It is therefore crucial that they not stop halfway. Flexible labour markets also remain important in the euro area for another reason. Last but not least, the optimal currency area theory suggests that, in the absence of an exchange rate as an adjustment variable, the free movement of workers in the labour market is required to absorb economic shocks.
We need something in the meantime. Perhaps machine learning, AI and data mining can be useful ways of decoding qualitative and text-based information into metrics that we can use in our analysis. As we compile datasets covering future decades, it becomes apparent that our traditional methodologies and assumptions are inadequate.