Economic growth, social protection and 'real' labour markets: Linking theory and policy

The contributions to this IDS Bulletin are clustered into three thematic concerns: the rise of precarious work, the challenge for social protection and the capacity of macroeconomic policy to generate more and better jobs. This introduction draws out some of these intersecting strands. It argues for the better models of the labour market which can capture the heterogeneous realities on the ground inidifferent regions of the world. These would provide a more grounded basis for the development of social protection responses and macroeconomic policies. It suggests that policy responses to informality should take account of the constraints facing informal entrepreneurs as well as the security needs of informal workers. And it sketches out alternative approaches to macroeconomic policy which are better attuned to the nature of the constraints that prevail in different economies and could generate the resources and the employment necessary for pro-poor growth.