Can Trade Help Achieve the Employment Targets of the Sustainable Development Goals?
Vandenberg, Paul | January 2017
Abstract
The paper asks whether trade can help to achieve the employment targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. The focus is on Goal 8, which is to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.” The theoretical and empirical links between trade and employment are examined to suggest whether trade has a positive or negative impact on the quantity and quality of employment. At the aggregate level, trade has a positive impact on welfare, which can lead to job creation. However, freer trade causes some sectors and firms to expand and others to shrink. This adjustment process creates both a demand for labor in some sectors and job losses in others. Government policies to cushion the impact of adjustment and facilitate the movement of labor from declining to rising sectors are discussed.
Citation
Vandenberg, Paul. 2017. Can Trade Help Achieve the Employment Targets of the Sustainable Development Goals?. © Asian Development Bank Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/6729. License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.Keywords
Economic planning
Economic structure
Growth policy
Trade relations
Trade policy
Economic development
Trade Facilitation
Trade
Economic integration
Regional Economic Integration
Free Trade
Trade Agreements
Trade Policy
Economic Development
Economics
International Economics
Intraregional Trade
Regional economics
Economic forecasting
Economic development projects
Success in business
Business
Free trade
Business
Economics
Communication in economic development
Restraint of trade
International economic integration
Trade blocs
East-West
Foreign trade and employment
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