Labor markets in a globalizing world: trends, challenges and opportunities

Profound changes in the nature and structure of employment have been propelled by the combined effect from technology and international trade. Technological obsolescence and the global slicing up of the value chain often jeopardize the economic future of the most vulnerable groups of workers. At the geographical level, the economic decay of lagging-behind regions has fueled the political polarization, fertilizing the ground for political opportunistic narratives. Despite their omnipresent effects, the precise labor market implications from technology and trade remain largely elusive due to contradictory evidence and methodological challenges. Against this background, the current thesis provides new insight which stimulates the academic and social debate.

First, the systematic synthesis of the literature documents that both technology and trade impose economically meaningful effects. Nevertheless, the analysis reveals that the effect is conditional on the characteristics of the workers, the spatial unit of
analysis or the period under consideration. Second, using the Dutch labor market, it is shown that automation and the trade jointly polarize the employment growth, both at the national and the regional level.

Furthermore, the analysis establishes that the incidence of employment polarization and skills mismatch is intertwined, while their economic effects differ in more disaggregated demographic groups, such as young and senior workers.

From a policy perspective, the current thesis stresses the instrumental role of life-long learning to prevent the technological obsolescence and indicates work-related practices to incentivize workers to develop their skills portfolio. Such whole-of-society approaches will safeguard job security and enable the modern societies to be more prosperous, inclusive and democratic;
necessary conditions to face the current and future challenges.