'Inclusive Growth, Full Employment, and Structural Change: Implications
and Policies for Developing Asia' discusses policies to achieve
inclusive growth in developing Asia, including agriculture, investment,
certain state interventions, monetary, fiscal, and the role of the state
as employer of last resort.
Felipe argues that full employment of the labor force is the key to
delivering inclusive growth. Full employment is the most direct way to
improve the well-being of the people, especially of the most
disadvantaged. Since unemployment and underemployment are pervasive in
many parts of the region, Asian leaders must commit to the goal of full
employment. The book also analyzes the region's phenomenal growth in
recent decades in terms of structural transformation. Accelerating it is
vital for the continued growth of developing Asia. But efforts to
achieve full employment might be held back given that structural
transformation requires massive labor shifts across sectors, and these
are difficult to coordinate. Moreover, the goal of full employment was
abandoned in the 1970s, and governments and central banks have since
concentrated on keeping inflation low.