## Course: Inclusive Growth (IG)

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**Canonical URL:** [Course: Inclusive Growth (IG)](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/icd/ig.pdf)

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### Course overview
- Presented by the IMF's Institute for Capacity Development.
- Purpose: increase participants’ understanding of the concepts of inclusive growth and provide analytical and operational tools to evaluate, measure and monitor how macroeconomic policies affect growth, poverty, inequality and job creation.
- Structure: lectures on core concepts with workshops for applied exercises and country case studies.
- Performance evaluation: two multiple-choice quizzes; one at the beginning and another at the end to ascertain participants’ progress.

### Course objectives
- Interpret measures of poverty and inequality.
- Analyze the role of macroeconomic policies in promoting growth and equality and reducing poverty.
- Identify obstacles to inclusive growth and prioritize reforms.
- Design an inclusive growth strategy for their own country.

### Target audience and qualifications
- Target audience: Mid- to senior-level officials involved in economic and strategic planning, monitoring and evaluating policy strategies for reducing poverty and inequality, and promoting job creation.
- Qualifications: Participants are expected to have a degree in economics or social sciences or equivalent experience.

### Core syllabus and topics
- 1. Introduction to inclusive growth
- Part I. Measuring and assessing growth, poverty and inequality
  - 2. Growth theory and growth accounting
  - 3. Measuring the inclusiveness of growth
- Part II. Inclusive growth strategy
  - 4. Designing an inclusive growth strategy
- Part III. Policies that affect growth, poverty and inequality
  - 5. Fiscal policy and inclusive growth
  - 6. Competition policy
  - 7. Labor market policy
  - 8. Human capital policies
  - 9. Demographic trends and gender
  - 10. The impact of corruption
  - 11. Financial inclusion

### Auxiliary units (regional customization options)
- A1. Gender policies (focus on gender budgeting and other gender policies); initially offered in JVI and becoming part of the core curriculum.
- A2. Trade, FDI and inclusive growth
- A3. Climate change and inclusive growth
- A4. Guest lecturers from the region (RTACs, resident representatives, experts, the authorities)

### Program outline (days, units, lecture/workshop timings and focus)
- DAY 1
  - UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO INCLUSIVE GROWTH — Lecture (1.5 hour)
    - Defining inclusive growth; The growth-poverty-inequality nexus; Course objectives and roadmap
  - UNIT 2: GROWTH THEORY AND GROWTH ACCOUNTING — Lecture (1.5 hour)
    - Models of growth; Growth accounting; Growth convergence: measures and evidence; Explaining differences in TFP across countries
  - Workshop: Growth accounting and convergence (1.5 hour)

- DAY 2
  - UNIT 3: MEASURING THE INCLUSIVENESS OF GROWTH — Lecture (3 hours)
    - Measuring poverty; Measuring inequality; Dynamic measures: growth incidence curves; Non-income-based indicators: access to basic services, and multidimensional social welfare functions
  - Workshop: Measuring the inclusiveness of growth (3 hours)
    - Excel exercises to calculate poverty and inequality measures and growth incidence curves

- DAY 3
  - UNIT 4: DESIGNING AN INCLUSIVE GROWTH STRATEGY — Lecture (3 hours)
    - Identifying and prioritizing binding constraints; Designing the policy mix to address constraints; Sustainability of growth
  - Workshop: Designing an inclusive growth strategy: Zambia case study (3 hours)
    - Inclusive growth diagnostics, binding constraints, and strategy design

- DAY 4
  - UNIT 5: FISCAL POLICY AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH — Lecture (3 hours)
    - Fiscal revenues, growth, and equity; Using revenue policy for inclusive growth; Fiscal expenditure and growth in the short and long run; Expenditure composition and inequality; Energy subsidy reform
  - Workshop (3 hours) Fiscal policy and inclusive growth
    - Options: 3-hour region case study (Ethiopia, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil) or two 1.5-hour workshops on taxation and subsidy reform; course team may split lecture and workshops across morning/afternoon

- DAY 5
  - UNIT 6: COMPETITION POLICY — Lecture (1.5 hours)
    - Competition and innovation as drivers of growth; Competition policy and inclusiveness
  - UNIT 7: LABOR MARKET POLICIES — Lecture (1.5 hour)
    - Links between growth and employment; Cyclical and structural unemployment; Labor-market flexibility; Policies to boost labor supply and demand
  - Workshop: Labor market policies (1.5 hours)
    - Options: debate on labor market policies, workshop on impact of growth on unemployment, or replaced by a debate on human capital policies

- UNIT 8: HUMAN CAPITAL — Lecture (1.5 hour)
  - Human capital, growth, and inclusiveness; Access to education; Quality of education

- DAY 6
  - UNIT 9: DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AND GENDER ISSUES — Lecture (1.5 hour)
    - Demographic trends and their impact on growth; Capturing the demographic dividend; Challenges of population aging; Closing the gender gap
  - Workshop: Demographic trends and gender issues (1.5 hour)
    - Cape Verde case study with excel exercises on demographic and gender ratios

  - UNIT 10: THE IMPACT OF CORRUPTION — Lecture (1.5 hours)
    - Corruption and inclusive growth; Measuring corruption; Policies to fight corruption
  - Workshop: The impact of corruption (1.5 hours)
    - Based on the IMF Policy Discussion Note; exercises on impact and policy responses

- DAY 7
  - UNIT 11: FINANCIAL INCLUSION — Lecture (3 hours)
    - Defining and measuring financial inclusion; Financial inclusion, growth, and inequality; Lending to SMEs; Microfinance
  - Workshop: Financial inclusion (3 hours)
    - Case-study discussions or debates on financial inclusion policies

- DAYS 8–10
  - Typical use: include one auxiliary unit, preparation and delivery of participants’ final presentations, closing session, final quiz, course evaluations.
  - Note: order of topics in Part III may be changed at the course team’s discretion; additional debates or region-specific emphasis can be scheduled as needed.

### Pedagogical methods and exercises
- Lectures combined with workshops using Excel exercises, growth diagnostics, case studies (examples: Zambia, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil).
- Practical exercises include growth accounting, growth incidence curves, poverty and inequality measures, demographic and gender ratio calculations, and policy case analyses.
- Final participant presentations and assessments to apply course concepts to country-specific inclusive growth strategies.

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/icd/ig.pdf_