Globalization, Roundaboutness, and Relative Wages

We depart from the trade and wages literature and its emphasis on North-South trade, examining North-North by developing the basic linkages between trade-based integration and relative wages in an Ethier-type division of labor model. Using this model we identify a formal relationship between international trade, productivity, and wages. We then examine the trivariate relationship between trade, growth in total factor productivity (TFP), and the skill premium in a vector autoregression framework. We find evidence of a long-run relationship between growth in intermediate goods and changes in TFP. Controlling for this relationship we also find a positive relationship between trade and the skill-premium

Trading Up the Happiness Ladder

How globalization affects happiness is highly disputed. Several studies use an index that amalgamates globalization's different dimensions into a single variable. Unlike previous studies and in order to better illuminate its facets, we adopt a disaggregated perspective on trade (policy) data. Distinguishing actual trade flows and the option value of trade, we find the former to slightly depress happiness, the latter to significantly promote happiness. Segmentation of WVS-data shows that the positive connotation is concentrated in low-income countries still in the process of climbing the income ladder, thus backing the notion of a shift in values

Globalization and European labour markets

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3597.9512(1992) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Fragmentation, globalization and labour markets

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:7755.04292(2001/05) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Grundlagen der EU-Regionalpolitik und Ansätze zu ihrer Weiterentwicklung

Der Artikel behandelt die theoretische Fundierung der EU-Regionalpolitik und Ansätze zu ihrer Weiterentwicklung. Die Modelle der neuen Außenhandelstheorie zeigen, dass Liberalisierung nicht immer und unmittelbar für alle Teilnehmer vorteilhaft ist. Auch wenn die langfristigen Vorteile von Liberalisierung unbestritten sind, können temporäre Anpassungskosten Liberalisierung verhindern. Periphere Länder könnten ihre Zustimmung verweigern, solange ihre Schwierigkeiten, an den Integrationsfortschritten teilzuhaben, dabei nicht ausreichend berücksichtigt werden. Dies ist ein Argument für Regionalpolitik nicht (nur) als Verteilungs-, sondern auch als Allokationsinstrument. Eine solche Regionalpolitik sollte nicht als ungebundener Finanzausgleich organisiert sein, sondern in Form einer Kofinanzierung zielgerichteter Entwicklungsprogramme erfolgen. Anderenfalls würden die Empfänger versucht sein, den Mittelzufluss auch distributiv zu verwenden, was in jedem Fall zu vermeiden ist. Künftige Reformen könnten auf eine stärkere Konzentration der Mittel auf arme Mitgliedstaaten, auf eine stärkere Regelbindung bei der Festsetzung der Förderhöhe und auf eine graduelle Kopplung der Förderung an eine wachstumsorientierte nationale Wirtschaftspolitik zielen. Abstract The paper deals with the theoretical foundations of regional development measures of the European Union (EU) and options for its development in the future. It appears that, according to new trade theory models, liberalisation is not always immediately beneficial for all participants. Although the long-term benefits of liberalisation are undisputed, temporary adjustment costs may prevent liberalisation measures. Peripheral countries may not agree to them as long as their problems in participating in an integrated market are not taken into account. This is an argument in favour of regional policy as an instrument of allocation, not (only) distribution. Such a regional policy should be implemented not in the form of unconditional grants but as co-financing of targeted regional development programmes. Otherwise, receivers would be tempted to use grants for distributional purposes which is to be avoided. Future reforms might aim at a higher concentration of funding on poor Member States, at an allocation of funding that follows rules rather than political discretion and at coupling support gradually to a growth-orientated national economic policy