Rapid growth since 1980 has transformed India from the world′s 50th ranked economy in nominal US dollars to the 12th largest in 2003. When income is measured with regard to purchasing power parity, the Indian economy occupies 4th place, after the United States, Japan, and China. Along with growing incomes, India′s increasingly outward orientation and the growing optimism about its economy has led to a sweeping rise in international investors′ interest. At the same time evidence suggests that income inequality is rising and the gap in average per capita income between the rich and poor states is growing. Election results at the national and state level suggest that unless the issue of growing income inequality and inequality in standard of living is tackled upfront, there is a risk that the economic reform momentum might slow down. If this happens, growth will suffer. This book provides an in-depth treatment of growth and employment issues in India. It reviews India′s long-term growth experience, emerging constraints and challenges, and the way forward for sustaining rapid growth along with more and better employment. Specifically, the book identifies ways in which investment can be improved to raise productivity and reduce the cost of doing business, thereby promoting domestic and foreign private investment. It looks at the growth and productivity challenges of agriculture and suggests policies that will help raise farm productivity and incomes. It explains the reason for the low overall employment elasticity of past growth and why there has been limited expansion of good jobs, and concludes by suggesting critical reform options for increasing employment.

Over the past two decades, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day has been cut in half. How much of that improvement is because of—or in spite of—globalization? While anti-globalization activists mount loud critiques and the media report breathlessly on globalization’s perils and promises, economists have largely remained silent, in part because of an entrenched institutional divide between those who study poverty and those who study trade and finance. Globalization and Poverty bridges that gap, bringing together experts on both international trade and poverty to provide a detailed view of the effects of globalization on the poor in developing nations, answering such questions as: Do lower import tariffs improve the lives of the poor? Has increased financial integration led to more or less poverty? How have the poor fared during various currency crises? Does food aid hurt or help the poor? Poverty, the contributors show here, has been used as a popular and convenient catchphrase by parties on both sides of the globalization debate to further their respective arguments. Globalization and Poverty provides the more nuanced understanding necessary to move that debate beyond the slogans.

The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty looks at the complex relationships between economic growth, poverty reduction and trade, and examines the challenges that poor people face in benefiting from trade opportunities. Written jointly by the World Bank Group and the WTO, the publication examines how trade could make a greater contribution to ending poverty by increasing efforts to lower trade costs, improve the enabling environment, implement trade policy in conjunction with other areas of policy, better manage risks faced by the poor, and improve data used for policy-making.

"This book reviews the literature and presents original research by the authors analyzing job creation in Sub-Saharan Africa in light of economic performance over the decade and more since 1995. The book identifies factors that impact job creation, both inside the labor market (such as labor supply and demand) and outside of it (overall investment climate)."--Jacket.

This report adopts a decent work perspective to approach the challenge of promoting employment and reducing poverty in rural areas by examining issues of employment, social protection, rights and social dialogue in rural areas in an integrated way.