The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) is delighted to invite you to an online seminar titled Understanding the Social Acceptability of Structural Reforms on Monday, October 21, 2024, from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm.

The seminar will feature a presentation by Nick Sander, Economist, Economic Modelling Division of the IMF’s Research Department and Hippolyte Balima, Economist, World Economic Studies Division of the IMF’s Research Department. This will be followed by a conversation with Renu Kohli, Senior Fellow, CSEP.

The seminar will be live-streamed on Zoom and the CSEP YouTube channel.

Register here to attend.

About the event

The presentation will be based on the thematic chapter titled “Understanding the Social Acceptability of Structural Reforms” in the latest World Economic Outlook Report by IMF which is scheduled to be released on the same day.

As the world grapples with a prolonged period of economic weakness, demographic shifts, and the imperative of navigating the green transition and technological upheavals, the urgency for structural reforms is clearer than ever. Policymakers are being urged to implement policies that foster competition, facilitate resource allocation to emerging sectors, and bolster labour supply amid ageing populations. However, despite the clear need for action, securing broad social acceptability for these changes has often been a significant obstacle, with reform efforts waning since the global financial crisis amid rising public resistance. This chapter explores the factors that shape public attitudes toward policy changes and assesses the effectiveness of various strategies for increasing the social acceptability of reforms. It finds that resistance to policy change often transcends economic self-interests and instead is deeply rooted in behavioural factors that include perceptions, misinformation, and trust deficits. Information strategies that raise awareness about the need for reform and correct misinformation about policies and misperceptions about how they work can significantly boost reform support. However, effective strategies require more than just better communication. They must be backed by a strong institutional framework that fosters trust and a two-way dialogue from the early stages of policy design. A thorough consultation with all stakeholders and the public is essential to identify mitigating measures for addressing the personal and societal concerns that undercut support for reform. This chapter underscores that informed, inclusive, and trust-based approaches not only can enhance the quality of policies but also can significantly improve the likelihood of implementing and sustaining structural reforms that are critical to boosting productivity, employment, and growth at this juncture.

Presenters

• Nick Sander is an economist in the Economic Modelling Division of the IMF Research Department. Before joining the Fund, Nick was a Senior Economist at the Bank of Canada and at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. His research focuses on production networks and understanding the macroeconomic effects of supply shocks. He obtained his PhD from the University of California – Berkeley.
• Hippolyte Balima is an economist in the World Economic Studies Division of the IMF’s Research Department. He has previously worked on IMF programs, bilateral surveillance, and capacity development in the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as in the Monetary and Capital Markets Departments. Before joining the IMF, he worked at the World Bank in the Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management Global Practice. Hippolyte’s research has been published in several academic journals, including the Journal of Development Economics, European Economic Review, and IMF Economic Review, and he has contributed to various IMF policy publications. He holds a PhD from CERDI, France.

Conversation With

Renu Kohli is an economist with research and practitioner experience on macroeconomic policies and issues. She has previously worked with the RBI, the IMF and think tanks including ICRIER and the Institute of Economic Growth. Her work has focused on financial sector liberalisation, capital flows and exchange rate management in emerging markets with a special India focus, international macroeconomic coordination, and recently, the macroeconomic impact of decarbonisation in India. She has been published in refereed journals such as the Review of Development Economics, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Asian Economics, Oxford University Press, IMF Working Papers, RBI Staff papers, and contributed to edited volumes. She has exposure to multilateral surveillance including Article IV missions; as a short-term expert with the IMF Institute, her training missions include courses on financial programming & policies and macroeconomic diagnostics. Dr Kohli has wider engagement with the private financial sector and investors through talks, presentations and consultation on Indian macroeconomic policies. She also serves as an independent director on the board of NCML Ltd and NFIN.

Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.