Social Protection in the Face of Digitalisation and Labour Market Transformations

It is shown how systems analysis can facilitate policy responses to complex labour-market changes, including from digitalisation and technological progress. A simple systems map covering linkages and interactions between technology adoption, alternative work arrangements, wages, and social protection illustrates how qualitative system mapping can provide a holistic perspective and enable a systematic exploration of connections between elements of a complex system. The map illustrates how systems analysis facilitates consideration of the behaviour of a complex system by decomposing it into sub-processes that can be verbally described in a straightforward and relatively simple way. From this, policy makers can obtain a broad view of the drivers of policy outcomes. Agent-based modelling (ABM) can complement a systems mapping approach. These models, including one maintained by IIASA, provide a “sandbox” for exploring the consequences of linkages and feedback effects for individual agents and for the system as a whole.