"This paper assesses some of the main strands of the theoretical literature on unemployment and employment and shows that their interesting conclusions may not be transferable to low-income countries whose endowment and production structures are profoundly different from that of high-income economies. It then tackles the knowledge deficit on employment creation by shedding light on the new economic opportunities that latecomers may derive from the dynamics of globalization -- especially the economic success of large emerging economies such as China and Brazil. It offers a simple analytical framework for identifying opportunities for labor arbitrage in the global economy and suggests a practical policy framework for exploiting them."

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