Внеаудиторное чтение по английскому языку. Учебное пособие

of halving world poverty between 1990 and 2015 five years early. This implies that the long-term rate of poverty reduction – slightly over one percentage point a year – continued unabated in 2008-10, despite the dual crisis.

A lot of the credit goes to China. Half the long-term rate of decline is attributable to that country alone, which has taken 660m people out of poverty since 1981. China also accounts for most of the extraordinary progress in East Asia, which in the early 1980s had the highest incidence of poverty in the world, with 77 % of the population below $1.25 a day. In 2008 the share was just 14 %. If you exclude China, the numbers are less impressive. Of the roughly 1.3 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day in 2008, 1.1 billion of them were outside China. That number barely budged between 1981 and 2008, an outcome that Martin Ravallion, the director of the bank’s Development Research Group, calls “sobering”.

If China accounts for the largest share of the long-term improvement, Africa has seen the largest recent turnaround. Its poverty headcount rose at every three-year interval between 1981 and 2005, the only continent where this happened. The number almost doubled from 205 m in 1981 to 395 m in 2005. But in 2008 it fell by 12 m, or five percentage points, to 47 % – the first time less than half of Africans have been below the poverty line. The number of poor people had also been rising (from much lower levels) in Latin America and in eastern Europe and Central Asia. These regions have reversed the trend since 2000 (see figure 3).

Figure 3

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All this is good news. It reflects the long-run success of China, the impact of social programmes in Latin America and recent economic growth in Africa. It is also a result of the counter-cyclical fiscal expansions that many developing countries, notably China, embarked on in response to the 2007-08 crisis. Many economists (including some at the World Bank itself) were sceptical about these programmes, fearing they would prove inflationary, inefficient and ill-timed. In fact, the programmes helped make poor and middle-income countries more resilient.

The poverty data chime with other evidence. Estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organisation that the number of hungry people soared from 875m in 2005 to 1 billion in 2009 turned out to be wrong, and were quietly dropped. Derek Headey of the International Food Policy Research Institute has shown that despite the world food-price spike, people’s assessment of their own food situation in most poor and middle-income countries was better in 2008 than it had been in 2006.

Most of the progress has been concentrated among the poorest of the poor—those who make less than $1.25 a day. The bank’s figures show only a small drop in the number of those who make less than $2 a day, from 2.59 billion in 1981 to 2.44 billion in 2008 (though the fall from a peak of 2.92 billion in 1999 has been more impressive).

According to Mr Ravallion, poverty-reduction policies seem to help most at the very bottom. In 1981, 645 m people lived on between $1.25 and $2 a day. By 2008 that number had almost doubled to 1.16 billion. Even if many of these middling poor move up, their places are often taken by those who have just escaped from absolute poverty; population growth does the rest. The poorest of the poor seem to have escaped the worst of the post2007 downturn. But the growth in the middling poor shows there is much to be done.

(The Economist)

3.1 Read the text thoroughly and be ready to arrange the following statements into the logical order of the text:

1 The world reached the UN’s “millennium development goal” of halving world poverty between 1990 and 2015 five years early.

2 In 2006 most of the progress has been concentrated among the poorest of the poor—those who make less than $1.25 a day.

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3 The poorest of the poor seem to have escaped the worst of the post-2007 downturn.

4 The new estimates show that in 2008 both the number and share of the population living on less than $1.25 a day was falling in every part of the world.

5 Africa’s poverty headcount rose at every three-year interval between 1981 and 2005, the only continent where this happened.

6 The past four years have seen the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. 3.2 Match the words with their definitions:

3.3 Insert the correct preposition.

1 They came across many instances ….. discrimination.

2 I found the keys - they were ….. the bottom of my handbag. 3 Australia's unemployment rate rose ….. 6.5 % in February.

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4 We have to make our choice ….. of these three books. 5 The phone rang ….. regular intervals all afternoon. 6 He embarked ….. a new career as a teacher.

7 The results showed a sharp drop ….. profits.

3.4Say whether the statement is true or false. If the statement is false, give the correct variant:

1 The best estimates for global poverty come from the World Bank’s Development Research Group.

2 Of the roughly 1.3 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day in 2008, 1.1 billion of them were inside China.

3 Africa is the only continent where the poverty headcount rose at every threeyear interval between 1981 and 2005.

4 The Food and Agriculture Organisation states that the number of hungry people decreased from 1 billion in 2005 to 875m in 2009.

5 The poorest of the poor seem to have escaped the worst of the post-2007 downturn.

3.5Answer the following questions.

1 What have the past four years seen?

2 Where do the best estimates for global poverty come from?

3 How were the number and share of the population living on less than $1.25 a day changing in 2008?

4 What is the UN’s “millennium development goal”?

5 What is Martin Ravallion?

6 How did Africa’s poverty headcount change between 1981 and 2005? 7 Has the number of poor people been rising only in Africa?

8 How did people in most poor and middle-income countries assess their own food situation in 2008?

9 Whom do poverty-reduction policies seem to help most, cccording to Mr Ravallion?

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10 Do the poorest of the poor seem to have escaped the worst of the post-2007

3.7 Finish the following sentences using the original text:

The past four years have seen the worst economic crisis since the 1930s and… .

1 The new estimates show that in 2008, the first year of the finance-and-food crisis,

both the number and share of the population living on less than $1.25 a day… .

3.9Write out key expressions. Make up a plan for retelling.

3.10Be ready to retell the text in class.

4 Unit 4 Building competitiveness: insider aiding

Europe’s labour markets have favoured older workers at the expense of younger ones. The latest in an occasional series on structural reform

Of all the euro zone’s many problems, youth unemployment is perhaps the most distressing. Joblessness among young workers is around 30 % in Portugal and nearly 50 % in Spain. Above-average unemployment is the norm for young people, even in more liberal markets like America’s. But Spain’s youth unemployment rate jumped by nearly 20 percentage points between 2007 and 2009, compared with a rise of seven points in America. Labour-market regulations take much of the blame: while hard-to-fire older workers luxuriate on permanent contracts, the young are typically hired temporarily and are easier to sack.

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Such “dual” labour markets are themselves products of reform. Although American unemployment quickly dropped following the troubles of the 1970s and early 1980s, European joblessness remained stuck at high levels. Leaders recognised the need to inject more flexibility into the labour market but powerful trade unions headed off a full-frontal assault on workers’ rights. The answer was to create a less-protected class of employees.

The pain in Spain

Spain’s experience is instructive. As the unemployment rate approached 20 % in the mid-1980s, the government introduced fixed-term contracts of between six months and three years, which were subject to lower dismissal costs than those for workers on openended contracts. At the end of a three-year contract firms could either convert a worker to permanent employment or send him packing. The reforms got results. Unemployment fell from nearly 18 % when they began in 1984 to around 14 % six years later.

But the reforms had unintended consequences too. Temporary contracts surged, soon accounting for close to a third of Spanish employment. Workers churned from job to job: just 6 % of temporary contracts were converted to permanent employment during the mid-2000s. When the economy turned down employees were shed in larger numbers and the unemployment rate rose faster than before. Those more likely to be employed on temporary contracts, such as the young, bore the brunt of the pain. The euro zone’s long expansion from the mid-1990s until the crisis of 2008 disguised many of these problems. A construction boom helped Spanish unemployment back below 10 %, even as immigration soared. But the crisis has exposed old weaknesses again.

Volatility is but one cost of dual labour markets. Frequent job turnover makes households’ finances less certain, making it harder, for example, to save regularly for old age. More importantly, temporary employment discourages firms from investing in their workers. The cost to an employer of converting an expiring temporary contract into a permanent one is quite high because of a discontinuous jump in the cost of sacking the worker. So there is an incentive to get rid of him when his contract ends and to invest little in training him (see figure 4).

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Figure 4

This systematic underinvestment drags productivity inexorably downward. A 2011 study by Juan Dolado of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Salvador Ortigueira of the European University Institute and Rodolfo Stucchi of the Inter-American Development Bank pins 20 % of the productivity slowdown in Spanish manufacturing between 1992 and 2005 on temporary work. The young are especially harmed. Between 2005 and 2007 roughly 80 % of Spanish workers aged 16 to 19 were on temporary contracts, compared with 32 % of 30-year-olds and 24 % of 40-year-olds. A lack of training may weigh on them throughout their working lives.

A single, open-ended labour contract, in which severance pay rises continuously with tenure, should increase the incentive for firms to retain more employees for longer and to invest more in the human capital of new workers. Incremental protections should also moderate swings in employment. A study of French and Spanish labour markets found that the recent rise in Spain’s unemployment rate might have been cut by a third had Spain followed the French example of a shallower gradient between labour-market tiers.

At this point, supporters of the model might well point to Germany, where the youth unemployment rate is a mere 7,8 % and overall joblessness is at its lowest level for decades. In many respect Germany’s labour market mirrors that of its peers. It, too,

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responded to eurosclerosis with flexible, second-tier contracts. Permanent positions protected by strong employment rules still dominate its labour market.

But Germany also sought greater flexibility in other areas. Part-time work became increasingly common: Germany’s Kurzarbeit programme, in which firms reacted to recession by cutting hours rather than employees, is just the latest example of this approach. Germany’s better performance also relied on ever-stingier unemployment benefits, which increased labour supply and reduced upward wage pressure. Clauses in collective-bargaining agreements allowed individual firms to stray from wage deals when competitive pressures demanded it.

Dual purpose

Germany may have pursued wage restraint, but that is no easy route to prosperity. Indeed, dual labour markets are more likely to have the opposite effect. Permanent workers fearlessly seek higher wages, confident that job losses will fall first on temporary workers. Soaring Spanish unemployment has produced little wage moderation. During 2009 the pay of permanent workers rose by 4 % in real terms.

And attractive as the German model is now, across decades American jobless rates are tough to match. The Anglo-Saxon preference for little or no employment protection may be the most effective at herding workers from declining industries to growing ones, driving job creation and innovation. Dyspeptic bond markets are now pushing Spain and others towards reforms that make it easier and cheaper to lay off workers again. Not before time.

(The Economist)

4.1 Read the text thoroughly and be ready to arrange the following statements into the logical order of the text:

1 Of all the euro zone’s many problems, youth unemployment is perhaps the most distressing.

2 Germany may have pursued wage restraint, but that is no easy route to prosperity. 3 Unemployment in Spain fell from nearly 18% when they began in 1984 to around

14% six years later.

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4 A study of French and Spanish labour markets found that the recent rise in Spain’s unemployment rate might have been cut by a third had Spain followed the French example of a shallower gradient between labour-market tiers.

5 Such “dual” labour markets are themselves products of reform.

6 The Anglo-Saxon preference for little or no employment protection may be the most effective at herding workers from declining industries to growing ones, driving job creation and innovation.

7 Frequent job turnover makes households’ finances less certain, making it harder, for example, to save regularly for old age.

8 This systematic underinvestment drags productivity inexorably downward.

4.2 Match the words with their definitions:

4.3 Insert the correct preposition.

1 Conference rooms were equipped ….. great expense.

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