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Work and Wellbeing in Europe [WaWiE]: What Policies Best Support Workers in the Context of Technology-Driven Labour Market Change?

Project description

Methods for measuring household well-being

Households in the EU have faced significant changes due to global economic crises over the past three decades. To support them, it is crucial to identify effective methods for measuring and influencing their economic and well-being situations. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the WaWiE project will run the first-of-its-kind large-scale analysis of the impact of job quality on an objective, comprehensive set of measures of workers’ well-being. The project will build on extensive household survey data from Germany and the UK to create a cross-country longitudinal dataset tracking workers’ quality of work, their wider circumstances, as well as their overall well-being. Overall, it will provide a comprehensive perspective on household well-being.

Objective

This project will undertake the first large-scale analysis of the effect job quality has on a comprehensive and objective set of measures of workers’ wellbeing. Using household survey survey data from the UK (Understanding Society) and Germany (Socio-Economic Panel), the project will build a cross-country longitudinal dataset tracking three aspects of peoples’ quality of life, drawing from inter-disciplinary literature. First, workers’ Quality of Work (QoW), based on the characteristics of the paid jobs they are doing; second, their wider family, household and personal circumstances (Conversion Factors); and third, their overall wellbeing, conceptualised as their choices over alternative opportunities inside and outside the labour market (their Capability Set) using measures of workers’ economic, social and cultural capital. This goes beyond the state-of-the-art because job quality indices only capture the first of these three - failing to measure the wider circumstances under which people access work; and relying predominantly on subjective measures of worker wellbeing such as job- or life- satisfaction. Using this innovative dataset, the project will then answer crucial questions about what policy measures in EU member states best enhance workers’ wellbeing in the context of rapid technological change. It will establish which job characteristics are associated with lower/higher objective wellbeing; identify how workers’ QoW and wellbeing differ for workers with similar characteristics in the UK and Germany, with a particular focus on workers’ exposed to technology-driven change; find out which policies best foster workers’ wellbeing, by exploiting differences in the labour market and policy context in the two countries; and finally, working with an inter-sectoral panel and explore the practical policy and political economy implications of these findings.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF

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Coordinator

COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL
Net EU contribution
€ 263 393,28
Address
SOLBJERG PLADS 3
2000 Frederiksberg
Denmark
Region
Danmark Sjælland Vest- og Sydsjælland
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (2)