by Gerd Schwartz and Ruud de Mooij
Faced with a jobs crisis, policymakers the world over are digging deep into their policy toolkits to generate more employment. A recent study by the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department argues that reforms of tax and expenditure policies offer great promise in helping countries confront the jobs crisis, including in the short term.
The study argues that improving employment outcomes, over and above what could be achieved through policies aimed at supporting the demand for goods and services by consumers and investors, requires actively supporting labor demand, strengthening incentives (or reducing disincentives) to work, and expanding training and job assistance, while preserving equity objectives.
The labor market challenge
The economic and social consequences of job losses since the onset of the global crisis have been enormous. However, as bad as the crisis has been for jobs, unemployment was already elevated before the crisis in many advanced and emerging economies. This would suggest that labor market challenges will not go away as the global economy recovers, and that policy measures are needed both to address structural employment issues and to improve the employment outlook in the short term.
Filed under: Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Employment, Europe, Fiscal policy, growth, IMF, International Monetary Fund | Tagged: advanced economies, emerging economies, employment, IMF, International Monetary Fund, labor market, pensions, tax policy, taxes, unemployment benefits, unskilled labor, work, youth unemployment | 3 Comments »
