Of the various approaches that, over the last few decades, have sought explanations for the constant increase in the wage gap between more and less skilled workers, the Skill-Biased Technological Change (SBTC) approach has been the most used and the one that has led to the most consistent results. The objective of this study is to assess whether the possible mobility between different types of workers, considering their experience and professional training, and this way, replacing more skilled workers in terms of education widens or reduces the wage gap between qualifications. For this purpose, we resorted to the modeling of simultaneous equations taking into account the OECD countries between 2007 and 2020, concluding that there is a strong influence of the wage gaps of the less qualified in the widening of the gaps of the more qualified and that this influence is more significant in the case of women. Education continues to promote the increase in wage differences in favor of the most qualified, as well as the SBTC approach. We also conclude that women’s wage gaps are approaching the average of most workers, thus reducing wage inequality between genders.

Every year, news about the publication of rankings and scores of important international indexes are highlighted, with some of the most prestigious being the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Ease of Doing Business (EDB), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the Global Entrepreneurship (GEI). A country’s progression in these indices is associated with economic growth, especially since several empirical studies have found evidence to reinforce these beliefs, the indices having been built based on the scientific literature on economic growth. Building a database on these indices for European Union countries between 2007 and 2017 and using panel data methodologies and then 2SLS (Two-Stage Least Squares) to solve the problem of endogeneity, we verify empirically through panel data estimates, what is the relationship between the mentioned indices and the European Union countries’ economic growth for the period. However, as the European Union is made up of diverse countries with different economic and social realities, we divided the countries into six clusters and made an individual interpretation for each one. We found that human development and competitiveness play an important role in economic growth, and entrepreneurship also impacts this growth. Regarding income distribution, applying the Gini index, we found that only human development mitigates inequalities.

Using energy efficiently is crucial for economic development and sustainability. However, excessive use of fossil fuels impedes sustainable economic growth, and the released emissions have a negative impact on the environment. Still, there is no consensus in the literature as to the side effects or even regarding the determinants used to assess this relationship. As such, this article explores the effects that CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and renewable energy consumption have on economic growth, using fixed assets, human capital, research and development, foreign direct investment, labor force, and international trade as controls, on a sample of 27 EU (European Union) countries between 1994 and 2019. Four different methodologies were applied to the sample, namely ordinary least squares, fixed effects, random effects, and the generalized method of moments in first differences, allowing endogeneity to be accounted for. Results show that gross fixed capital, human development, and trade contribute positively to economic growth; however, even though these contributions increase due to renewable energy consumption, that increase occurs at the expense of more CO2 emissions. This expense may be justified by the high dependency on fossil fuels in the EU 27 group. Policy implications are presented for policymakers, namely governments, in light of sustainability and climate change.