This paper outlines a methodology for assessing the cost of internal and external obstacles affecting the performance of the value chains serving local producers in developing countries as a means of identifying high impact interventions that would contribute to the country's successful integration into regional and global markets. The objective is to create a single measure of the effect of such barriers in order to illustrate the value of examining internal reforms (i.e., those steps essential to regional integration "behind the border") as well as export barriers in developing a regional integration strategy that makes sense in the context of the accelerating integration of global markets.
August 2009 Archives
Keynote Address to the Tax Counsel Policy Institute, February 25, 2009. Reprinted in Taxes - The Tax Magazine, June 2009.
While the forces driving globalization have fundamentally altered the basis of economic competition, U.S. economic policy in general, and tax policy in particular, have failed to keep pace. Rather than coming to grips with the challenges that American firms and workers face competing in a knowledge-driven, globalized world economy, the political debate over globalization has been confined to the narrow arena of trade policy, missing the broader forces shaping America's economic future. Drawing on examples in the tax arena and others, the address illustrates the approach U.S. economic policy must adopt in order to ensure economic growth, rising productivity, a rising standard of living and a more broadly-shared prosperity.
While the forces driving globalization have fundamentally altered the basis of economic competition, U.S. economic policy in general, and tax policy in particular, have failed to keep pace. Rather than coming to grips with the challenges that American firms and workers face competing in a knowledge-driven, globalized world economy, the political debate over globalization has been confined to the narrow arena of trade policy, missing the broader forces shaping America's economic future. Drawing on examples in the tax arena and others, the address illustrates the approach U.S. economic policy must adopt in order to ensure economic growth, rising productivity, a rising standard of living and a more broadly-shared prosperity.
Report of a Conference Sponsored by the Government of Sweden (September 2009).
The report explores four areas on the cutting edge of trade theory and trade policy - (1) the impact of changing patterns of trade and investment in the global economy on both the conduct of world trade and trade theory; (2) the challenge of integrating trade and environmental goals, particularly in developing a global response to the challenge of climate change; (3) the role of trade in reducing global poverty, particularly how trading partners could bargain more directly for development; and (4) defining the World Trade Organization's role in a new international economic architecture, as well as the means for overcoming the institutional challenges the WTO faces in fulfilling its role as a pillar of global economic governance. The report also includes a summary of the keynote address provided by Dr. Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Economics, on the links between trade and the current economic crisis, and remarks by Dr. Ewa Björling, Sweden's trade minister on the challenges facing the global trading system.
The report explores four areas on the cutting edge of trade theory and trade policy - (1) the impact of changing patterns of trade and investment in the global economy on both the conduct of world trade and trade theory; (2) the challenge of integrating trade and environmental goals, particularly in developing a global response to the challenge of climate change; (3) the role of trade in reducing global poverty, particularly how trading partners could bargain more directly for development; and (4) defining the World Trade Organization's role in a new international economic architecture, as well as the means for overcoming the institutional challenges the WTO faces in fulfilling its role as a pillar of global economic governance. The report also includes a summary of the keynote address provided by Dr. Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Economics, on the links between trade and the current economic crisis, and remarks by Dr. Ewa Björling, Sweden's trade minister on the challenges facing the global trading system.
Grant Aldonas
The purpose of the Idea Lab is to create a space in the public debate where innovative ideas on public policy can be considered and refined. The goal is not simply to generate debate, but to drive ideas toward a synthesis that could shape the policy response in positive ways.
