In this respect, the empirical evidence available on 9/14  the effects of increases in the minimum wage offers a wide variety of results, although in general, it tends to suggest that an increase in the minimum wage has a negative – although limited – effect on aggregate employment in the economy. Nonetheless, according to this same evidence, the impact on the probability of job loss is significant in the case of certain groups, such as lesser-skilled youths and elderly workers, whose unemployment rate is still very high and whose level of productivity is below the average. The level of the national minimum wage and its annual increases should therefore be designed bearing in mind the productivity of the workers affected and their level of employability if it is wished to avoid undesirable effects, in the form of job loss and increased inequality. To address the challenges of our labour market, economic policy should firstly move on evaluating active policies, especially among the lesser-skilled, in order to focus resources on those measures most effective with a view to increasing employability. Secondly, future changes in the labour market should serve to make progress in reducing temporary employment and excessive job turnover, without hindering job creation and, in particular, permanent job hires. Thirdly, mechanisms should be set in place to provide for a greater alignment of each firm’s wage conditions with their level of productivity.
First, countries could come to a common understanding about the core elements and principles governing their financial markets development and regulations. Full harmonisation is neither desirable nor feasible. But policy‐induced divergences may prove very destabilising and lead to a reduction in welfare. It should be possible to agree on the core principles governing, for instance, capital account regimes, the treatment and resolution of internationally‐active financial institutions, deposit insurance, and the organization and functioning of securities markets. Divergences in financial development are a fact of life. Some of them reflect true social choices and preferences that must be respected and accommodated. Others result from deliberate or inadvertent policy‐induced distortions, which should have been reduced or eliminated. Disentangling these two sources of divergences in financial development should be a priority in the international agenda. Second, the search for an efficient and powerful “financial safety net” should be pursued. Stabilising the demand for international reserves would bring huge benefits in terms of world welfare. At present, reserve accumulation can only occur through a conjunction of balance of payment surplus and some degree of exchange rate intervention. In addition, if sterilisation proves difficult or impossible, it also leads to unwanted changes in monetary policy. Precautionary reserve accumulation, however legitimate, unavoidably creates side effects for domestic macro policies as well as spillover effects on other countries. All countries, therefore have a common interest in finding ways to disconnect reserve accumulation from exchange rate management and, more generally, from balance of payment situations and monetary policies. The difficulties, however, are huge.