Economic growth linked to pro-poor policies

LAHORE : “Development for an Equitable Society” is a collection of essays covering broad topics like economic growth, inequality, poverty and economics of happiness.

Jamil Nasir, writer of the book, highlights how a common man has been excluded from the process of economic growth and development. He explains through this book that economic growth is necessary but it does not translate into poverty and inequality reduction if not complemented with conscious pro-poor and inclusive public policies.

He divides the book into four parts: Growth, Inequality, Poverty and Economic Progress. In first part “Debt Growth Nexus” he writes about the un-precedents surge and explains fiscal and current account imbalances and erosion of rupee-dollar parity. For fiscal adjustment, there is a need to work on both expenditure rationalisation and domestic revenue generation. He further explains that while rationalising expenditure, it should be kept in view that the hammer of austerity should not fall on the social spending like health, education, or income support programmes meant for the poor and the underprivileged.

In “Reorient the Growth Narrative” Jamil Nasir writes that conventional planning based on capitalist fundamentalism has not delivered in the case of Pakistan and the country needs to reorient its growth narrative.

The book is about the economics of the poor, unprivileged, downtrodden, and man on the street. First part covers various aspects of economic growth. The binding constraint, according to the author, is corruption and poor enforcement of rule of law. Second part he narrates inequality is bad for development as it impacts economic growth negatively through several channels. The inequality is not inevitable. It is a choice of a society that emerges as a result of interplay of political economy factors. Third part is about poverty. He explains in the book that poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon and therefore multiple pathways need to be explored for its alleviation. The final part broadly covers essays about power of land and emphasises that without land redistribution, progressive taxation, inequality reduction, and poverty alleviation, an inclusive, happy and prosperous society cannot be established. Earlier, a ceremony to launch two books of Jamil Nasir was held at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Saturday.