{ "title": "Book Reviews: High-Quality Growth", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora", "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora", "overlayPath": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora/index.md", "summary": "Author of review: VIVEK ARORA, deputy director in the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department.", "sections": [ { "heading": "Overview", "content": "- Author of review: VIVEK ARORA, deputy director in the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department.\n- Publication: F&D Magazine, June 2024.\n- Reading metadata from page: Less than a minute(0 words) Read.\n- Reviewed book: Growth: A History and a Reckoning — Daniel Susskind, Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA, 2024, 304 pp., $29.95." }, { "heading": "Main arguments and themes", "content": "- Susskind argues economic policy should broaden focus from aiming primarily to boost GDP growth to considering the costs of such growth as well.\n- Historical view: Economic growth has brought unprecedented gains in human prosperity and well-being across the world for over two centuries.\n- Emerging concerns: Climate change, inequality, and social fragmentation highlight the price of growth.\n- Trade-offs: Policymakers must manage trade-offs between harnessing benefits of growth and reducing its costs; where trade-offs cannot be fully ameliorated, choices among objectives may imply accepting slower growth.\n- Decision space: Susskind suggests leaving hard choices among objectives “to the world of politics.”\n- Normative framing: Susskind frames arguments in terms of things “we” should do, which may assume a common set of interests across diverse populations." }, { "heading": "Policy instruments and recommendations discussed", "content": "- Instruments Susskind suggests using:\n - Taxes and subsidies\n - Laws and regulations\n - Social narratives and norms\n- Policy goal examples:\n - Induce technological progress that is more environmentally friendly.\n - Provide incentives to foster growth that is less reliant on fossil fuels.\n- Strategic point: Where policy cannot reconcile growth with climate and social objectives, slower growth may need to be accepted." }, { "heading": "Critiques, limitations, and open questions", "content": "- Familiarity: Some content will not be new to economists who are already familiar with trade-offs between growth and other objectives.\n- Preference heterogeneity: People’s preferences about the balance between growth and other objectives differ sharply across and within countries; Susskind does not provide a detailed framework for how policy should account for these differences when determining trade-offs.\n- Polarization challenge: Finding a common view may be particularly hard in polarized environments; the book leaves some practical political-economy questions for future work." }, { "heading": "Context and relevance", "content": "- IMF linkage: The IMF has long recognized that the quality of growth is important; quoted historical reference: In 1994, then-Managing Director Michel Camdessus urged a need for “high-quality growth that . . . is sustainable, reduces poverty and distributional inequality, respects human freedom and national cultures, and protects the environment.”\n- Contribution: Susskind’s synthesis is presented as a useful addition to public discussion of growth in a longer-term context; he writes, “We must treasure the future as much as [we] revere the past.”\n\nF&D Magazine — High-Quality Growth, VIVEK ARORA, June 2024\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Book Reviews: High-Quality Growth\n - Book Reviews: High-Quality Growth (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n - Book Reviews: High-Quality Growth (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora" } ], "bullets": [ "[Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora/index.md)", "[Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora/index.json)", "[Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora/bundle-manifest.json)", "Authors: VIVEK ARORA", "Published: June 3, 2024", "Author of review: VIVEK ARORA, deputy director in the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department.", "Publication: F&D Magazine, June 2024.", "Reading metadata from page: Less than a minute(0 words) Read.", "Reviewed book: Growth: A History and a Reckoning — Daniel Susskind, Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA, 2024, 304 pp., $29.95.", "Susskind argues economic policy should broaden focus from aiming primarily to boost GDP growth to considering the costs of such growth as well.", "Historical view: Economic growth has brought unprecedented gains in human prosperity and well-being across the world for over two centuries.", "Emerging concerns: Climate change, inequality, and social fragmentation highlight the price of growth.", "Trade-offs: Policymakers must manage trade-offs between harnessing benefits of growth and reducing its costs; where trade-offs cannot be fully ameliorated, choices among objectives may imply accepting slower growth.", "Decision space: Susskind suggests leaving hard choices among objectives “to the world of politics.”", "Normative framing: Susskind frames arguments in terms of things “we” should do, which may assume a common set of interests across diverse populations.", "Instruments Susskind suggests using:", "Policy goal examples:", "Strategic point: Where policy cannot reconcile growth with climate and social objectives, slower growth may need to be accepted.", "Familiarity: Some content will not be new to economists who are already familiar with trade-offs between growth and other objectives.", "Preference heterogeneity: People’s preferences about the balance between growth and other objectives differ sharply across and within countries; Susskind does not provide a detailed framework for how policy should account for these differences when determining trade-offs.", "Polarization challenge: Finding a common view may be particularly hard in polarized environments; the book leaves some practical political-economy questions for future work.", "IMF linkage: The IMF has long recognized that the quality of growth is important; quoted historical reference: In 1994, then-Managing Director Michel Camdessus urged a need for “high-quality growth that . . . is sustainable, reduces poverty and distributional inequality, respects human freedom and national cultures, and protects the environment.”", "Contribution: Susskind’s synthesis is presented as a useful addition to public discussion of growth in a longer-term context; he writes, “We must treasure the future as much as [we] revere the past.”", "**Book Reviews: High-Quality Growth**" ], "related": [ { "title": "Book Reviews: High-Quality Growth", "role": "document", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/06/books-arora.pdf", "summary": { "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/06/books-arora.pdf.md", "mime": "text/markdown" }, "binary": { "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/06/books-arora.pdf", "mime": "application/pdf" } } ], "alternates": { "markdown": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora/index.md", "json": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora/index.json", "bundleManifest": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/06/book-reviews-high-quality-growth-vivek-arora/bundle-manifest.json" }, "generatedAtUtc": "2026-09-15T19:12:00.997Z" }