In The News

European Union Tries Rebooting the Economy

Joergen Oerstroem Moeller January 27, 2015
The European Central Bank announced dramatic expansion of its monetary stimulus plan to purchase asset-backed securities and bonds through September 2016 for a total of at least €1 trillion On the surface, the move has similarities to US stimulus measures in play since late 2008, with the US Federal Reserve purchasing billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities, bank debt and treasury notes...

Welcome To Brazil: The Effect of Immigration on the Country's Economy

Arthur Pinheiro Machado January 9, 2015
Countries benefit by attracting and retaining highly qualified immigrants. New entrepreneurs create business and jobs, and can be key to economic development. Secure emerging economies are particularly attractive, and Brazil has seen a recent inflow of such skilled workers, with temporary immigrant numbers rising 135 percent in the last six years. But as Arthur Pinheiro Machado writes in Forbes...

Apple “Deeply Offended” by BBC Investigation

December 23, 2014
BBC reported on poor conditions for workers contributing to Apple products in Asia. Apple responded with a lengthy response on how it strives to improve labor conditions. The BBC Panorama report covered long hours for workers in China as well as illegal mining involving children in Indonesia. “"After years of slow progress and industry excuses, Apple decided to attack the problem by...

10 Insights From a Decade of Measuring the Gender Gap

Saadia Zahidi November 20, 2014
Fair wages motivate employees to work hard to produce and innovate. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index suggests that unequal pay for women represents a huge lost opportunity for many nations. The index tracks national differences and progress, reports Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum: Women are more educated than before though gaps linger for even primary education, and...

Bangladeshi Workers Organize to Protect Their Most Valuable Export: Themselves

Tiffany Williams October 15, 2014
In Bangladesh, a densely populated country of 157 million, export of migrant workers has become a staple of the economy. Lacking viable economic opportunities at home, laborers often look abroad for a source of income. Facilitating such migration has become a business in itself, with agencies charging exorbitant fees. These middlemen, or “Dalals,” have come under intense scrutiny for failing to...

China's Tech Factories Turn to Student Labor

Eva Dou September 30, 2014
Chinese factories that assemble electronics for high-tech firms or their suppliers rely heavily on student interns from vocational schools for labor, reports Eva Dou for the Wall Street Journal. Some students claim they must work 12-hour shifts, six days a week, for three months to a year as a condition of graduation. "China has traditionally relied on migrant workers to man factories in...

The Tale of Two Middle Classes

Branko Milanovic July 31, 2014
Thanks to globalization and trade, middle-class incomes have more than doubled in countries like China and Indonesia, but still remain a fraction of those earned by the middle class in Europe or the United States . Meanwhile, in Europe, the United States and Japan, incomes for the middle class have stagnated even as their richest citizens accrue more wealth, profiting by investing in...