Achieving inclusive growth - that is, strong and sustainable economic growth whose benefits are widely shared - is the key policy challenge of our day. Inequality has been rising in many countries, and large income disparities persist across regions, genders, ethnicities, and generations. The COVID-19 pandemic and economic and financial crises have further exposed these vulnerabilities, while longer-term trends, such as climate change and job-displacing technologies, if left unaddressed, pose serious challenges to inclusive growth. These issues are intertwined. They require a holistic framework to examine their interplay and bring the various strands together.

Valerie Cerra, Assistant Director in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, will discuss a new book, How to Achieve Inclusive Growth which addresses these issues. She will provide an overview of the inclusive growth framework and highlight the range of policy interventions required to support strong, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth.

The book - edited by Valerie Cerra, Barry Eichengreen, Asmaa El-Ganainy, and Martin Schindler - draws on insights from leading academic economists and experts from several international institutions to explain the sources and scale of these challenges. It gathers a wide array of empirical evidence and country experiences to lay out practical policy solutions and to devise a comprehensive and unified plan of action for combatting these economic and social disparities.  

Valerie Cerra has been involved in policy advice, lending, and capacity development in the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development, Western Hemisphere, African, European, and Asia and Pacific departments.

She has published widely in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Literature, and Journal of International Economics, on topics related to international macroeconomics, financial crises, economic scarring, and inclusive growth. Her research has won the Emerald Award and has been cited by the media, including the Washington Post and the Financial Times, and by policy leaders, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.