³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø

Video recording

Event materials

On 31 May Bruegel organised an event in Madrid that aimed to take global, European and national perspectives to discuss the policy-relevant social and economic aspects of inclusive growth. The event was hosted by Fundacion ICO and supported by funding from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

In his keynote lecture Professor Robert Lawrence from the Harvard Kennedy School took a global perspective to assess whether manufacturing can still be a driver of inclusive growth. While manufacturing has traditionally allowed workers without advanced degrees to earn middle class incomes, the share of manufacturing jobs has plunged in advanced countries, as well as not increasing sufficiently in emerging economies. This deindustrialization has arguably produced populist political reactions like Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. What are the structural forces that link manufacturing employment to inclusive economic growth in advanced and emerging economies?

A European perspective was provided by Zsolt Darvas from Bruegel. With only seven percent of the world’s people but about half of its welfare payments, the European Union’s levels of inequality and absolute poverty are low in a global context. Nevertheless EU faces major social challenges and there are large differences between EU countries. Unemployment remains high in a number of member states, while the intergenerational divide between the young and the old has widened. Social mobility is weak, in particular in the more unequal economies of southern Europe, limiting opportunities for the children of poor and disadvantaged families. What European and national policies should foster inclusive growth?

The two presentations were followed by a Spanish perspective from Federico Steinberg (El Cano Royal Institute) and a corporate perspective by Alejandra Kindelan (BBVA).