Overview

The unprecedented progress of East Asia Pacific is a triumph of working people. Countries that were low-income a generation ago successfully integrated into the global value chain, exploiting their labour-cost advantage. In 1990, the region held about one-third of the world's labour force. Leveraging this comparative advantage, the share of global GDP of emerging economies in East Asia Pacific grew from 7% in 1992 to 17% in 2011. Yet the region now finds itself at a critical juncture. Work and its contribution to growth and well-being can no longer be taken for granted. Labour's share activity and rising inequality to binding skills shortages and lagging infrastructure. A key underlying issue is pervasive and persistent economic informality, despite rapid urbanisation, which constrains innovation and productivity, limits the tax base, and increases household vulnerability to shocks. Informality is a consequence of both strict labour regulations and limited enforcement capacity. In several countries, de jure employment regulations are more stringent than in many parts of southern Europe. Even labour regulations set at reasonable levels but poorly implemented can exacerbate the market failures they were designed to overcome. Aggravating these failures further are underinvestment in transportation infrastructure and poor urban planning, limited access to finance for investment and growth, and the failure of the skills-supply system to keep up with the changing demands of modern market economies. East Asia Pacific At Work argues that governments in the region will have to actively help markets sustain the well-being that people can expect from work. The appropriate policy responses to these challenges are to ensure macroeconomic stability and a regulatory framework that encourages the vitality and growth of, in particular, small- and medium-size enterprises, where most people in the region work.

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9781464800047

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