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201. In Iraq with the Coalition of the Willing

Author:
Radek Sikorski
Publication Date:
02-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Although the American media seems to focus exclusively on American--and occasionally British--troops in Iraq, the coalition does include soldiers from Central and Eastern European nations, among others. The difficulties of forming ad hoc international coalitions for military operations, however, may lead the United States to rely in the future upon associations like NATO, which are already experienced in coordinating military operations.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, America, Europe, and Middle East

202. "Outsourcing" Is Good for America

Author:
Douglas A. Irwin
Publication Date:
02-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Some critics argue that "outsourcing" of service sector employment to foreign countries will lead to a serious decline in U.S. white-collar jobs. In reality, outsourcing will reshape but not undermine U.S. service sector employment, making companies more efficient. It will also benefit consumers and export businesses.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and Economics
Political Geography:
United States and America

203. The Inefficient Use of Power: Costly Conflict with Complete Information

Author:
Robert Powell
Publication Date:
02-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for International Studies, University of Southern California
Abstract:
Recent work across a wide range of issues in political economy as well as in American, comparative, and international politics tries to explain the inefficient use of power — revolutions, civil wars, high levels of public debt, international conflict, and costly policy insulation — in terms of commitment problems. This paper shows that a common mechanism is at work in a number of these diverse studies. This common mechanism provides a more general formulation of a type of commitment problem that can arise in many different substantive settings. The present analysis then formalizes this mechanism as an “inefficiency condition” which ensures that all of the equilibria of a stochastic game are inefficient. This condition has a natural substantive interpretation: Large, rapid changes in the actors' relative power (measured in terms of their minmax payoffs) may cause inefficiency.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Economics, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
America

204. Copying the Nasdaq Stock Market in Europe: Supranational Politics and the Convergence-Divergence Debate

Author:
Elliot Posner
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Financial arrangements reflect political bargains. Like national labor regimes, the formal and informal rules and relationships governing the allocation of financial resources distinguish one type of capitalist society from another. How firms are financed shapes companies and industries and affects the risks citizens must bear, how they save for retirement, where they work, their job security and ability to buy homes, and the disparity between rich and poor. Leading theories provide increasingly inadequate explanations for changing institutional arrangements in western European finance. They emphasize convergence to global standards and the causal effects of either increased levels of mobile capital or the diffusion of ideas. Or else they describe change within a national trajectory and attribute it primarily to domestic politics, national historical institutions and path dependency. They exclude the possibility of independent regional-level causes. My empirical study of changing financial arrangements for smaller European companies between 1977 and 2003 reveals causes rooted firmly in European Union politics. Neither global forces nor national institutions were primarily responsible for drawing the stock exchanges of Europe into cross-border competition and prompting them to create new US-style markets. Instead, supranational political entrepreneurs, acting with relative autonomy, largely drove this pattern of institutional change. In pushing beyond the international-domestic dichotomy and emphasizing the independent effects of European-level politics, my argument contributes to a growing body of detailed empirical research on the national and global impact of the EU. It also provides more sustained analysis of the causes, mechanisms and effects of adopting US institutional forms outside American borders.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
America and Europe

205. Toward a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific

Author:
C. Fred Bergsten
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) has proposed that the APEC Leaders at Santiago on November 20-21 “agree to further examine the feasibility and potential scope and features of a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).” President Ricardo Lagos of Chile, the host of the APEC summit, has endorsed the concept. I believe that APEC should actively pursue the FTAAP idea. It offers the best prospects of any available strategy for catalyzing a successful outcome of the Doha Round and thus revitalizing the World Trade Organization (WTO). By forging a new transpacific initiative, it can counter the very real risk of disintegration of the Asia-Pacific region that is evident in the progress of Asia-only cooperation on one side of the ocean and a Free Trade Area of the Americas on the other side. It is the best possible device to reenergize APEC's progress toward its own signature trade liberalization goals and thus those of APEC as an institution. It offers a unique win-win-win opportunity that should be seized, beginning at Santiago and then at Pusan a year from now.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Politics, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
America and Asia

206. Doubling the Global Work Force: The Challenge of Integrating China, India, and the Former Soviet Bloc into the World Economy

Author:
Richard B. Freeman
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
In 1985, the global economic world (N. America, S. America, Western Europe, Japan, Asian Tigers, Africa) consisted of 2.5 billion people. In 2000 as a result of the collapse of communism, India's turn from autarky, China's shift to market capitalism, global economy encompassed 6 billion people. Had China, India, and the former Soviet empire stayed outside, global economy would have had 3.3 billion.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Africa, Japan, China, America, India, Asia, and Western Europe

207. America Demands; China Supplies

Author:
John H. Makin
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Say's Law, named after French economist Jean- Baptiste Say (1767–1832), was promulgated at the time of the Industrial Revolution when some feared that purchasing power would be insufficient to absorb the ever-growing output of the newly mechanized economy. It states simply and reassuringly that supply creates its own demand. More specifically, the production of output tends to generate purchasing power equal to the value of that output.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
China, America, and Asia

208. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: Reorganizing for Results

Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:
Of the Department of Energy's $23 billion budget, the $1.3 billion allocated to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) offers important opportunities to assist in resolving one of the major issues facing the Nation today—the need for sources of clean, reliable, efficient, secure and affordable energy. EERE's programs—which include advanced hydrogen fuel concepts, renewable power technologies, transportation and building technologies—are aimed at improving this country's efficient use of energy, increasing the diversity of energy sources on which we rely, and making us less dependent on foreign energy sources. The management of this small office should be of major interest to leaders of both government and industry as EERE leadership tries to ensure that every dollar is used most effectively in the pursuit of its mission to strengthen America's energy security. This was the goal of Assistant Secretary David Garman as he launched a comprehensive reorganization of EERE on July 1, 2002.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, Science and Technology, and Reform
Political Geography:
America and Germany

209. Keeping America in Business: Advancing Workers, Businesses and Economic Growth

Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Assembly at Columbia University
Abstract:
At the close of their discussions, the participants in the 102nd American ;Assembly on “Achieving Worker Success and Business Prosperity: The New Role for Workforce Intermediaries,” at Arden House, Harriman, New York, February 6-9, 2003 reviewed as a group the following statement. The statement represents general agreement; however, no one was asked to sign it. Furthermore, it should be understood that not everyone agreed with all of it.
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Government
Political Geography:
United States, New York, and America

210. Taking Stock of Business: Public Opinion After the Corporate Scandals

Author:
Karlyn H. Bowman and Todd J. Weiner
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
More than a dozen corporate scandals have unfolded since December 2001. How have ordinary Americans reacted? One answer can be provided by the performance of the stock market. Another indicator is public opinion. As some of the key trials get underway, it's worth examining the polls to see how the scandals have affected perceptions of business. The results should provide some warning flags for Congress as that institution takes a closer look at the mutual fund industry.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and America