Harnessing Globalization

How can countries in the underdeveloped world position themselves to take best advantage of the positive economic benefits of globalization? One avenue to success is the harnessing of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the “nontraditional” forms of the high-technology and service sectors, where an educated workforce is essential and the spillover effects to other sectors are potentially very beneficial. In this book, Roy Nelson compares efforts in three Latin American countries—Brazil, Chile, and Costa Rica—to attract nontraditional FDI and analyzes the reasons for their relative success or failure. As a further comparison, he uses the successes of FDI promotion in Ireland and Singapore to help refine the analysis. His study shows that two factors, in particular, are critical. First is the government’s autonomy from special interest groups, both domestic and foreign, arising from the level of political security enjoyed by government leaders. The second factor is the government’s ability to learn about prospective investors and the inducements that are most important to them—what he calls “transnational learning capacity.” Nelson draws lessons from his analysis for how governments might develop more effective strategies for attracting nontraditional FDI.

Collecting all the results on the particular types of inequalities, the coverage of this book is unique among textbooks in the literature. The book focuses on the historical development of the Carlson inequalities and their many generalizations and variations. As well as almost all known results concerning these inequalities and all known proof techniques, a number of open questions suitable for further research are considered. Two chapters are devoted to clarifying the close connection between interpolation theory and this type of inequality. Other applications are also included, in addition to a historical note on Fritz Carlson himself.

Aid for trade can support countries trying to further benefit from the expanding global market place by helping to address poorly performing infrastructure and institutions. Needless to say, good policies also matter: trade liberalization, improving incentives for private investment in trade, and reducing the costs and improving the quality of services. Market access also matters; accordingly, a successful conclusion to the Doha Round remains a top policy objective. The paper highlights three challenges and suggests some areas for further consideration/action: making competitiveness a pillar of country growth strategies; filling the remaining gaps in trade-related assistance; and expanding the overall aid envelope and making full use of opportunity to replenish the International Development Association.

Reviews the literature on the expanding globalization process with particular reference to the relocation of production and its potential to increasing convergence between rich and poor nations. Highlights the pathways into agriculture, manufacturing, services, financial integration, and the role of international migration. Concludes with reflections about key issues of international policy and national policies.

Is foreign direct investment good for development? Moving beyond the findings of his previous book Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Development? (CGD and IIE, 2005), Theodore H. Moran presents surprisingly good --and startlingly bad --news. The good news highlights how foreign direct investment can make a contribution to development significantly more powerful and more varied than conventional measurements indicate. The bad news reveals that foreign direct investment can also distort host economies and polities with consequences substantially more adverse than critics and cynics have imagined. This book rigorously examines the principal controversies and debates about FDI in manufacturing and assembly, extractive industries, and infrastructure, in light of new evidence and analysis. Written in engaging prose, it identifies how developed and developing countries, multilateral lending agencies, and civil society can work in concert to harness foreign direct investment to promote the growth and welfare of developing countries.

European politicians often speak of their efforts to 'manage globalization.' At one level, this is merely a rhetorical device to make globalization more palatable to citizens and prove that policy-makers are still firmly in control of their country’s fate. This volume argues that the advocacy of managed globalization goes beyond rhetoric and actually has been a primary driver of major European Union (EU) policies in the past twenty years. The EU has indeed tried to manage globalization through the use of five major mechanisms: 1) expanding policy scope 2) exercising regulatory influence 3) empowering international institutions 4) enlarging the territorial sphere of EU influence, and 5) redistributing the costs of globalization. These mechanisms are neither entirely novel, nor are they always effective but they provide the contours of an approach to globalization that is neither ad hoc deregulation, nor old-style economic protectionism. The recent financial crisis may have seemed initially to vindicate the European efforts to manage globalization, but it also represented the limits of such efforts without the full participation of the US and China. The EU cannot rig the game of globalization, but it can try to provide predictability, oversight, and regularity with rules that accommodate European interests. This book was based on a special issue of Journal of European Public Policy.

Erudite and topical, this well balanced treatment, with essays from world renowned contributors including the former President of Ireland – Mary Robinson, Jagdish Bhagwati and Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, considers the forces that propel globalization and those that resist it. Local and regional experiences from Bangladesh, China, India, Latin America and the Middle East are analyzed along with some of globalization’s most potent risks. Giving voice to sophisticated and illustrative reasoning, The Future of Globalization offers useful insights into the extraordinary human achievement brought about by increasing international economic integration, interdependence and interconnectedness, and shows how this has been a powerful force for the progress of humankind. The contributors take stock of the debate on globalization and explore ways to make globalization more beneficial for individuals, communities and countries, as well as ways to reduce its insufficiencies and mitigate the risks it faces. This book will benefit all students of economics, political science and international relations, among others, and is useful to courses that focus on globalization and its impacts.