In The News

In Europe, Universities Struggle to Compete and Adapt

Nicole Itano August 18, 2006
Publicly funded European universities can no longer compete with top schools in the US, yet angry students oppose proposals for reform. Increasing unemployment makes entry-level jobs for college graduates scarce. Because of limited funds available for university development, some nations implement fees to improve programs. However, most European students expect free tuition and resent the fees....

Skills Outweigh Natural Resources – In Attracting Foreign Investment, Says Afeti

Bennnett Akuaku August 17, 2006
Africa is rich with oil, minerals and wildlife, but with adult literacy and child labor rates at just over 50 percent, the continent remains impoverished. By coincidence or not, Africa’s share of worldwide foreign direct investment in 2005 was about 3 percent, and the same percentage of the African population possesses higher education. Globalization places a premium on skills, suggests higher-...

When Labor Loses Out to Trade

Gustav Ranis August 10, 2006
International trade raises the standard of living for most people in any country, but inevitably results in a loss of jobs for a few. The challenge for governments is identifying and implementing policies that support readjustment of those few workers at a reasonable cost. International trade accounted for about 4 percent of layoffs in Canada, the US and the EU in 2000, according to the...

Economic Patriotism – Blind Alley in a Globalized World?

Patricia Wruuck August 8, 2006
The successful takeover of Europe’s biggest steel company, Arcelor, by Mittal Steel, whose owner was born in India, is a setback for economic nationalists and protectionists. Shareholders, who saw monetary and strategic worth in the Mittal-Arcelor merger, bucked a board of directors that resented any hint of foreign control. Such resistance is not limited to non-European partners. Cross-border...

China Tests US Immigration Plan

June Kronholz August 4, 2006
The US wants to deport 40,000 Chinese immigrants, but China refuses to accept them without asylum-seekers such as Falun Gong members and political opponents as well. China’s refusal undermines US attempts at discouraging illegal immigration. The two chambers of the US Congress have clashed over how to handle the more than 10 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the country, and...

Wal-Mart Finds That Its Formula Doesn’t Fit Every Culture

Mark Landler August 3, 2006
Wal-Mart executives eventually realized that requiring employees to smile at customers or participate in the “morning Wal-Mart chant” at its German stores did not mesh well with either the staid employees or customers. Differences in corporate and national culture, combined with competition from local discount vendors, hampered success of the giant US retailer, which left Germany after eight...

Migration Laws May Be the End of Globalization

Branko Milanovic August 1, 2006
The first worldwide era of economic globalization ended with the carnage and insecurity of two World Wars separated by a Depression, according to author Branko Milanovic. The end of the current era, he writes, will not necessarily come from global catastrophe, but rather with “an economic retrenchment that brings economic stagnation and consigns billions of people to grinding poverty.”...