Annual Conference on Effect of Social Policy on Domestic Demand

Course Description

The ADB Institute has organized a series of conferences on the global financial crisis that analyzed its impacts on Asian countries, developed scenarios for growth rebalancing away from exports to developed countries, and developed recommendations on macroeconomic policy, regional integration, and financial reform. This year’s Annual Conference pursues the same objective of formulating appropriate long term responses to the global financial crisis, focusing on social policies and their impact on domestic demand. The key question is: can improved social protection policies help reduce savings in Asian countries with very high saving rates and induce a long-term increase in consumption spending?

Aims of the conference include:

1. analyze the theoretical and empirical relationship between social protection, household savings and income drawing from the experiences of various countries.;
2. analyze the relationship of other related factors such as quality of public governance, demographic developments, and income distribution between labor and capital on savings and demand; and
3. examine the potential impact of increased social protection spending on savings in countries in Asia, especially China.

Back to Top

Objectives

The conference will review evidence and analysis of the relationship between social protection policies and household income and savings to draw conclusions for rebalancing growth in Asia. The main areas included in this conference are:

• Experience of social protection policies in developed and emerging economies;
• Demographic impacts on savings, especially population ageing;
• Labor market policies and income distribution effect on spending;
• Implications for savings and consumption of social protection policies

Back to Top

Outputs

This activity will produce:

1. Completed conference papers;
2. ADBI Research Policy Brief;
3. Some ADBI Working Papers; and
4. A book.

Back to Top

Language

English