WelfarEurope – Measuring quality of life and work in Europe

Program: Research grants within the so-called “Research scholarships for professional development of young researchers and postdocs” were part of the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development 2007-2013” by the European Social Fund and conducted by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education
Project holder: The Institute of Economics, Zagreb
Project manager: Ivica Rubil, PhD
Project team members: Marko Ledić, Ivica Rubil
Project mentor: Danijel Nestić, PhD
Project duration: 15 months, from July 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016
Project value: 689.662,50 HRK. 
This was an EU-funded project.

Project goals: The project addressed the under-development of competencies in the field of research and development of young researchers in the process of doctoral education and after completing their doctorates, weak international visibility of research results, and generally low levels of mobility and networking. The main objective of the project was to support the strengthening of scientific research competencies of Ivica Rubil, employee of the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, and Marko Ledić, PhD candidate at the Economics Department of the University of Milano, as a target group, and their inclusion in the European Research Area, through the execution of a competitive applied scientific research on the subject of measuring multidimensional welfare in the overall life and welfare at work in European countries. 

Results/outputs: The main expected result of the project was the production of scientific research on the subject of measuring multidimensional welfare in the overall life and welfare at work in European countries, with the objective of publishing two research articles in internationally competitive scientific journals. Inter-results of the project included presentations of (parts of) the research at seminars and conferences, published professional articles, the publication of the results in the EIZ Working Papers, and increase of the scientific research competencies of Ivica Rubil and Marko Ledić, as a target group, and their inclusion in the European Research Area. 

Activities: Project activities, among other things, included the management and coordination of the implementation of project activities; financial management and reporting; short-term mobility - attending shorter forms of education in the form of summer schools; mobility – six-month research stay at a foreign institution; the sole implementation of scientific research (data gathering, collection and interpretation of relevant literature, descriptive statistics of the gathered data, data analysis by standard micro-econometric techniques, connecting parts of the study into one unit) and the dissemination of project results through participation in international science conferences, public presentations, and through scientific publications. 

Methodology: In this research project the data from the European Quality of Life Survey and the European Working Conditions Survey for 2007 and 2011 were used. The data on total incomes, wages and other nonmonetary dimensions of welfare were analyzed using micro-econometric techniques for cross-sectional data. The Shapley decomposition method was used to estimate the contributions of income/wages and nonmonetary dimensions to the total welfare. 

Contacts: 
Samah Oreč, tel. + 385 1 2362237; e-mail: sorec@eizg.hr
Tihana Iviček, tel. + 385 1 2362237; e-mail: tivicek@eizg.hr

For more information, visit www.welfareurope.eu/en/