In The News

Globalization’s Unequal Discontents

William H. Overholt January 23, 2007
Sometimes globalization is a mechanism that levels playing fields and sometimes it is a bulldozer. Throughout history, globalization has often enriched business owners and risk-takers, while doing little for ordinary workers. In recent years, the modern workforce has gradually included more workers from China, India and other emerging nations, and that global competition has stagnated wages for...

The Great Unbundling

January 23, 2007
The model of comparative advantage built on the works of Adam Smith and David Ricardo has rarely been challenged as the predominant rationale for international trade. With individual tasks of all sorts increasingly shipped overseas, some economists seek new theories to explain the logic behind the offshoring of services. Gene Grossman and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, for example, have labeled...

Globalism, RIP

Carl Pope January 19, 2007
Trade agreements do not have to ignore social and environmental standards, argues editor Carl Pope in “Sierra Magazine.” Trade agreements, like the Doha Round, will falter as long as negotiators do not prevent the benefits from accumulating among the wealthiest and bypassing the poor, he suggests. In the meantime, protectionist, isolationist and populist movements surge in developing nations....

The Other Malaysia: ASEAN and Globalization

Farish A Noor January 18, 2007
An integrated world economy is seen by many as beneficial for the developing world, but recent events in Southeast Asia cause some to question this optimism. After an announcement to impose controls on foreign capital in Thailand led to a 14 percent drop in Bangkok’s stock market, the newly-installed government was forced to retract its statement in a desperate effort to avoid a repeat of the...

Globalization Story Still Has a Long Way to Go

Daniel Altman January 10, 2007
Analysts may argue that globalization has passed its peak, while encouraging terror, crime and disease. But such analysis ignores the data, argues Daniel Altman who writes a globalization column for “The International Herald Tribune.” Exports of merchandise and trade in commercial services increased by 60 percent, value of global mergers and acquisitions increased by almost 40 percent, and...

Technology, Not Globalization, Is Driving Wages Down

Jagdish Bhagwati January 10, 2007
Confronting wage stagnation, US labor groups blame trade and immigration from developing countries. But economic research does not support the assertion that competition with developing nations reduces either wages or bargaining power, argues Columbia University professor Jagdish Bhagwali of Columbia University. If anything, ongoing technological innovations reduce the need for unskilled labor,...

Erosion of English Skills Threatens Growth in the Philippines

Carlos Conde December 29, 2006
Lawmakers in the Philippines have passed a law making English the primary language of instruction from high school onward, reversing a trend that encouraged instruction in native languages. About 95 percent of Filipinos speak English, but call centers and other business run by foreign firms impose high standards. English skills declined rapidly after a 1987 law required bilingual education to...