalisation for social and workplace innovation, labour flexibility and mobility, and employability. He has been involved with large scale European research projects (EU FP7, SIDRIVE, SIMPACT, EUWIN, Eurofound, SHIFT2RAIL). He has developed and led large-scale quantitative and qualitative research programs for major public and private organisations (e.g., Dutch Tax and Customs Agency). Paul gained (inter)national policy advising and technology matchmaking experience working for the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office in Taiwan, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. His key strength is to create impact by translating top scientific research into practical advice for policy and practice.
Marieke van den Tooren is a researcher at TNO. She studied Clinical and Health Psychology at Leiden University. She then started her PhD research on ‘work stress’ (DISC model) at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). After she had obtained her PhD, Marieke was a postdoctoral researcher at the same university for a few months, after which she left for Tilburg University. She worked there for almost five years as an Assistant Professor. Her research and education focused on topics in work and organisational psychology, and HRM. After working in the academic world for nine years, Marieke opted for a career in applied research. First, she worked for almost three years as a scientific researcher at the Tax Authorities, after which she switched to TNO. At TNO, Marieke works on various research topics, such as the ‘future of work’ and ‘inclusive work’. In addition, she takes up a role as researcher and project manager in large projects in the healthcare sector and logistics sector.
Jessie Koen works as a researcher Future of Work at TNO, Sustainable Productivity and Employability. She is also affiliated with the Department of Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, where she obtained her PhD ‘cum laude’ (with honors) on the topic of employability. Jessie is currently working on topics related to the future of work and job security, and is involved in several large research projects in this field. Specifically, she investigates ways in which people can cope with labor market changes such as temporary employment, digitalization and increasing job insecurity. Examples include proactivity, income security, learning communities and coaching. Jessie likes to combine science and practice through presentations, workshops, articles, policy advice and (social) media. She has received multiple awards and grants for her work and publishes in top tier scientific journals.
Roy Peijen is a quantitative researcher at TNO, department of Sustainable Productivity and Employability. Roy has a MSc degree in sociology and a PhD in labour market sociology. His thesis is on labour market reintegration and describes the long-term impact of a private sector-initiated employment program for participating vulnerable groups of workers (e.g., youth, ethnic minorities, and workers with disabilities) on labour market outcomes compared with the public work-first approach. His expertise lies in performing quasi-experimental study designs and longitudinal data analyses and hence having ample experience working with national register data.
University of Groningen
Bart Los is Professor of the Economics of Technological Progress and Structural Change at the University of Groningen. He obtained his PhD from the University of Twente (The Netherlands) in 1999. His research mainly deals with relationships between innovation, trade, structural change and economic growth. He published his work in journals like American Economic Review, IMF Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives and Research Policy. He was one of the three coordinators of the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) project, funded by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme. In the period 2009-2018, he was editor of Economic Systems Research, the scientific journal of the International Input-Output Association. He is currently Vice-President of this association. Recently, he won two scientific prizes for his research into the economic effects of Brexit-induced trade barriers on regions in the UK and the EU, based on global input-output tables. Bart has acted as consultant to the OECD, UNCTAD and McKinsey.
Robert Inklaar is Professor of the Economics of Productivity and Welfare at the University of Groningen. He obtained his PhD in 2006 from the University of Groningen. He is one of the main developers of the Maddison Project Database and of the recent versions of the Penn World Tables. In 2010-2012, he was work package leader in the EC-funded INDICSER (Indicators for Evaluating International Performance in Service Sectors) project. He has published in journal including the American Economic Review, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Journal of Econometrics and European Economic Review. He was also one of the authors of the book Economic Growth in Europe, a Comparative Industry Perspective, published by Cambridge University Press. He is a council member of the International Association of Research in Income and Wealth and a fellow of the Society for Economic Measurement.
Gaaitzen de Vries is Associate Professor at the University of Groningen and was special term visiting professor of Global Value Chains at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. He obtained his PhD thesis in 2010 in Groningen. His research deals mostly with topics in the fields of International Economics and Development Economics. He (co-) authored articles that appeared in peer-reviewed international journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Economic Geography, and IMF Economic Review. Gaaitzen is frequently active as a consultant and advisor for various organizations including the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, the OECD, the Japanese Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry, the Overseas Development Institute and the ING. He is a UNU WIDER non-residential senior research fellow.
Milena Nikolova is Associate Professor at the University of Groningen and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the same university. In 2014, she obtained her PhD in Public Policy from the University of Maryland in the United States. Her research mainly focuses on the economics of well-being and on the economics of transition, with a special focus on migration issues and determinants of emerging entrepreneurship. Her work was accepted for publication in journals such as Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Comparative Economics, World Development and the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. She is a research fellow of the Institute of Labor Economics IZA and of the Central European Labour Studies Institute CELSI. She is also a non-resident fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program of the Brookings Institution in the United States. She is associate editor of the Journal of Population Economics and of the Journal of Happiness Studies. She is also section editor of the Springer Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics.
Xianjia Ye is lecturer and researcher at the University of Groningen. After having received his BSc degree from Fudan University in Shanghai, he defended his PhD thesis A Global Value Chain Perspective on Trade, Employment and Growth in 2017 at the University of Groningen. Afterwards, he worked two years at Utrecht University. He co-authored a chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Productivity Analysis and published in World Economy.
Robin Konietzny is PhD student at the University of Groningen. He completed a Double Degree MSc and MA programme International Economics and Business of the Universities of Groningen and Göttingen in 2018. In 2019, he graduated from the Research Master programme Economics and Business in Groningen. His PhD thesis deals with the impacts of trade shocks on labor market outcomes and well-being.
CEPS
Dr. Cinzia Alcidi is Director of Research, Head of the Economic Policy and the Jobs and Skills Unit at CEPS and Reserach Fellow at LUISS- School of European Political Economy. Prior to joining CEPS, she worked at International Labour Office in Geneva and she taught International Economics at University of Perugia (Italy). Her research activity includes international economics, macroeconomics, central banking and EU governance.
Since 2015 she is the coordinator of CEPS Academy Activities. She has experience in coordinating research projects and networks. She has published extensively on the economics and governance of the Euro area crisis and participates regularly in international conferences.
She holds a Ph.D. degree in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva (Switzerland).
Caterina Astarita is Research Fellow in the Jobs and Skills Unit at CEPS. Expert in revenue and taxation policies of the EU, social and labour market policies, inequality, and poverty measures with almost ten years of professional experience in the academic research sector, as well as, in the European Commission. She researched these fields with state of art quantitative/econometric approach.
Caterina holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from the University of Naples “Federico II” and M.Sc. in Economics from the Birkbeck College – University of London.
Mattia Di Salvo is a Researcher in the Economic Policy Unit at CEPS. Mattia has extensive experience in data collection and analysis in policy areas such as migration, international trade and labour. He is experienced in different methodologies and software, as STATA for econometric analysis, Python for data management, and Tableau for data visualisation. Mattia holds a M.Sc. in Economics and Business from Erasmus University of Rotterdam, and a B.Sc. Economics and Finance from Bocconi University.
Doina Postica is a Research Assistant at CEPS in the Economic Policy and Jobs & Skills Unit. She holds a MPhil in Economics from University of Bologna. She is experienced in the collection and management of large datasets from official data source (e.g., IMF, Eurostat) through the software environment R that allow to automate the update and management of large datasets. With regards to data analysis, her expertise ranges from econometric and machine learning modeling in R and Stata, to visualization in Tableau.
Farzaneh Shamsfakhr is an associate researcher at CEPS. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from the University of Duisburg-Essen. Farzaneh has over ten years of professional experience in economic research and quantitative analysis. She collaborated on several research projects in the field of macroeconomics, labor economics, public finance, and monetary policy. During her Ph.D. Farzaneh focused on quantitative macroeconomic modelling, developing and estimating DSGE models. Her research projects involved business cycle analysis, economic and labor market outcomes of health shocks.
CNAM
Nathalie Greenan (female) is a professor in economics, member of LIRSA and CEET at Cnam and of the research federation on work, employment and Public Policy (TEPP, CNRS). She leads scientifically the research programs “Organisational changes, work and employment” in Cnam-CEET and “Policies of organisations” in TEPP. Her main interests are in the theoretical and empirical study of changes within organisations, their economic performance and their consequences for employees and on the labour market. She led the scientific development of a linked employer employee survey carried out by national statistical office on organisational changes and computerisation. At the European level, she coordinated the MEADOW FP6 project (http://www.meadow-project.eu/), which brought together a multi-disciplinary consortium of 14 partners in 9 European countries with the goal of producing recommendations for a harmonised European survey on organisational changes by private and public employers, and their economic and social impacts. She also led the French participation in InGRID and InGRID-2 (FP7 & H2020), a network of distributed, but integrating European research infrastructures that address the challenges of inclusive growth (http://www.inclusivegrowth.eu/), and in BEYOND 4.0 (https://beyond4-0.eu/) that analyses the socio-economic consequences of technological transformations. As a scientific expert on skills and work organisation issues, she participated in the questionnaire development of the fourth edition of the European Company Survey and is involved in the background questionnaire expert group for PIAAC Cycle 2.
Majda Seghir (female) is a senior researcher in economics, member of LIRSA and CEET at Cnam. She has a high research interest in questions related to the impact of digitalisation in the labour market, working conditions and their impact on workers well-being, skills mismatch and work-related vulnerability. Methodological aspects for building indicators and combining different data sources are important point of attention in her research as well. She has been involved in the InGRID-2 H2020 (http://www.inclusivegrowth.eu/) research infrastructure project on inclusive growth where she was in charge of matching/combining employee and employer surveys as well as developing a linked employer/employee scoreboard to confront employer and employee levels information. She has also led with HIVA-KU Leuven a sectoral study commissioned by Eurofound focusing in changing tasks and new skill demands as well as work organisation and well-being in European countries.
Sylvie Hamon-Cholet (female) is research engineer with a socio-economic background in Cnam-CEET. She has a wide experience in designing working conditions & occupational health surveys, maintaining linked databases that bring together information from various sources and creating metadata. She is an expert on work and employment relations for then French official statistics. She is regularly involved in the scientific committees in charge of redesigning the questionnaires of the French surveys on work organisation, working conditions and occupational health. Her research focuses on the analysis of work intensification, mental strain and occupational hazards. She is currently involved in two French research projects on the impacts of organisational changes, one on organisational changes and weather forecast in METEO France and one presenteeism at work. She is in charge for Cnam-CEET of the administrative coordination of activities in the EU-funded projects (InGRID, InGRID-2, Beyond 4.0) and is involved as work package leader and researcher in the Beyond 4.0 project that analyses the socio-economic consequences of technological transformations (https://beyond4-0.eu/).
University of Agder
Prof. Hans Christian Garmann Johnsen. He is Professor at the Department of Working Life and Innovation at the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder.
Dr. Eirin Mølland. She is a senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at the School of Business at the University of Agder.
Prof. Jon P. Knudsen. Is Professor at Department of work life and innovation. He holds a PhD in cultural geography from Lund University and a Master’s degree cultural geography from the University of Oslo.
Prof. Jarle Trondal. He is Professor at Department of Political Science and Management. His main fields of research include European public administration, administrative behavior, administrative reform, and organizational studies.
Prof. Rómulo Pinheiro. He is Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Agder (UiA), Norway, where he co-heads the research group on Public Governance and Leadership (GOLEP).
PhD. Tore Bersvendsen. He is Resercher at at the School of Business at the University of Agder and Research Advisor at Municipality of Kristiansand.
KRTK
István Boza finished received his MA degree at Eötvös Lóránt University in 2015 and his PhD at Central European University in 2021. He joined the CERS-IS as a junior reserch fellow in 2021. He is interested in topics in labor economics, social networks, wage inequality and the possibilites in administrative linked employer-employee panel datasets.
Attila Gáspár holds an MA in Economics and in Political Science. He received his PhD in Economics at Central European University at 2019. He is a Postdoctoral Researcher University of Padua. He joined the CERS-IE as a research fellow in 2021. His research interest is political economy, development and social inequality.
Istvan Konya is Research Advisor at the CERS-IE. He received his PhD in economics at Northwestern University in 2001. After graduation he was an assistant professor at Boston College between 2001-2004. He moved back to Hungary in 2004, and worked at Magyar Nemzeti Bank as a senior researcher until 2013. He then served as Head of Research at MNB until January, 2015. He has published numerous articles in international and Hungarian journals, including the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of International Money and Finance, the Review of International Economics and others. He taught at various international universities. Between 2001-2004 he lectured at Boston College, and since 2004 he has been and Adjunct Professor at Central European University. He was invited to teach PhD courses at the Sarajevo School of Economics and Business in 2010, and at Cardiff Bussiness School in 2011. He worked as an expert evaluator and expert reviewer for the European Commission between 2007-2011 on FP6 and FP7 projects. Between 2009-2012 he was a member of the governing council of the Hungarian Society of Economists.
Rita Peto received her PhD degree at the Central European University Central European University in 2012 and her at the in 2019. She gained experience with working administrative data and large-scale databases at the at the Labor Project and the MicroData project of the CEU. She joined the CERS- IE as postdoctoral researcher in January 2020. Her research interest is the role of skills and institutions in the evolution of income inequality.
Balázs Reizer is a senior research fellow at CERS-IE and associate professor at Corvinus University Budapest. He received his PhD degree at the Central European University in 2016. He joined the IE-CERS “Firms, Strategy and Performance” as a junior research fellow in 2015. He is the unit director of the “Economic growth and competitiveness” research group. His field of interest is the relationship between wages and firm performance and the evaluation of labour market policies. He participated in several national and international research grants: NKFIH K Grant # 125101 “Employment of the low-skilled in Hungary” (2017-2020), European Commission (DG GROW) project on “The causes of consequences of TFP slowdown in Hungary (2017-2018), MICROPROD (H2020) 2019-2021”.
Utrecht University
Dr. Emilie Rademakers is Assistant Professor of Economics. Her research focuses on the implication of technological change for individual workers, with a focus on worker transition through unemployment. Her work builds on the influential literature of biased technological change as well as models of job search, making use of unique data from online job search platforms matched with administrative sources.
Dr. Ulrich Zierahn is Assistant Professor of Economics and Data Analytics. His research focuses on the consequences of technological change, international trade and offshoring for the dynamics of individual labour market careers and for the economic performance of regional labour markets.
Europa-Universität Flensburg
Marcel Smolka is a Professor for International Economics at EUF and a member of the CESifo Research Network. His research interest span the areas of the international trade, multinational firms and migration. He has published in leading journals, including the Economic Journal, the Journal of International Economics, and the European Economic Review.
Ali Taleb has been a PhD Student and a Research and Teaching staff member at EUF since August 2020. His research interests cover the areas of international economics and trade, environmental economics, and energy economics.
University of the Basque Country
Alfonso Unceta Satrústegui (PhD) is Professor of Sociology at the University of the Basque Country and Director of Sinnergiak Social Innovation research centre. With a long track on research and education, he has published more than seventy academic articles and books on topics link to education, social responsibility, governance and social innovation. He has conducted EU-level research projects and activities (7th Framework Programme ́s SIMPACT and Transcreativa projects; H2020 Programme ́s Social Innovation Communities and Beyond4.0 Projects) as well as National (MINECO, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and regional (ETORTEK and GAITEK: Basque Regional programmes for Science, Innovation and Technology) programmes His line of interest is aligned to topic such as public policy, education, skills and innovation.
Begoña Eguía Peña is PhD in Economics and Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Economics V at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of the Basque Country. Her research activity is focused on quantitative micro- economic and macro-economic analyses. Namely, main research interests are the distribution of population across territories and the interactions between demography (native and migrant population) and economy. Specifically, the immigrant population and its integration into the labour market is of special interest in her research, including aspects such as different promotion opportunities, occupational segregation and wage differences in relation to the native worker. She collaborates with companies and public organisms through research contracts and she participates in regional (Basque Regional Programmes supported by the University of the Basque Country and the Basque Government) and national (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Ministry of Education and Culture or BBVA Foundation) research projects on labour market and migration issues, leading to publications in journals of recognized international prestige.
Leire Aldaz holds a B.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration and a PhD in Economics. She is Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Economics V at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of the Basque Country. Her doctoral thesis, by using a gender perspective, analyses the occupational segregation and immigration in the Spanish labour market. Her teaching and research activity focuses on the analysis of technological innovation, demographic dynamics of native and migrant population and inequality in the labour market. The latter includes topics such as labour niches, occupational segregation and the impact of the inflow of immigrant workers on labour conditions of native workforce. Her participation in research projects and international or national conferences has lead to publish in international scientific journals.
Egoitz Pomares is research manager at Sinnergiak Social Innovation Centre at the University of the Basque Country. Egoitz holds an International PhD in Social and Legal Sciences, a Bachelor of Laws (major in Economics) and a MA in Social Innovation. He has participated in EU-level projects on topics link to skills, clusterization and technological innovation (i.e. 7th Framework Programme Transcreativa and SIMPACT projects) and social innovation and the socioeconomic impact of digital transformations (Horizon 2020 Programme ́s Social Innovation Communities and Beyond4.0 project). He is also responsible for managing regionally conducted research-based activities and projects.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Dr. Michael Handel
is associate professor from the Northeastern University (Boston, USA). He has worked for the OECD. His expertise is skilling of workers and quality of work.
Prof. Pinghan Liang
is professor at the Sun Yat-sen University (School of Government – Department of Public Administration). His research areas areas are: Local government behavior; Game theory; Behavioral and Experimental Economics
Dr. Irmgard Nübler
is a Senior Economist at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Switzerland. She leads the research on technology, productive transformation, jobs and decent work.
Prof. Dr. Baris Alpaslan
Dr. Mehtap Akgüç
is a senior researcher in the Economic, Employment and Social Policies Unit of the Research Department at the ETUI. She is also a research affiliate at the IZA (Institute of Labor Economics). Her main research interests lie in the field of labour economics.
Dr. Swati Banerjee
is chairperson and associate professor at the Centre for Livelihoods and Social Innovation (CLSI), School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, India; and Co-ordinator, Right Livelihood College, RLC – TISS.
Dr. Hong Ma
is associate professor of Economics at Tsinghua University, in China. He combines this position as a member of the Faculty of the Tsinghua-INSEAD program and as the
Coordinator of Economics undergraduate program (SEM).
Prof. Giselle Martins Venancio
She is Professor in the Department of History at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, in Brasil, where she works in the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her research focuses on the area of historiography and the themes of the production and circulation of printed matter, collections, books, readings and travel writing.
Prof. Johnny Sung Chi Keung
is professor at the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) in Singapore. Responsible for several major surveys in Singapore: the BPSS, the SLS and the ITP.