European labour markets have, over the past two-three decades, been influenced by the three mega-trends of technological transformations, ageing and globalisation. The project UNTANGLED (Untangling the impacts of technological transformations, globalisation and demographic change to foster shared prosperity in Europe) aims to enhance the understanding of how these mega-trends have affected and challenged the ability to foster shared prosperity in Europe. The UNTANGLED project ha pursued three main goals:
(1) to provide detailed analyses at the macro-, regional-, sectoral-, and micro-level of the effects of these megatrends on a broad set of labour market outcomes and the impact on inequality;
(2) to develop comprehensive, model-based scenarios of the impact of these trends in the next decades, overall and for various subpopulations, sectors and regions;
(3) to disseminate broadly the evidence uncovered in the project and to develop policy recommendations fostering shared prosperity.
UNTANGLED has contributed to the H2020 work programme’s goal of promoting inclusive, evidence-based policy and informed public debates. In measuring effects and trends, we discern the changing demand for skills, employability, wage and income inequality, and mobility and migration patterns. We pay attention to demographic sub-groups by looking at effects by gender, age, skill level, and level of educational attainment.
We have used an interdisciplinary approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods and adopts a cross-country perspective, covering the entire EU and accounting for developments in other continents. This helps to project the impact of shocks linked to globalisation. Our scenarios are firmly based on analytical results and created with two complementary models to provide robust results at the country-, sector and regional-level. To develop assumptions and ensure the relevance of scenarios, we have engaged in extensive consultations with the academic community and beyond, which complement and validate the economic and institutional analyses. These stakeholder consultations have been important in the development of concrete policy proposals aimed at shared prosperity. We have delivered research papers, research reports, an e-book and policy briefs. UNTANGLED’s results and lessons learned have been, and continue to be, disseminated to policy-makers, stakeholders and the public.
