Social Inclusion and Sustainable Economic Development: Evidence from EU Economies

Abstract

The chapter examines the relationship between social inclusion patterns and economic development in selected EU countries. This research has two objectives: (i) to reveal whether there are similarities among the EU countries in nation’s social inclusiveness of three demographic groups, namely the entire population, immigrants, and Roma communities; and (ii) to analyze the influence of social inclusion indicators on sustainable economic development and prosperity for the EU countries by accounting for the ethnicity impact. The chapter presents the results of a cluster analysis approach, which indicates best-positioned countries and emphasizes vulnerabilities in terms of social inclusiveness both in a broad demographic sense (the entire population) and a narrow sense (immigrants and respective Roma population). The chapter then employs a panel data regression approach to investigate which social inclusion indicators might have the potentially influencing role on economic development. Seven alternative proxies for sustainable economic development and prosperity measures were used. The social inclusion indicators, as explanatory variables, are represented by the education-related indicators and labor market-related indicators. The robustness and stability of the estimates are validated by including several interaction terms in the baseline regression model to account for the occurrence of the financial crisis. Overall, improving both population as well as immigrants’ inclusion is shown to have an important impact on sustainable economic development in the EU countries.

Citation

Boitan, I.A. and Câmpeanu, E.M. (2020), "Social Inclusion and Sustainable Economic Development: Evidence from EU Economies", Jeon, B.N. and Wu, J. (Ed.) Emerging Market Finance: New Challenges and Opportunities (International Finance Review, Vol. 21), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 261-278. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1569-376720200000021015