No abstract

At the 99 th session of the International Labour Conference in 2010, constituents endorsed the need to promote a 'pro-employment' macroeconomic framework. It was felt that the current framework, while making an important contribution to the goal of macroeconomic stability, paid insufficient attention to the way in which monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policy, along with capital account management either helped or hindered employment creation and poverty reduction. In the standard framework that has evolved since the days of the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s and 1990s and has remained intact during the 2000s, the emphasis is on attaining key nominal targets pertaining to debts, deficits and inflation. The rationale is that attaining such targets in the medium to long run will engender a predictable macroeconomic environment that is crucial for supporting growth and hence employment creation. It now appears, however, that macroeconomic stability is necessary, but by no means sufficient to engender inclusive, job-rich growth.

This paper explores the way neoliberal ideas have been promoted and resisted in East Asia. The core argument of this paper is that the contest of ideas in economic policymaking can evolve independently of their intellectual merit and empirical credibility. Political interests shape and mediate the process. In the case of post-crisis East Asia, the notion that the political economies of the region need to be fundamentally reformed to re-ignite the 'economic miracle' of the pre-crisis era does not stem from a politically neutral, dispassionate and intellectually rigorous analyses of what went wrong in the recession-inducing 1997 financial crisis that engulfed the region. It represents an attempt to re-invent orthodoxy in the domain of economic ideas and ideology by the global policy community that in turn bears the inordinate influence of US-centric institutions.

No abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of the paper is to review the social consequences of the Great Recession of 2008-2009. In particular, it looks at impacts on the world of work -unemployment, informal and vulnerable employment, working poor and youth unemployment, and on public health -hunger and malnutrition, suicides, domestic violence and child abuse. In all fronts, the Great Recession had serious adverse impacts and morphed into a global social crisis. The situation is made worse due to obsessions with fiscal consolidation in the midst of tepid and uncertain recovery. The paper argues that policies matter and advocates for strengthening social protection and continued stimulus in order to ensure robust recovery. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is a general review and it draws on the findings of the United Nations flagship publication, Report of the World Social Situation 2011. It is an analytical narrative of impacts of on-going economic crisis. Findings -The paper finds a worsening employment situation -rise in unemployment, informal and vulnerable employment, youth unemployment, and working poverty. It also finds adverse public health impacts in terms of rise in malnutrition and hunger, suicide rates, domestic violence and child abuse. Finally the paper finds that policies matters in mitigating worst impacts as well as sustaining recovery.Research limitations/implications -The findings are tentative as the social impacts of economic crisis become obvious after a long time lag. Originality/value -The paper argues that policies matter and advocates for strengthening social protection and continued stimulus in order to ensure robust recovery.