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242. What Goes into a Medal: Women's Inclusion and Success at the Olympic Games
- Author:
- Marcus Noland and Kevin Stahler
- Publication Date:
- 10-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- This paper examines determinants of women's participation and performance in the Olympics. Female inclusion and success are not merely functions of size, wealth, and host advantage, but a more complex process involving the socio-economic status of women and, more weakly, broad societal attitudes on gender issues. Female labor force participation and educational attainment in particular are tightly correlated with both participation and outcomes, even controlling for per capita income. Female educational attainment is strongly correlated with both the breadth of participation across sporting events and success in those events. Host countries and socialist states also are associated with unusually high levels of participation and medaling by female athletes. Medal performance is affected by large-scale boycotts. Opening competition to professionals may have leveled the playing field for poorer countries. But the historical record for women's medal achievement is utterly distorted by the doping program in the former East Germany, which specifically targeted women. At its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the program was responsible for 17 percent of the medals awarded to women, equivalent to the medal hauls of the Soviet or American team in 1972, the last Olympics not marred by widespread abuse of performance-enhancing drugs.
- Topic:
- Education, Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- America and Germany
243. Wages and Labor Market Slack: Making the Dual Mandate Operational
- Author:
- Adam S. Posen and David G. Blanchflower
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- In this paper we examine the impact of rises in inactivity on wages in the US economy and find evidence of a statistically significant negative effect. These nonparticipants exert additional downward pressure on wages over and above the impact of the unemployment rate itself. This pattern holds across recent decades in the US data, and the relationship strengthens in recent years when variation in participation increases. We also examine the impact of long-term unemployment on wages and find it has no different effect from that of short-term unemployment. Our analysis provides strong empirical support, we argue, for the assessment that continuing labor market slack is a key reason for the persistent shortfall in inflation relative to the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) 2 percent inflation goal. Further, we suggest our results point towards using wage inflation as an additional intermediate target for monetary policy by the FOMC.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- United States and Middle East
244. The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership:European Disintegration, Unemployment and Instability
- Author:
- Jeronim Capaldo
- Publication Date:
- 10-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Abstract:
- According to its proponents, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will stimulate growth in Europe and in the US. Projections endorsed by the European Commission point to positive, although negligible, gains in terms of GDP and personal incomes. In a paradox, these projections also show that any gains in Trans-Atlantic trade would happen at the expense of intra-EU trade reversing the process of European economic integration. Furthermore, recent literature has pointed out several problems in the most influential assessment of the TTIP's effects. Projections by different institutions have been shown to rely on the same Computable General Equilibrium model that has proven inadequate as a tool for trade policy analysis. In this paper we assess the effects of TTIP using the United Nations Global Policy Model, which incorporates more sensible assumptions on macroeconomic adjustment, employment dynamics, and global trade. We project that TTIP will lead to a contraction of GDP, personal incomes and employment. We also project an increase in financial instability and a continuing downward trend in the labor share of GDP. Evaluated with the United Nations model, TTIP appears to favor economic dis-integration, rather than integration, in Europe. At a minimum, this shows that official studies do not offer a solid basis for an informed decision on TTIP.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and United Nations
245. A Blueprint for a Comprehensive US Counterterrorism Strategy in Yemen
- Author:
- Danya Greenfield and Barbara K. Bodine
- Publication Date:
- 10-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- With the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the explosion of violent conflicts from Tripoli to Gaza, the Middle East is looking more unstable and unpredictable than ever. While the focus in Washington is centered on jihadist extremists in Iraq and Syria at present, the threat from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) against the United States continues. Top al-Qaeda leadership in Yemen is hailing the territorial gains of ISIS in Iraq, and some al-Qaeda operatives are imitating ISIS' techniques such as public slaughters of those deemed infidels, prompting fears of cooperation between two of the most active Islamist militant networks. Recent aggression by the Houthi movement, a Zaydi Shia rebel militia, against state institutions and tribal opponents has opened a new front of instability and security vacuum that AQAP is all too ready to exploit. Inattention to the interconnected nature of tribal conflict, terrorist activity, poor governance, economic grievances and citizen discontent is proving to be a dangerous combination for both Yemen and the United States. The Yemeni context may seem far from the current focus on Baghdad and Damascus, but getting the US strategy right in Yemen will have consequences for regional stability and core US interests throughout the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Economics, Terrorism, Foreign Aid, Labor Issues, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Arabia, and Syria
246. A Mushrooming business: How Oxfam is facilitating development of the horticulture sector while improving the status of women in Rwanda
- Author:
- Sharad Eldon Mahajan and Laura Kigali
- Publication Date:
- 09-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- What change(s) was this approach intending to influence through its leverage strategy? Oxfam's livelihoods work in Rwanda focuses on women's economic leadership in the horticulture sector. In making women an integral part of the supply chain, we hope to bring about long - term societal change, both facilitating development of the horticulture sector and improving the status of women. We seek to do this by working with and through partners such as the government, private sector, micro finance institutions (MFIs), and civil society, to leverage large - scale change through evidence - based advocacy.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Civil Society, Development, Gender Issues, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Africa
247. Standards, Innovation, and Latecomer Economic Development—A Conceptual Framework
- Author:
- Dieter Ernst
- Publication Date:
- 09-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Little is known about the impact of standards on the economic development of countries which are latecomers to industrial manufacturing and innovation. Standardization is regarded primarily as a technical issue, and hence receives only limited high-level policy support.
- Topic:
- Development, Diplomacy, Health, Industrial Policy, and Labor Issues
248. Does Lean Capability Building Improve Labor Standards? Evidence from the Nike Supply Chain
- Author:
- Greg Distelhorst, Jens Hainmueller, and Richard M. Locke
- Publication Date:
- 10-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
- Abstract:
- This paper offers the first empirical analysis of the introduction of lean manufacturing as a "capability building" strategy for improving labor standards in global supply chains. Buyer interventions to improve supplier management systems have been proposed to augment existing, and widely deemed insufficient, private regulation of labor standards, but these claims have yet to be systematically investigated. We examine Nike Inc.'s multiyear effort to promote lean manufacturing and its associated high-performance work systems in its apparel supply base across eleven developing countries. Adoption of lean manufacturing techniques produces a 15 percentage point reduction in serious labor violations, an effect that is robust to alternative specifications and an examination of pre-trends in the treatment group. Our finding contradicts previous suggestions that pressing suppliers to adopt process improvements has deleterious effects on labor conditions and highlights the importance of relational contracting and commitment-oriented approaches to improving labor standards in the developing world.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- India
249. Parallel Paths to Enforcement: Private Compliance, Public Regulation, and Labor Standards in the Brazilian Sugar Sector
- Author:
- Richard M. Locke and Salo V. Coslovsky
- Publication Date:
- 08-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
- Abstract:
- In recent years, global corporations and national governments have been enacting a growing number of codes of conduct and public regulations to combat dangerous and degrading work conditions in global supply chains. At the receiving end of this activity, local producers must contend with multiple regulatory regimes, but it is unclear how these regimes interact and what results, if any, they produce. This paper examines this dynamic in the sugar sector in Brazil. It finds that although private and public agents rarely communicate, let alone coordinate with one another they nevertheless reinforce each other's actions. Public regulators use their legal powers to outlaw extreme forms of outsourcing. Private auditors use the trust they command as company insiders to instigate a process of workplace transformation that facilitates compliance. Together, their parallel actions block the low road and guide targeted firms to a higher road in which improved labor standards are not only possible but even desirable.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Human Rights, International Law, International Trade and Finance, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
250. The Balancing Act: Women, Work and Family in the United States and France
- Author:
- Anne-Marie Slaughter and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem
- Publication Date:
- 10-2013
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Columbia University World Leaders Forum
- Abstract:
- This World Leaders Forum program titled, The Balancing Act: Women, Work and Family in the United States and France, will feature a conversation between Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister for Women's Rights and Government Spokesperson of France, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, President of the New America Foundation. The discussion will be moderated by Alondra Nelson, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and will be followed by a question and answer session with the audience. In her essay "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," published in The Atlantic in 2012, Anne-Marie Slaughter fueled a national debate on how the difficulties of finding a work-family balance have limited women in the top echelons of business and government. The French Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem defends the belief that national policies can and should be used to support women's personal and professional goals and to implement a "real equality between women and men." These two public figures and high-profile career women will discuss gender equality in the U.S. and in France. They will also discuss strategies to ensure that the next generation of women and men can have enough for all.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and France