In The News

US Immigration Policy Likely to Boost Population

Joseph Chamie July 30, 2009
Demographic trends, often ignored by policymakers, are clearly linked with the US’ immigration policy. If Congress and the Obama administration plan to implement an effective immigration policy, they need to understand how over time it will affect the country’s population figure. As demographer Joseph Chamie notes, policy makers should start by asking how large should the US’ population be....

Globalization From Inside Out

Jason Lim July 22, 2009
Korean politicians are fond of claiming that Korea’s cutting-edge technology industry will be the engine of its success in the global economy. However, managing editor of the Korea Policy Review Jason Lim contends that relying on the ability to churn out the latest in high-tech gadgets is no recipe for long-term success in a globalized world. Instead, he argues, Korea should focus on training its...

Asia Will Struggle to Escape Its Export Trap

David Pilling June 29, 2009
Despite much talk of a rising middle class that can support domestic growth, Asia’s dependence on exports has increased, not fallen. Although interregional trade has risen, most of it is in components, with the finished goods destined for the US and Europe. And in China, personal consumption as a percentage of GDP has actually shrunk. Indeed, as one expert argues, export economies are set up to...

The China Barrier

Nayan Chanda June 26, 2009
In the world of ideas, globalization inhabits a happy realm where goods, capital, and people flow freely, guided by the over-arching force of utility maximization. But the real world is much more jagged. Labor flows face consistently higher friction than idealized. And capital, when supplied by a government-owned corporation, has also faced substantial roadblocks. While the reasons oft-cited for...

Can Governments Till The Fields Of Innovation?

Steve Lohr June 24, 2009
Innovation has long been seen as the product of hard work, luck, belonging to the private sector. But governments around the world are now trying to accelerate and influence domestic innovation. Several countries now have governmental leaders or even whole departments designed to spur growth through innovation. Much of the governments’ presence in the field of innovation deals with attempting to...

The Goodness of Globalisation

Lord Mandelson June 15, 2009
World Trade Week may have been based in the UK, but it was aimed at sending the world a very powerful message: protectionism is not the way out of the current global recession. As UK Secretary of State for Business Lord Mandelson points out, it was the dismantling of global trade barriers over the last 80 years that led to the past century’s unrivaled economic progress. And, although times are...

Tunnels, Guns and Kimchi: North Korea’s Quest for Dollars – Part II

Bertil Lintner June 11, 2009
In this second part of our two part series on North Korea’s clandestine economy, journalist and author Bertil Lintner describes the demise of many North Korean-owned restaurants in Asia due to the economic crisis. Often titled Pyongyang, these restaurants once catered mainly to South Korean tourists, offering familiar food and entertainment. But the restaurants were thought to be money-laundering...