The topics of unemployment, underemployment, wage trends and patterns, and the relationship between poverty and the labour market are of interest to all policy makers, researchers, academics and journalists concerned with economic development. This book traces the evolution of the Indonesian labour market between the early 1970s and late 2000s. This entails a (a) review of macroeconomic policies and their employment impact; (b) review of unemployment and underemployment trends; (c) review of wage trends and living standards; (d) relationship between poverty, inequality and the labour market; and (e) labour market regulations, employment and the business environment. The book comes up with a number of policy-relevant findings. Macroeconomic policies, particularly inflation targeting in the 2000-2007 period, have not been conducive to employment generation. The assumption that unemployment is an appropriate indicator of labour market performance and, more importantly, that it is closely aligned with poverty, is shown to be inaccurate. Sustained real wage growth in the twenty-year period before the 1997 financial crisis is contrasted with the lack of improvement since then, a period otherwise of respectable economic growth by international standards. The predicted adverse consequences of sweeping labour market regulations in 2000-2007 on properly measured employment, unemployment and labour costs did not materialize, mainly because of low compliance. It seems that a restrictive macroeconomic framework has been more constraining for employment growth than the perceived labour market rigidity during the post-crisis period. The book concludes with an evaluation of several ‘reactive’ and ‘proactive’ labour market policies. Though these are complementary, policy makers in Indonesia have probably put too much emphasis on reactive policies such minimum wage and severance pay, and not enough on proactive policies aimed at creating an adaptable and skilled workforce.

Product Description: Whilst good governance is a worthy goal by itself, this book argues that it is not a prerequisite for economic growth or development. Challenging the conventional good governance paradigm favoured by the donor community, this book exposes the methodological shortcomings of the commonly-used governance indicators developed within the World Bank...read more

Product Description: Despite greater efforts in reducing poverty since the early 1980s, poverty remains stubbornly high in many parts of the world. This collection argues that the mainstream perspectives on poverty and deprivation have contributed to considerable distortion and misunderstanding and that is not unrelated to ineffectual policy prescriptions...read more

Product Description: This timely study examines the impact of policies on growth, employment, and poverty reduction in Indonesia, reviewing the periods both before and after the country's 1997 financial crisis and drawing important implications for today's policymakers...read more

Product Description: This Handbook on the South Asian Economies (a companion to the Handbook on the Northeast and Southeast Asian Economies) is a comprehensive and unique collection of original studies on the economic and social development of countries in South Asia...read more

Product Description: As Southeast and Northeast Asia recover from the Asian crisis and return to a state of growth, the authors of this book assess the lessons to be learned from the crisis to achieve sustainable development in the future. While the importance of each factor contributing to the crisis varies from country to country, their collective experience has created unprecedented turmoil in current thinking on development policy...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Within the broad context of development studies, this enlightening book critically evaluates the current orthodoxy, in light of the Asian crisis, and traces the debates among East Asian political economists. It is a valuable resource for all students and scholars of East Asian economics and politics...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Open-Economy Macroeconomics for Developing Countries focuses on fiscal, monetary and exchange rate issues of importance to less developed economies. The book argues that the dichotomy between the short-term macroeconomic stabilization goal and the long-term economic growth objective commonly found in developing countries' policy framework is inappropriate...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Islam and Chowdbury provide an overview of the major economic issues in the Asia Pacific region, as well as individual country case studies. The book is divided into 2 parts: Part I offers new insights into the core issues, the topics discussed include:* macroeconomic management* financial systems and domestic resources* growth, poverty and income distribution* third wave democratizationPart II provides case histories of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and China...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The issue of economic development and monetary stability has produced one of the most passionate debates in economic literature. Yet, much of the evidence employed in this debate is contradictory. Monetary and Financial Policies in Developing Countries: Growth and Stabilization brings together diverse views on the subject within a coherent framework...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Reorientation from economic controls to a market-based approach led to significant changes in the economic policy of developing countries in the 1980s. Yet, with governments continuing to exercise economic management to accelerate growth beyond that achieved by market forces, techniques and models of development planning are still an integral feature of development policy management. Development Policy and Planning provides a non-technical explanation of the main techniques and models used for economic policy formulation. Each technique is illustrated in application through practical examples.

Product Description: The phenomenal success of the East Asian Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs) of Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore is now well-known and documented. Their success has been discussed to such an extent that it has become entrenched as part of the folklore of development economics...read more