Inclusive Growth (IGx)

Source details

Target Audience: Mid-level to senior 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 equivalent experience.

The course, offered by the IMF's Institute for Capacity Development, broadens participants' understanding of the relationship between macroeconomic policies and reforms, competitiveness, and growth.
It addresses concerns about poor growth prospects, high unemployment, and inequities in income and opportunities.
Focus areas include micro and macro policies to promote:
- economic growth,
- employment growth,
- equitable income distribution.
Analytical approaches covered:
- Traditional approaches emphasizing capital accumulation and productivity growth through knowledge acquisition.
- Recent non-aggregative approaches emphasizing misallocation of resources and imperfections in credit and government institutions.
The course interprets empirical links between growth, employment, and income distribution in light of these models.
Emphasis on the role of policies that translate economic growth into poverty reduction and broad-based improvements in living standards.

Core topics:
- (i) employment-growth linkages;
- (ii) impact of policies, institutions, and regulations on employment and growth;
- (iii) strategies for fostering inclusive growth.
Methodology:
- Draws on theory, cross-country empirical studies, and regional case studies.
- Country case studies adapted to the region where the course is delivered to increase relevance.
Workshops:
- Apply empirical and spreadsheet-based tools to analyze poverty and inequality measures and unemployment trends.
- Analyze the employment impact of labor market policies.
- Discuss and analyze the impact of macro policies on equality, employment, and growth in participants' own countries.

Define the concept of inclusive growth and its many dimensions, outline a framework to systematically analyze inclusive growth issues, and establish the links between growth and inclusion.
Measure the extent to which a country has achieved inclusive growth, by using a wide range of indicators.
Explain the role of fiscal policy in supporting inclusive growth and highlight best practices for designing tax policies and expenditure programs to foster inclusion.
Assess inclusiveness of the labor market, including from a gender perspective; describe how advances in technology may affect inclusion in the labor market; and examine labor market and gender-related policies and their implementation challenges and trade-offs.
Explain why good governance is important for inclusive growth, select key indicators to measure the quality of governance and summarize the policies to improve it.
Identify the key risks to sustainable and inclusive growth related to climate change; design the most appropriate policy mix to address climate change mitigation and adaptation.