TUAC - TRADE UNION ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE OECD

04/11/2013

As the OECD is working on the pillars and deliverables of its New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC) project, TUAC and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) invited trade union economists for a discussion on the key issues that the project will or should address. Thereby, participants expressed their preferences for substantial changes for future policy prescriptions and indicators.

Amongst various discussion topics, the focus was put on job creation, inequality, global trade and governance issues, and the role of institutions to create inclusive, green and strong economies.
The event had several guest speakers including the Institute’s for New Economic Thinking Executive Director Robert A. Johnson, who spoke on the need to move beyond past omissions and certainties towards a broad political process focussing on renewed economic stability and social as well as environmental well-being. In this respect, Michel Husson of IRES also spoke about the obstacles to tackle unemployment and inequality in Europe and beyond.

Fabian Lindner from the Düsseldorf based Macroeconomic Policy Institute provided his perspective on Germany’s strong showing after the crisis, arguing that labour market reforms did not play a big part in it as it is often assumed. In view of the US job market and rising inequality numbers, Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) demonstrated the root causes as to why there is still little progress towards full recovery. Meanwhile, Dr. Bruno Martarello de Conti from the State University of Campinas elaborated on Brazil’s resilience and income-led strategy.

Professor Amitabh Kundu from the Jawaharlal Nehru University emphasized the need to address not only income inequality but also integrate factors such as life expectancy, health conditions, education and infrastructure into policies – in particular, in view of the urban-rural divide in developing countries.

In parallel, insightful inputs were made by OECD representatives such as Mark Keese, Head of the Division for Employment Analysis and Policy and co-author of the Employment Outlook, Dirk Pilat, Deputy Director of the Directorate for Sciences, Technology and Industry and Chris Barrett, the Australian Ambassador to the OECD.

Mathilde Mesnard, who coordinates the NAEC project, shed light on its structure and current state. According to her, trade-offs between economic growth and innovation with inequality or environmental standards are already being addressed in several work strands of the project considering both current challenges and future mega trends.

The presentations of the guest speakers can be downloaded here.