O40 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: GeneralReturn

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between unemployment and economic growth in the European Union and in individual European countries. This allows to determine what the effect on the unemployment rate will be when there is a change in output. The European Union (28 countries) quarterly data used is for the period from 2000Q1 to 2017Q3. Regression analysis, co-integration analysis and a vector error correction model have also been used. The relationship between the unemployment rate and economic growth in the EU-28 for the period examined in this study is less pronounced in comparison with the other countries. A negative relationship between economic growth and a change in the unemployment rate is obtained for all the countries in the European Union (28 countries). During each stage of the period studied, the effect of hysteresis on the labour market grew. The results from the statistical analysis show that the data on economic growth and the change in the rate of unemployment in the EU-28 are co-integrated. The validity of Okun's Law for the economy of the European Union is confirmed although during the period studied the European economy went through several phases of the economic cycle.

This paper examines the impact of the technological change on income inequality in the United States of America. This is done by integrating theoretical and analytical findings of the channels through which technological change affects income inequality. The research is based on century-long income inequality data sets, although it prioritises the study of income inequality between the 1970s and the 2010s. The two major causes of rising income inequality have been technological change and globalisation. The paper also accounts for the other inequality triggers that have resulted from the political and economic structure of the country. The spread of automatisation and computerisation and of other changes associated with The Fourth Industrial Revolution are likely to reinforce skill-biased technological change. Therefore, new measures addressing income inequality, such as Universal Basic Income, are discussed.

The article deals with the ability of the GDP indicator to interpret and capture economic performance, social progress and sustainable economic growth. Given the fact that the construction of indicators such as GDP does not monitor the quality of population, environmental changes or changes in stocks of non-renewable natural resources, it is necessary to take this into account (GDP is primarily an aggregate of production) and look for indicators that would allow a more complex analysis of not only economic performance, but also its social and environmental aspects. Some proposals for how to assess the sustainability of economic growth are summed up in the second part of the paper. This part of the paper is also devoted to the description of the Index of Economic Well-Being (Sharpe, Osberg). This section deals with the possibilities of measurement of households' living standards and it also describes the Index of Economic Welfare (Sharpe, Osberg). This index takes account of other aspects of households' quality of life (social inequality, social risks, etc.). The substance of a controversial problem called "phantom GDP" (imaginary GDP) is introduced in the last section of the paper. This effect has been described by some authors in connection with possible impacts of globalization on economic performance. The effect of "phantom GDP" is associated with a potential impact of outsourcing and offshoring on economic performance of home countries of multinational companies.