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141. Inequality and Mortality: Long-Run Evidence from a Panel of Countries

Author:
Ricardo Hausmann and Edwin Lim
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
We investigate whether changes in economic inequality affect mortality in rich countries. To answer this question we use a new source of data on income inequality: tax data on the share of pretax income going to the richest 10 percent of the population in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US between 1903 and 2003. Although this measure is not a good proxy for inequality within the bottom half of the income distribution, it is a good proxy for changes in the top half of the distribution and for the Gini coefficient. In the absence of country and year fixed effects, the income share of the top decile is negatively related to life expectancy and positively related to infant mortality. However, in our preferred fixed-effects specification these relationships are weak, statistically insignificant, and likely to change their sign. Nor do our data suggest that changes in the income share of the richest 10 percent affect homicide or suicide rates.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, Health, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, Ireland, and New Zealand

142. Jefferson Rebuffed - The United States and the Future of Internet Governance

Author:
Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger and Malte Ziewitz
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
When after years of preparation and consultations, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) concluded in Tunis with the adoption of the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda on November 18, 2005, the nearly fifty heads of state, vice–presidents, and almost 200 cabinet level government officials from around the world hailed it as a great achievement. For many of the 19,000 participants in the three-day meeting, which ended a multi-year process that had officially begun with the first WSIS meeting in Geneva in December 20035, the relief was palpable. Tense negotiations, public diplomacy, and a momentous switch of key players in the months leading up the Tunis event had at times put the prospect of a successful conclusion of the WSIS process in doubt.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

143. The Role of Federalism in Developing the US during Nineteenth-century Globalization

Author:
Eric Rauchway
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
During its development into a continental empire, the US, like other countries relied on the investment of capital and labour from abroad; unlike other countries, the US had a peculiar political institution, federalism, which channeled these resources and also determined the course of protest against these resources. The paper argues that federalism played a key role in determining the course of US economic development and reaction to this early instance of globalization, a role with possible lessons for other countries today.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States

144. Phases of Competition Policy in Europe

Author:
Andreas Resch
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:
In the process of globalization, international convergence of competition legislation has steadily gained importance. Yet, specific aspects of European history gave capital markets, corporate governance and competition policies a special flavor. Historically grown peculiarities have to be taken into account when it comes to evaluate actual policy decisions.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, and Markets
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

145. Importers, Exporters, and Multinationals: A Portrait of Firms in the U.S. that Trade Goods

Author:
J. Bradford Jensen, Peter K. Schott, and Andrew B. Bernard
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
This paper provides an integrated view of globally engaged US firms by exploring a newly developed dataset that links US international trade transactions to longitudinal data on US enterprises. These data permit examination of a number of new dimensions of firm activity, including how many products firms trade, how many countries firms trade with, the characteristics of those countries, the concentration of trade across firms, whether firms transact at arm's length or with related parties, and whether firms import as well as export. Firms that trade goods play an important role in the United States, employing more than a third of the US workforce. We find that the most globally engaged US firms, i.e. those that both export to and import from related parties, dominate US trade flows and employment at trading firms. We also find that firms that begin trading between 1993 and 2000 experience especially rapid employment growth and are a major force in overall job creation.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States

146. What Might the Next Emerging-Market Financial Crisis Look Like?

Author:
Morris Goldstein and Anna Wong
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
This paper addresses the following question: If a financial crisis affecting a group of emerging economies were to take place sometime over the next three years, where would the crisis likely originate, how could it be transmitted to other economies, and which economies would be most affected by particular transmission or contagion mechanisms? A set of indicators is presented to gauge the vulnerability of individual emerging economies to various shocks, including a slowdown in import demand in both China and the United States, a fall in primary commodity prices, increased costs and lower availability of external financing, alternative patterns of exchange rate changes, and pressures operating on monetary and fiscal policies in emerging economies.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and China

147. Postponing Global Adjustment: An Analysis of the Pending Adjustment of Global Imbalances

Author:
Edwin M. Truman
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
Halving the US current account deficit as a share of GDP is likely to impose a burden of $2,350 per capita on the United States, which explains why US policymakers want to postpone adjustment. The rest of the world relies on the economic stimulus of a widening US external deficit, which explains why they are not eager to see global adjustment. The paper examines three scenarios of exchange rate adjustments, calls on the Federal Reserve to take more account of the external deficit in its words and policy actions, and familiarly notes the need for US fiscal adjustment as part of an efficient adjustment process. Complementary policies are required in the rest of the world. The paper discusses the pattern of recent international capital flows and proposes an international reserve diversification standard to remove some of the uncertainty about the management of foreign exchange reserves.
Topic:
Debt, Development, and Globalization
Political Geography:
United States

148. This is Bangalore Calling: Hang Up or Speed Dial? What Technology-Enable International Trade in Services Means for the US Economy

Author:
Catherine L. Mann
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:
Globalization, always a contentious issue, has become even more so with media reports of U.S. service-sector jobs being outsourced to emerging-market economies, such as call center operations to Ireland or programming jobs to India. Traditionally, these jobs have been considered “nontradable” and therefore safe from the competitive forces of international trade and investment. But increasingly, technological advances are making it easier to buy services from other companies, even those in developing countries, where savings in the cost of labor or the opportunity to use the 24- hour clock to speed product develop- ment can be irresistible.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and Ireland

149. Democracy, History, and Migrant Labor in South Korea

Author:
Hyun Park
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
This paper concerns the paradox of democratization in South Korea, whose progression has been entwined with neoliberal capitalism beginning in the 1990s. There have been critical moments of democratization since the military rulers gave in to popular pressure for democratization. These moments range from the recommencement of the popular electoral system in the Presidential election in 1987 to the transfer of the state power to civilian leaders, and the participation of former dissidents in the parliament and the administration. A particular form of democratization addressed in this paper is not electoral state politics but the broad-reaching initiatives to transform the relationship between the state and society. Specifically, I examine the initiative to rewrite colonial and cold-war history. This particular initiative is part of an effort to correct a longstanding tendency of previous military regimes that suppressed the resolution of colonial legacies and framed Korean national history within an ideological confrontation of capitalist South Korea and communist North Korea.
Topic:
International Relations and Globalization
Political Geography:
United States, Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

150. Opening the Realm: The Role of Communications in Negotiating the Tension of Values in Globalization

Author:
Michael Suman
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
We live in an era in which security concerns have become paramount, the forces of capitalism have dealt a death blow to socialist command economies, and the United States is aggressively promoting democracy in the Middle East. In this context, what does the future hold for the values of security, capitalism, and democracy? Historians tell us we also are in the Digital Age—increasingly so with the advent of new communications technologies such as the Internet. What role can the media play in fostering the values of security, capitalism, and democracy?
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, Democratization, and Globalization
Political Geography:
United States and Middle East