Training Catalog Session Details

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.

Participants are expected to have a degree in economics or equivalent experience. Access to a computer with a reliable Internet connection and a Google Chrome web browser is essential.

This online course, presented by the IMF's Institute for Capacity Development, is to broaden the participants' understanding of the relationship between macroeconomic policies and reforms, competitiveness, and growth. Developments around the world have brought to the fore concerns about poor growth prospects, high unemployment, and inequities in income and opportunities. Against this backdrop, the course will focus on the micro and macro policies to promote economic growth, employment growth and equitable income distribution. The course will examine the different channels through which economic policy reforms could promote inclusive and job-creating growth. In doing so, the course will address both traditional approaches that emphasize capital accumulation and productivity growth through knowledge acquisition as well as recent approaches - non aggregative approaches that emphasize misallocation of resources and imperfections in credit and government institutions. The empirical links between growth, employment and income distribution would be interpreted in light of these different models. The course will highlight the role of critical policies that translate economic growth into poverty reduction and broad-based improvements in living standards.The course will draw on theory, cross-country empirical studies, and case studies of experiences in several regions of the world. Key topics the course will cover include (i) employment-growth linkages; (ii) impact of policies, institutions, and regulations on employment and growth; and (iii) strategies for fostering inclusive growth. Workshops will give participants an opportunity to apply empirical and spreadsheet-based tools to analyze poverty and inequality measures and unemployment trends and the employment impact of labor market policies. In addition, workshops will give participants an opportunity to discuss and analyze the impact of macro policies on equality, employment, and growth in their own country. Country case studies used in the workshops/lectures will be adapted to the region where the course is being delivered in order to increase their relevance to course participants.