The Global Forum website tries to keep track of the ever changing landscape of trade analysis, measurement of trade and trade statistics. The site keeps a database of links to over 150 relevant publications, reports, articles and speeches.
The full list of featured publications can be found HERE.
The fact that large manufacturing plants export relatively more than small plants has been at the foundation of much work in the international trade literature. We examine this fact using Census micro data on plant shipments from the Commodity Flow Survey. We show the fact is not entirely an international trade phenomenon; part of it can be accounted for by the effect of distance, distinct from any border effect... more »
In many consumer-goods industries big-box retailers have become the gatekeepers of product variety. Manufacturers come knockin’ on these retailers’ doors to gain access to consumers. We first construct a general-equilibrium model of manufacturing and retailing in a global economy to study the causes and consequences of this development and how resources are being allocated between manufacturing and retailing... more »
This article contributes to an assessment and celebration of the scholarly and policy work of the late Sanjaya Lall. As Rasiah (2009) highlights, Lall’s work was at once broad, deep and intensely focused. Over his long career, Lall and his many collaborators used the lenses of the transnational corporation (TNC), competitiveness, globalization and technological learning to uncover… more »
The Social Policy Lectures are endowed by the ILO’s Nobel Peace Prize of 1969 and dedicated to the memory of David A. Morse, Director-General of the ILO from 1948 to 1970. They are held in major universities of the world with the three-fold aim of stimulating the interest of graduate and post-graduate students in international social policy; of promoting academic work in areas of concern to the ILO; and of encouraging greater dialogue between the academic community on the one hand and policy makers… more »
This paper examines the impact of two crises on the global apparel value chain: the World Trade organization phase-out of the quota system for textiles and apparel in 2005, which provided access for many poor and small export-oriented economies to the markets of industrialized countries, and the current economic recession that has lowered demand for apparel exports and led to massive unemployment across the industry’s supply chain… more »
The financial crisis that emerged in the US housing market in 2008 quickly spread around the world to become a truly global economic crisis. While we are seeing output recover around the world, lessons from previous crises tell us that employment is slow to pick up. As a consequence, many of those who lost their job during the crises are still unemployed… more »
The recent large and rapid slowdown in economic activity has resulted in even larger and more rapid declines in international trade. As world trade is set to rebound, this paper addresses three questions: (i) Will trade volumes rebound in a symmetric fashion as world economic growth rebounds? (ii) Will the crisis result in a change in the structure of trade… more »
The media publish economic data on a daily basis. But who decides which statistics are useful and which are not? Why is housework not included in the national income, and why are financial data available in real time, while to know the number of people in employment analysts have to wait for weeks? Contrary to popular belief, both the availability and the nature of economic statistics are closely linked to developments in economic theory, the requirements of political decision-makers, and each country’s way of looking at itself... more »
Reduced barriers to the flow of capital, goods, and services, combined with rapid advances in communication and transportation technology, have for many years been fostering increased specialization of production activity, and this trend continues. The same factors have also led large firms, particularly multinational firms, to reorganize how they manage their operations… more »
The aim of this paper is to analyze the changes in the wage share in manufacturing industry in Mexico, Turkey, and Korea in the era of globalization. The focus is on the one hand over the effects of globalization on the wage share , which are measured by the effects of international trade and FDI intensity of the economy. On the other hand, the process of opening up has been accompanied by major currency crises in most developing countries in the last decade, which has affected the wage share through exchange rate depreciation and economic recession... more »
Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows exceeded the pre-crisis average in 2011, reaching $1.5 trillion despite turmoil in the global economy. However, they still remained some 23 per cent below their 2007 peak. UNCTAD predicts slower FDI growth in 2012, with flows levelling off at about $1.6 trillion. Leading indicators – the value of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and greenfield investments – retreated in the first five months of 2012. Longer-term projections show a moderate but steady rise, with global FDI reaching $1.8 trillion in 2013 and $1.9 trillion in 2014, barring any macroeconomic shocks… more »
