Typical street scene in Santa Ana, El Salvador. (Photo: iStock)
IMF Survey: Crisis Creates Uncertain Future for Global Youth
March 6, 2012
Young people, hardest hit by the global economic downturn, are speaking out and demanding change.
World’s politicians are recognizing that prolonged global crisis is shattering hopes, building tensions, fostering protests (photo: Monique Jaques/Corbis)
FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE
Coming of age in the Great Recession, the world’s youth face an uncertain future, with lengthening job lines, diminished opportunities, and bleaker prospects that are taking a heavy emotional toll.
The March issue of the IMF’s quarterly magazine Finance & Development (F&D) looks at the need to urgently address the challenges facing youth and create opportunities for them.
Harvard professor David Bloom lays out the scope of the problem and emphasizes the importance of listening to young people. Other articles look at the need to improve education and skill levels, the effect of the crisis on youth in advanced economies, and the role of the IMF. We also speak to six young people around the world about their hopes and aspirations and how the crisis has affected them.
IMF Deputy Managing Director Nemat Shafik writes that young people were innocent bystanders in the global financial crisis, but they may well end up paying the heaviest price for policy mistakes. If the right policies are not put into place, there is a risk not only of a lost decade in terms of growth but also of a lost generation, Shafik says.
The magazine also profiles Fred Bergsten, examines the rise of the Chinese currency, looks at the role of the credit rating agencies, discusses how to boost the empowerment of women, and presents a primer on macroprudential regulation, seen as increasingly important to financial stability.
F&D’s home page now has a new feature: all of the popular Back to Basics columns have been collected onto a single page that serves as a one-stop economics learning shop.
Contents of the March issue
Youth in the Balance
David E. Bloom
Frustrated and angry, the world’s young people are demanding change.
Making the Grade
Emmanuel Jimenez, Elizabeth M. King, and Jee-Peng Tan
Revamping what and how young people learn is the best way to help them and their home countries succeed.
Scarred Generation
Hanan Morsy
In advanced economies, the crisis sparked a huge increase in unemployment among younger workers that will take a long time to abate.
Straight Talk: Stolen Dreams
Nemat Shafik
Our ability to set the world economy straight will decide the fate of today’s young people.
Voices of Youth
Hisham Allam, Daria Sito-Sucic, Barbara Fraser, Jacqueline Deslauriers, Julian Ryall, Wale Fatade, and Tolu Ogunlesi
Around the world, young people speak out.
Other articles
Will the Renminbi Rule?
Eswar Prasad and Lei Ye
The Chinese currency is on track to become more important globally, but is unlikely to challenge the dollar anytime soon.
Protecting the Whole
Luis I. Jácome and Erlend W. Nier
Keeping individual financial institutions sound is not enough. A broader macroprudential approach is needed to safeguard the financial system.
Ratings Game
Panayotis Gavras
Private credit rating agencies have been thrust into providing a public function because regulators have not come up with an alternative.
Empowering Women Is Smart Economics
Ana Revenga and Sudhir Shetty
Closing gender gaps benefits countries as a whole, not just women and girls.
Picture This: Growing Out of Poverty
Alicia Bárcena
Poverty in Latin America is at its lowest level in 20 years.
The Global Land Rush
Rabah Arezki, Klaus Deininger, and Harris Selod
Foreign investors are buying up farmland in developing countries.
Snapshot of Another Monetary Union
Alfred Schipke
Moving forward with reforms should help the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union weather the current economic uncertainties.
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down
Atish Rex Ghosh interviews IMF historian James Boughton.
People in Economics
An American Globalist
Prakash Loungani profiles C. Fred Bergsten.
Back to Basics
What Is a Bank?
Jeanne Gobat
Institutions that match up savers and borrowers help ensure that economies function smoothly.
Book Reviews
In the Wake of the Crisis: Leading Economists Reassess Economic Policy, Olivier J. Blanchard, David Romer, A. Michael Spence, and Joseph E. Stiglitz, eds.
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity,and Poverty, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
Finance and the Good Society, Robert J. Shiller