Decent Work and Economic Growth

EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL SPENDING AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN AFGHANISTAN

In Afghanistan, some attention has been given to social condition after the formation of new government. In this paper, I investigated the impact of public social spending on economic growth of Afghanistan. Social spending components are social protection, education, and health in this paper. I have used (OLS) regression method and I found that social spending has a negative impact on economic growth. The relationship between social spending and economic growth is statistically significant.

ANALYZING UNPAID LABOR: WHAT MAKES A WOMAN STAY FAR AWAY FROM DECENT WORK?

Inclusive and sustainable economic growth requires decent work for the labor force. Achieving ‘adequate earning’, one of the elements of decent work identified by ILO still remains a daydream for many a worker, especially among female workers. This study tries to find out the factors affecting a woman’s decision to join the unpaid labor force. Selecting Bangladesh as the ground of the study, it collects the data from National Labor Force Survey- 2013. As the dependent variable in the regressions, participation in unpaid work is binary, nonlinear models are the best for estimation purpose. A profit and a multinomial logit model were run to find the factors. The multinomial logit model also helps to determine to switch between labor market outcomes for women. It is found that an unpaid labor is common among rural young age uneducated or undereducated females dominated by poorly educated male household heads. Other push and pull factors are also identified in this study.

BHUTAN’S PAPER ON DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

This paper presents the sustainable development and its 17 Goals for 2030. It discusses in detail about the 8th Goal that is Decent Work and Economic Growth and how a country transit from having a job to a decent job. All economic growth in the country does not result in a productive job for all men and women where it leads to the conditions of freedom, equality, human dignity, and security. Provision of freedom, equality and human dignity becomes a very important factor in one’s country if the target of a country is to have equal and just society. It is not only important that one achieve material growth in terms of economic prosperity but it is also equally important that along with material growth one should see welfare growth among the society like well-being and peacefulness along with their economic wealth achievement.

A CASE AGAINST THE LABOR CODE ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS BILL (2015)

The Labor Code on Industrial Relations Bill proposed by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in 2015, which allows firms with up to 300 employees to retrench workers at will and without government permission, has reopened the long unsettled debate on what outlook on labor reforms is desirable for a developing country struggling simultaneously with low private investment and dysfunctional worker welfare programs. This paper evaluates the Bill in a historical and comparative perspective. It asserts the necessity of simplifying, streamlining and rationalizing existing statutes but is critical of clauses that seek to weaken worker protection, especially at a time of insufficient and inhospitable jobs, for they would take India further away from providing its workforce the decent employment envisaged under Sustainable Development Goal #8. The paper ends with four recommendations to policymakers, which allow for ‘flexicurity’ policies that yield a labor market flexible enough for easy navigation by entrepreneurs and secure enough so as to not endanger workers’ rights.

WAGE-LED STRATEGY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

This paper basically focuses on the achievement of sustained and inclusive economic growth through the wage-led strategy. Here, the basic consideration is the proposition of wage-led growth where workforce and labor motivation and retention are highly prioritized so as to grab maximum yield leading to sustainable economic development. A thorough study of the wage trends in Nepal as in money wage and real wage shows that a significant concern needs to be given to the wage issues so as to lead the country towards economic reconstruction. This paper argues that wage moderation, accompanied by more flexible labor markets and laws more favorable to employers, will ultimately aid for a more stable economy and a more productive and dynamic economic system. The dependency of the productivity and the wage factors has been shown through a growth model that establishes the relationship between output growth and real unit labor cost.

LABOR STANDARDS AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN PAKISTAN – AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH.

This paper explores the repercussions of decent work deficits on the economic performance and productivity of four Pakistani provinces over a period of 15 years. A multitude of statistical indicators to quantify the degree of decent work by the International Labour Organization (ILO) is utilized to compute a Decent Work Deficit Index (DWD). This index is subsequently utilized to enumerate the relative development of labor markets for each Pakistani province for the stipulated time period. Our study is divided into two parts. The former employs the DWD Index for gauging the relative development of provincial labor markets in Pakistan and highlights the challenges faced by each province. In addition, it tries to analyze the inherent reasons behind these differences. The latter tries to estimate the association of the work indicators on provincial economic performance over the same period to implore evidence for pro-labor development policies for augmented growth opportunities.

MACROECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF DECENT WORK FOR SOUTH ASIA

This paper aims to identify the macroeconomic determinants of decent work in South Asia for the time period 2002 to 2015 focusing on Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The methodology adopted for the study is a canonical correlation. Findings suggested that GDP per capita (PPP), Rule of law, secondary education and trade openness have a positive impact on decent work in South Asian context. The index derived involving the four elements of decent work also show the decent work situation improving in South Asia.