Author: betlhamehailu

Webinar: Innovations in Digital Trade: The Sequel

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events, Seminar

Thursday July 16, 2020

11:00AM – 12:00PM EDT

via Zoom.us

Register Here!

The US and the UK have a long history of collaborating to create innovative trade agreements. Continuing our discussions on innovations in digital trade and data governance, our next webinar will address how the two nations may negotiate the digital trade chapter of the proposed US/UK trade agreement. The UK’s approach may build on its draft negotiating language for its free trade agreement with the EU, while the US plans to include “state of the art” rules, including a ban on mandates to disclose source code and algorithms and “rules limiting platform liability for third-party content.” Please join us on Thursday, July 16. Our speakers will include:

 

– Sabina Ciofu, Head of EU and Trade Policy, techUK

– Sam duPont, Deputy Director, Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative, German Marshall Fund (former Director, Digital Trade, Office of the US Trade Representative)

– Nigel Cory, Associate Director, Trade Policy, Information and Technology Innovation Foundation (and former Australian trade official)
 
– Susan Aaronson, (moderator) Research Professor and Director of the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, also GWU Cross-Disciplinary Fellow and Senior Fellow at CIGI

This event is co-sponsored by Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub; UK Trade Policy Observatory; Internet Society: Greater Washington DC Chapter; George Washington Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER); Centre for International Governance Innovation; World Wide Web Foundation; and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

Just Governance: Lessons on Climate Change Justice from People in Poverty

Economics of Ultra-Poverty Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events, Seminar

Tuesday, June 16, 2020
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
WebEx

We are pleased to invite you to the third webinar of the “Facing Inequality” series, hosted by the Institute for International Economic Policy. This virtual series focuses on current and emerging inequality issues in the U.S. and around the globe – especially those revealed by the current COVID-19 pandemic. It brings together historians, economists, sociologists, political scientists, and epidemiologists, within the academy and without, to present work and discuss ideas that can facilitate new interdisciplinary approaches to the problem of inequality. This is a platform for dialogue and debate. We invite you to engage with us in this series of important discussions.

The “Facing Inequality” series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Director James Foster, Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Faculty Affiliate Trevor Jackson, Assistant Professor of History. The series is co-sponsored by the GW Interdisciplinary Inequality Series, co-organized by Prof. Jackson from the Department of History and Prof. Bryan Stuart from the Department of Economics. 

 
The third event, “Just Governance: Lessons on Climate Change Justice from People in Poverty”, focuses on issues of climate change and inequality. Specifically, the discussion will prompt attendees to ask, as our world faces catastrophic climate change and related global injustice and oppression, what can those living in the poorest communities most vulnerable to its effects teach us about its causes? Drawing on interdisciplinary and collaborative research in southwestern Bangladesh, this talk shifts the paradigm of responsibility for climate change from the familiar terrain set out by law, economics, and moral philosophy focused on ‘commons’ problems and distributive inequalities to one centered on the lived experience of climate change. Those living with environmental degradation that is exacerbating with climate change and that foreshadows the effects of climate change elsewhere offer clarifying insight into the kinds of normative problems that climate change raises for both justice and governance. Relying on community fabric worn thin by the legacies of colonialism, foreign aid experiments, and exploitable social hierarchies, these communities’ experiences and reflections have implications for how political theorists and policy-influencers, especially large global philanthropists and investors, do and should attend to justice and governance in their work for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and survival.

The climate change crisis reveals the full gamut of humanity’s failure to govern itself in ways that do not exploit nature and humans. This talk identifies what those in poverty most urgently facing the consequences of this failure can teach those must urgently trying to address it. Richly informed by ethnographies, surveys, interviews, and project assessments in 26 communities of those most effected by climate change, the talk will point toward new normative approaches to climate justice and provide a refreshed ethical map to political efficacy.

About the Speaker:

Brooke Ackerly is a Professor of Political Science, Philosophy, and Law, and Affiliated Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies at Vanderbilt University and co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Feminist Journal of Politics (2018-2021). In her research, teaching, and collaborations, she works to clarify without simplifying the most pressing problems of global justice, including human rights and climate change. Using feminist methodologies, she integrates into her theoretical work empirical research on activism and the experiences of those affected by injustice (Grounded Normative Theory). See Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism (Cambridge 2000), Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference (Cambridge 2008), Doing Feminist Research with Jacqui True (Palgrave Macmillan 2010, second edition forthcoming), and most recently, Just Responsibility: A Human Rights Theory of Global Justice (Oxford University Press 2018), which won the APSA Victoria Schuck Award for the best book on women and politics.

She is currently working on the intersection of global economic, environmental, and gender justice in their material and epistemic dimensions. She teaches courses on justice, ethics and public policy, feminist theory, feminist research methods, human rights, contemporary political thought, and gender and the history of political thought. She is the winner of the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science Graduate Teaching Award and the Margaret Cuninggim Mentoring Prize. She is the founder of the Global Feminisms Collaborative, a group of scholars and activists developing ways to collaborate on applied research for social justice. She advises academics and donors on evaluation, methodology, and the ethics of research. She serves the profession through committees in her professional associations including the American Political Science Association (APSA), International Studies Association (ISA), and the European Consortium on Politics and Gender (ECPG). She currently serves on the APSA Committee for the Status of Women in the Profession. She has been a member of the editorial board for Politics and Gender (Journal of the APSA, Women and Politics Section) and is currently a member of the editorial boards of the Political Research Quarterly, Journal of Politics, and Politics, Gender and Identities.

IMF April 2020 World Economic Outlook

Global Economic Governance Events, International Finance Events, Past Events, Research Conference

Thursday, June 11, 2020
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm EDT
via Webex

Register Here!

Please join the Institute for International Economic Policy for a virtual discussion of the International Monetary Fund’s April 2020 World Economic Outlook.

Agenda

1:00 – 1:05 p.m.: Welcoming Remarks

James Foster, George Washington University 

1:05 – 1:35  p.m.: Chapter 1: Global Prospects and Policies 

Presenter: Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, International Monetary Fund

Discussant: Jason Furman, Harvard Kennedy School

1:40 – 2:05 p.m.: Chapter 2: Countering Future Recessions in Advanced Economies: Cyclical Polices in an Era of Low Rates and High Debt 

Presenter:  Wenjie Chen, International Monetary Fund

Discussant: Jay Shambaugh, George Washington University & Hamilton Project                

2:05 – 2:30 p.m.: Chapter 3: Dampening Global Financial Shocks in Emerging Markets: Can Macroprudential Regulation Help?             

Presenters: Katharina Bergant, International Monetary Fund

Niels-Jakob Hansen, International Monetary Fund

Discussant: Sunil Sharma, George Washington University

2:30 p.m.: Concluding Remarks            

Read the full World Economic Outlook here. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is inflicting high and rising human costs worldwide, and the necessary protection measures are severely impacting economic activity. As a result of the pandemic, the global economy is projected to contract sharply by –3 percent in 2020, much worse than during the 2008–09 financial crisis. In a baseline scenario–which assumes that the pandemic fades in the second half of 2020 and containment efforts can be gradually unwound—the global economy is projected to grow by 5.8 percent in 2021 as economic activity normalizes, helped by policy support. The risks for even more severe outcomes, however, are substantial. Effective policies are essential to forestall the possibility of worse outcomes, and the necessary measures to reduce contagion and protect lives are an important investment in long-term human and economic health. Because the economic fallout is acute in specific sectors, policymakers will need to implement substantial targeted fiscal, monetary, and financial market measures to support affected households and businesses domestically. And internationally, strong multilateral cooperation is essential to overcome the effects of the pandemic, including to help financially constrained countries facing twin health and funding shocks, and for channeling aid to countries with weak health care systems.
 
More than a decade after the global financial crisis, the world is struggling with the health and economic effects of a profound new crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Advanced economies entered this crisis with interest rates at historical lows and public debts, on average, higher than they had been over the past 60 years. They will come out from the crisis with even higher public debts. Drawing on analysis completed before the emergence of the pandemic, this chapter examines policymakers’ options to respond to adverse shocks and build resilience when rates are low and debts high.
 
As discussed in Chapter 1, the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting emerging markets through an unprecedented mix of domestic and external shocks whose combined effects are very hard to predict. Among these, emerging markets are confronting a sharp tightening in global financial conditions. Against this backdrop, this chapter asks whether, based on historical experience, countries that have adopted a more stringent level of macroprudential regulation—aimed at strengthening financial stability—are better placed to withstand the impact of global financial shocks on domestic macroeconomic conditions.

Can Internationally Accepted Principles Yield Trustworthy AI?

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Thursday June 4, 2020

11:00AM – 12:00PM EDT

When you use spell-check, shop on Amazon, or find a movie on Netflix, you are using AI. While AI may improve our quality and standard of living, use of poorly designed AI may undermine human autonomy, reduce employment, and yield discriminatory outcomes.  To forestall such potential  negative spillovers, in 2019, the 37 members of the OECD (and 7 non-members) approved Principles on Artificial Intelligence, the first internationally accepted principles for AI. The principles include recommendations for policymakers and all stakeholders.  

The OECD is not the only body working on such principles. The members of the G-7 are also working on mutually agreed principles to govern trustworthy explainable AI. 

For this webinar, on Thursday June 4 at 11:00AM – Noon EDT, we will explore these principles, focusing in particular on those at the OECD, which our speakers helped design. We will discuss whether these principles can help all stakeholders. Moreover, we will examine whether such principles should evolve into an internationally shared rules-based system, given the wide diversity in national capacity to produce and govern AI. We will begin with a moderated discussion and then move on to your questions. Please join us.   Please note some of our speakers have changed. 

Speakers:

– Ryan Budish, Assistant Research Director, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University

– Adam Murray, U.S. diplomat in the Office of International Communications and Information Policy at the Department of State.

– Nicolas Miailhe, Founder and President, The Future Society

Women and the Web Webinar

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

When: Thursday May 28, 11AM EDT
Where: Zoom.us

While we can’t generalize, gender identity colors how many individuals experience the web. We write to invite you to our next webinar, where we will focus on women’s online experience. Our discussion will build on research done by the World Wide Web Foundation and US Agency for International Development, among others. The webinar, Women and the Web, will take place on Thursday May 28 at 11 AM EDT. We will discuss issues of access and participation, discrimination, bullying, other online issues, and potential remedies. We will begin with a moderated discussion and then move on to your questions. Please join us.

Speakers:
– Chenai Chair, Research Manager – Gender and Digital Rights, Web Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa
– Revi Stirling, Director, US AID, WomenConnect Challenge

We are grateful to Dhanaraj Thakur, Research Director at Center for Democracy and Technology, who suggested this webinar. Until then, the DataGovHub team — Thomas Struett, James Nelson, and Susan Aaronson, wish you the best.
datagovhub.elliott.gwu.edu

This event is co-sponsored by Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub; Internet Society: Greater Washington DC Chapter; George Washington Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER); Centre for International Governance Innovation; World Wide Web Foundation; Center for New American Security; and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

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A Plurilateral “Single Data Area” Is the Solution to Canada’s Data Trilemma

2020, Global Governance, Susan Aaronson, Working Papers

September 2019

Susan A. Aaronson and Patrick Leblond

IIEP working paper 2020-8

Summary: With its relatively small population, Canada faces a challenge in terms of the amount of high-quality data that it can generate to support a successful data-driven economy. As a result, Canada needs to allow data to flow freely across its borders. However, it also has to provide a high-trust data environment if it wants individuals, firms and government to participate actively in such an economy. As such, Canada (and other countries) faces what can be called the data trilemma, whereby it is not possible to have simultaneously data that flows freely across borders, a high-trust data environment and a national data protection regime; one of these three objectives has to give so that only two are effectively possible at the same time.

To resolve the data trilemma, Canada should work with its key economic partners — namely the European Union, Japan and the United States — to develop a single data area that would be managed by an international data standards board. The envisioned single data area would allow for all types of personal and non-personal data to flow freely across borders while ensuring that individuals, consumers, workers, firms and governments are protected from potential harm arising from activities such as the collection, processing, use, storage or purchase/sale of data. If Canada and its economic partners share similar norms and standards for regulating data, then allowing data to flow freely across borders with these countries no longer risks undermining trust, which is crucial to a successful data-driven economy.

America’s uneven approach to AI and its consequences

2020, Global Governance, Susan Aaronson

April 2020

Susan A. Aaronson

IIEP working paper 2020-7

Introduction Excerpt: The world’s oceans are in trouble. Global warming is causing sea levels to rise and reducing the supply of food in the oceans. The ecological balance of the ocean has been disturbed by invasive species and cholera. Many pesticides and nutrients used in agriculture end up in the coastal waters, resulting in oxygen depletion that kills marine plants and shellfish. Meanwhile the supply of fish is declining due to overfishing. Yet to flourish, humankind requires healthy oceans; the oceans generate half of the oxygen we breathe, and, at any given moment, they contain more than 97% of the world’s water. Oceans provide at least a sixth of the animal protein people eat. Living oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reduce climate change impacts. Many civil society groups (NGOs) are trying to protect this shared resource. As example, OceanMind uses satellite data and artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze the movements of vessels and compare their activities to historical patterns. The NGO can thus identify damaging behavior such as overfishing

Data Governance, AI, and Trade: Asia as a Case Study

2020, Global Governance, Susan Aaronson, Working Papers

April 2020

IIEP working paper 2020-6

Introduction Excerpt: The arc of history seems to be bending again towards the dynamic nations of Asia (Gordon: 2008). The countries and territories of the Asia Pacific region are both a locus for trade and a source of technology fueled growth. In 2017, Asia recorded the highest growth in merchandise trade volume in 2017 for both exports and imports (WTO: 2018, 32). UNCTAD reports that exports of digitally deliverable services increased substantially across all regions during the period 2005– 2018, with a compound annual growth rate ranging between 6 and 12 per cent (table III.1). Growth was the highest in developing countries, especially in Asia (UNCTAD: 2019, 66).

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already a leading source of growth for many Asian countries. The AI market in the Asia Pacific was estimated at around US $450 million in 2017 and is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 46.9% by 2022 (Ghasemi: 2018). Several analysts believe Asia’s AI growth will soon overtake the US (Lee: 2018; Ghasemi: 2018)

Data Is Dangerous: Comparing the Risks That the United States, Canada and Germany See in Data Troves

2020, Global Governance, Susan Aaronson, Working Papers

April 2020

Susan A. Aaronson

IIEP working paper 2020-5

Summary: Citizens of the United States, Canada and Germany know that the online world is simultaneously a wondrous and dangerous place. They have seen details about their activities, education, financial status and beliefs stolen, misused and manipulated. This paper attempts to examine why stores of personal data (data troves) held by private firms became a national security problem in the United States and compares the US response to that of Canada and Germany. Citizens in all three countries rely on many of the same data-driven services and give personal information to many of the same companies. German and Canadian policy makers and scholars have also warned of potential national security spillovers of large data troves. However, the three nations have defined and addressed the problem differently. US policy makers see a problem in the ownership and use of personal data (what and how) instead of in America’s own failure to adequately govern personal data. The United States has not adopted a strong national law for protecting personal data, although national security officials have repeatedly warned of the importance of doing so. Instead, the United States has banned certain apps and adopted investment reviews of foreign firms that want to acquire firms with large troves of personal data. Meanwhile, Canada and Germany see a different national security risk. They find the problem is where and how data is stored and processed. Canadian and German officials are determined to ensure that Canadian and German laws apply to Canadian and German personal and/or government data when it is stored on the cloud (often on US cloud service providers). The case studies illuminate a governance gap: personal data troves held by governments and firms can present a multitude of security risks. However, policy makers have put forward nationalistic solutions that do not reflect the global nature of the risk.

Will Covid-19 Raise Inequality? Evidence from Past Epidemics and Crises

Economics of Ultra-Poverty Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Tuesday, May 26, 2020
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
WebEx

Register Now
We are pleased to invite you to the second webinar of the “Facing Inequality” series, hosted by the Institute for International Economic Policy. This virtual series focuses on current and emerging inequality issues in the U.S. and around the globe – especially those revealed by the current COVID-19 pandemic. It brings together historians, economists, sociologists, political scientists, and epidemiologists, within the academy and without, to present work and discuss ideas that can facilitate new interdisciplinary approaches to the problem of inequality. This is a platform for dialogue and debate. We invite you to engage with us in this series of important discussions.
 
The second event, “Will Covid-19 Raise Inequality? Evidence from Past Epidemics and Crises”, features Prakash Loungani and Jonathan D. Ostry. Major epidemics in this century, such as SARS and H1N1, have raised income inequality and disproportionately hurt employment prospects of people with low skills and education levels. What impacts will the COVID-19 pandemic have on inequality in the near term? And how will inequality evolve over the longer-term as governments act to mend the disruptions to globalization and unwind the build-up in their public debts? The talk will draw on the authors’ recent work (with Davide Furceri) on the distributional impacts of epidemics and their book on other drivers of inequality such as austerity and financial globalization. Discussants Lucia Rafanelli and Remi Jedwab will provide commentary from the perspectives of political science and economic history, respectively.
 
The “Facing Inequality” series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Director James Foster, Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Faculty Affiliate Trevor Jackson, Assistant Professor of History. The series is co-sponsored by the GW Interdisciplinary Inequality Series, co-organized by Prof. Jackson from the Department of History and Prof. Bryan Stuart from the Department of Economics.

About the Speakers:

Prakash Loungani is Assistant Director and Senior Personnel Manager in the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office. He is a co-author of Confronting Inequality: How Societies Can Choose Inclusive Growth (Columbia University Press, 2019). Previously, he headed the Development Macroeconomics Division in the IMF’s Research Department and was co-chair of the IMF’s Jobs and Growth working group from 2011-15. He is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey School of Business, a member of the Research Program in Forecasting at George Washington Univeristy, and Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a think-tank based in Rabat, Morocco.

Jonathan D. Ostry is Deputy Director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the International Monetary Fund and a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). His recent responsibilities include leading staff teams on capital account management and financial globalization issues; fiscal sustainability issues; and the nexus between income inequality and economic growth. Past positions include leading the division that produces the IMF’s flagship multilateral surveillance publication, the World Economic Outlook. He is the author of a number of books on international macro policy issues and numerous articles in scholarly journals. His most recent books include Taming the Tide of Capital Flows (MIT Press, 2017) and Confronting Inequality (Columbia University Press, 2018).

With James Foster, Lucia Rafanelli, Remi Jedwab, and Trevor Jackson

Co-sponsored by the GW Inequality Series

The Value of Reputation in Trade: Evidence from Alibaba

2020, Global Governance, Maggie Chen, Working Papers

March 2020

Maggie X. Chen and Min Wu

IIEP working paper 2020-4

Abstract: We examine the role of an online reputation mechanism in international trade by exploring T-shirt exports on Alibaba. Exploiting rich transaction data and features of search and rating algorithms, we show that exporters displaying a superior reputation perform significantly better than peers with nearly identical true ratings and observables and the value of reputation rises with the level of information friction and the specificity of information. We develop a dynamic reputation model with heterogeneous cross-country information friction to quantify the effect of the reputation mechanism and find a 20-percent increase in aggregate exports fueled by a market reallocation towards superstars.

JEL Codes: F1, D8

Key Words: reputation, information, superstar, and Alibaba

Elliott Experts Weigh in: The Global Economic System in the Age of Coronavirus

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Thursday, May 7, 2020
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
via Zoom (EDT)

In this edition of the Elliott School’s Experts Weigh In Series, Professor Maggie Chen will discuss the global economic system in the age of coronavirus. Following the best year for stocks since 2019, coronavirus managed to fell the global market faster than during the Great Depression. More Americans have filed for unemployment than ever before and dozens of countries have already sought the assistance of the IMF. Professor Chen will provide an overview of the current state of play and the factors influencing the global economic situation, as well as offer thoughts on what recovery might look like.

 

Maggie Chen New HeadshotMaggie Xiaoyang Chen is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. She has worked as an economist in the research department of the World Bank and a consultant for the World Bank, the International Finance Cooperation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Congressional  Budget Office. She has served as Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University and is a co-editor of the Economic Inquiry and an associate editor of the Economic Modelling. Professor Chen’s research areas include multinational firms, international trade, and regional trade agreements. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the Review of Economics  and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. Professor Chen received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her B.A. in Economics from Beijing Normal University.

Global Income Inequality: Current Developments and Their Political Implications

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Economics of Ultra-Poverty Events, Past Events

Tuesday, May 5, 2020
12:30-2:00pm
WebEx

Branko Milanovic
Visiting Presidential Professor and Stone Center Senior Scholar,
The Graduate Center, CUNY;
Centennial Professor, International Inequalities Institute, LSE

We are pleased to invite you to a new webinar series, “Facing Inequality”, hosted by the Institute for International Economic Policy. This virtual series will focus on current and emerging inequality issues in the U.S. and around the globe. The series will bring attention to aspects of inequality being made increasingly relevant by the current COVID-19 pandemic and associated crises. The series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Director James Foster, Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Faculty Affiliate Trevor Jackson, Assistant Professor of History. The series is co-sponsored by the GW Interdisciplinary Inequality Series, co-organized by Prof. Jackson from the Department of History and Prof. Bryan Stuart from the Department of Economics. The inaugural event in the series will feature Branko Milanovic.

The goal of the series is to bring together historians, economists, sociologists, political scientists, and epidemiologists, both within the academy and without, to present their work and to discuss both their ideas and methods, with the intention of working towards new interdisciplinary approaches to the problem of inequality. This is a platform for dialogue and debate, and will help cultivate a community of current and future researchers and practitioners. We invite you to engage with us in this series of important discussions.

Branko Milanovic is a visiting presidential professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and a senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality. He is also Centennial Professor at LSE’s International Inequalities Institute. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics (1987) from the University of Belgrade with a dissertation on income inequality in Yugoslavia. He served as lead economist in the World Bank’s Research Department for almost 20 years, leaving to write his book on global income inequality, Worlds Apart (2005). His most recent book Capitalism, Alone was published in September 2019. 

Milanovic’s main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in preindustrial societies. He has published articles in Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of Political Philosophy, among others. His book The Haves and the Have-nots (2011) was selected by The Globalist as the 2011 Book of the Year. Global Inequality (2016) was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the best political book of 2016 and the Hans Matthöfer Prize in 2018, and was translated into 16 languages. It addresses economic and political effects of globalization and introduces the concept of successive “Kuznets waves” of inequality. In March 2018, Milanovic was awarded (jointly with Mariana Mazzucato) the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Knowledge. 

Among his other roles, Milanovic was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington (2003-2005) and has held teaching appointments at the University of Maryland (2007-2013) and at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (1997- 2007). He was a visiting scholar at All Souls College in Oxford, and Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (2010-11).

Please RSVP to receive a link to join the webinar.

Data & Human Rights During the Pandemic

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Thursday April 30

11AM EDT

Zoom

While many analysts have focused on threats to online privacy, other human rights, including freedom of expression and access to information online, can also be affected. For example, some countries have not fully informed their citizens about public health risks, which can affect not only their citizens’ right to access information, but possibly their right to life. This webinar will examine the responsibilities of both firms and governments during this pandemic, with a particular focus to human rights online.

Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub’s speakers will be:

– Professor David Kaye, University of California, Irvine, Director, International Justice Clinic and UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression

– Dr. Courtney Radsch, Advocacy Director at the Committee to Protect Journalists and author of Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt

Our speakers will speak for 10 minutes each and then answer questions from the audience. Please email questions in advance to: datagovhub@gwu.edu

Due to the growing popularity of this webinar series, Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub is streamlining their registration process. Please register for each individual webinar in order to receive a Zoom link to attend. Please read on for details and the registration link for the next webinar. 

This event is co-sponsored by Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub; Internet Society: Greater Washington DC Chapter; Centre for International Governance Innovation; World Wide Web Foundation; and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

Webinar on Data Governance in Smart Cities

Global Economic Governance Events, International Finance Events, Past Events

Thursday, April 9, 2020
11:00 am EST
Zoom

Register here!

We are pleased to invite you to the second webinar hosted by The Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub. The webinars focus on current and emerging data governance issues. Seminar 2 will be on “Data Governance in Smart Cities” and will take place on April 9 at 11am EST. This event will be co-sponsored by the Internet Society, the World Wide Web Foundation, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and the Institute for International Economic Policy.

Although we often talk about data governance as a national or international issue, cities are on the front lines of dealing with a wide range of data governance issues from privacy to the regulation of AI. This webinar will give attendees a greater understanding of why they might want to learn more about how cities are trying to balance the costs and benefits of data-driven services.

The speakers will be Professor Teresa Scassa, Canada Research Chair in Information Law, University of Ottawa Law School and Bianca Wylie, Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). They will address the following questions:

  • What is a smart city?
  • What kinds of rules must cities develop to determine what entities can own, utilize and monetize smart city data?
  • Should cities adopt special rules and considerations for personal data and human behavioral data?
  • Cities have bought into very complex data-driven systems, in the belief that data is “the solution.” Is it adding value and leading to more effective city management? What are the trade offs–e.g. energy efficiency vs. the loss of privacy

This event is co-sponsored by Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub; Internet Society: Greater Washington DC Chapter; Centre for International Governance Innovation; World Wide Web Foundation; and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

Webinar on E-Commerce at the WTO: What’s Going On?

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Economics of Ultra-Poverty Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Monday, March 30, 2020
11:00 am EST
Zoom

Register Here!

We are pleased to invite you to the first webinar hosted by The Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub in a series of free webinars on current and emerging data governance issues. As we “social distance,” we can simultaneously build a broader understanding of domestic and international data governance issues. The Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub is partnering with business associations such as the Computer and Communications Industry Association, civil society groups such as the Internet Society Washington DC and the World Wide Web Foundation, and other research organizations such as the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) to host these events. The webinars will be conducted on Zoom and attendees will be encouraged to ask questions of the speakers.

The inaugural seminar, to take place at 11am (EST) on March 30, 2020, will be “E-Commerce at the WTO: What’s Going On?” The speaker will be Victor do Prado, Director, Council and Trade Negotiations Committee Division, WTO. This event will be co-organized with the Computer and Communications Industry Association and co-sponsored with the Institute for International Economic Policy. Mr. do Prado’s remarks will cover the history, status and future of the talks, including the e-commerce moratorium. He will speak for 15 minutes and then the floor will be opened to questions using Zoom’s raise-your-hand application. As a WTO official, Mr. do Prado will be speaking off the record. His remarks cannot be attributed but can be used on background. The press is welcome to attend and observe Chatham House rules. 

Please contact James Nelson, Director of Communications and Strategy at the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, with any questions or suggestions for webinars jinelson@gwu.edu

This event is co-sponsored by Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub; Internet Society: Greater Washington DC Chapter; Centre for International Governance Innovation; World Wide Web Foundation; and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

Why Has Data Become a National Security Issue?

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Thursday, April 16, 2020
11:00 am EDT
via Zoom

We are pleased to invite you to the third webinar hosted by The Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub. The webinars focus on current and emerging data governance issues. Seminar 3 will be on “Why has data become a national security issue?” and will take place on April 16 at 11am EDT. This event will be co-sponsored by the Internet Society, the World Wide Web Foundation, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the Center for a New American Security, the Institute for International Science & Technology Policy, GW Ciber, and the Institute for International Economic Policy. 

The speakers will be Carrie Cordero, Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow and General Counsel at the Center for a New American Security, Colonel Sarah Albrycht, Senior Military Fellow, CNAS and Colonel in the US Army, and Susan Aaronson, Hub Director and Senior Fellow, CIGI. While the conversation will be on the record, Colonel Abrycht’s views are her own, and do not reflect the official position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense or the U.S. government. Our moderator will be Aaron Shull, Managing Director and General Counsel at CIGI.   

For a quick overview of their perspectives, see 

Cordero – The National Security Imperative of Protecting User Data (CNAS, Apr. 24, 2019)

Albrycht – When the homefront becomes the (cyber) front line (Fifth Domain, Feb. 3, 2020)

Aaronson – Inadequate data protection: A threat to economic and national security (VoxEU, Feb. 5, 2020) (this is a summary of the full CIGI paper, available shortly.)

Cordero, Albrycht and Aaronson will speak for 7 minutes each and then answer questions from the audience. Please email questions in advance to: datagovhub@gwu.edu

A Zoom link will be sent out 24 hours prior to the webinar.

Please join us! 

This event is co-sponsored by Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub; Internet Society: Greater Washington DC Chapter; George Washington Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER); Centre for International Governance Innovation; World Wide Web Foundation; Center for New American Security; and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

The LEAP Initiative with Jorge Dajani, Chief Ethics Officer, World Bank

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Tuesday, April 14th, 2020

12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

The event will be held virtually via Zoom Webinar with a Moderated Q&A.
 
RSVP
Zoom Link

Jorge Dajani is the Chief Ethics Officer of the World Bank Group. He will describe the organization and activities of the ethics function of the World Bank Group, and explain, more generally, the specificities of ethics functions in international public organizations. He will emphasize the importance of creating a value-based culture. He will conclude with examples of challenging questions that an ethics function needs to address and discuss these with the students.

Jorge Dajani’s Bio: 

Jorge Dajani became the Chief Ethics Officer of the World Bank Group on June 15, 2018.

Dajani brings to this role a deep knowledge of multilateral development banks, a proven track record in corporate strategy and development, and a reputation for effective stakeholder engagement.  He has been widely recognized for his management skills and stewardship of policies and procedures within international financial institutions with a focus on strategy, ethics and governance. 

Prior to this position, Mr. Dajani was Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, a position he held since 2016. Previously, he served as Director General for Macroeconomic Analysis and International Finance at the Ministry of Economy of Spain. He has served on the Boards of Governors and Boards of Directors of several multilateral banks, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, and the African Development Bank. He was Spain’s chief negotiator for the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Green Climate Fund.  He has also been a member of the economic policy committees of the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

As Chief Ethics Officer, Mr. Dajani directs the Ethics and Business Conduct Department, which promotes the development and application of the highest ethical standards by staff members in the performance of their duties. He provides overall strategic leadership on ethics and business conduct, ensuring that ethics and the Bank Group’s values are fully incorporated into the strategy of the entire World Bank Group. He reports directly to the President of the World Bank Group.

Mr. Dajani, a Spanish national, has a Bachelor´s and a Master´s degree in Economics from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He speaks Spanish, English, French and Mandarin.

This event is co-sponsored by the Elliott School of International Affairs, and is a part of the Leadership, Ethics, and Practice (LEAP) Initiative.

 

Human Capital Accumulation at Work: Estimates for the World and Implications for Development

2020, Development Economics, Remi Jedwab, Working Papers

February 2020

Remi Jedwab, Asif Islam, Paul Romer, and Robert Samaniego

IIEP working paper 2020-3

Abstract: In this paper, we: (i) study wage-experience profiles and obtain measures of returns to potential work experience using data from about 24 million individuals in 1,084 household surveys and census samples across 145 countries; (ii) show that returns to work experience are strongly correlated with economic development – workers in developed countries appear to accumulate twice more human capital at work than workers in developing countries; and (iii) use a simple accounting framework to find that the contribution of work experience to human capital accumulation and economic development might be as important as the contribution of education itself.

JEL: O11; O12; O15; O47; E24; J11; J31

Keywords: Returns to Work Experience; Returns to Education; Human Capital Accumulation; Economic Development; Labor Markets; Development Accounting

The Financial Center Leverage Cycle: Does it Spread Around the World?

2020, Global Governance, Graciela Laura Kaminsky, Working Papers

February 2020

Graciela Laura Kaminsky, Leandro Medina, Shiyi Wang

IIEP working paper 2020-2

Abstract: With a novel database, we examine the evolution of capital flows to the periphery since the collapse of the Bretton Woods System in the early 1970s. We decompose capital flows into global, regional, and idiosyncratic factors. In contrast to previous findings, which mostly use data from the 2000s, we find that booms and busts in capital flows are mainly explained by regional factors and not the global factor. We then ask, what drives these regional factors. Is it the leverage cycle in the financial center? What triggers the leverage cycle in the financial center? Is it a change in global investors’ risk appetite? Or, is it a change in the demand for capital in the periphery? We link leverage in the financial center to regional capital flows and the cost of borrowing in international capital markets to answer these questions. Our estimations indicate that regional capital flows are driven by supply shocks. Interestingly, we find that the leverage in the financial center has a time-varying behavior, with a movement away from lending to the emerging periphery in the 1970s to the 1990s towards lending to the advanced periphery in the 2000s.

Keywords: International Borrowing Cycles. Global and Regional Factors. Push and Pull Factors of Capital Flows. Financial Center Leverage Cycles.

JEL Codes: F30, F34, F65

 

 

 

Mismatch in Online Job Search

2020, Tara Sinclair, Working Paper Authors, Working Papers

February 2020

Tara M. Sinclair and Martha E. Gimbel

IIEP working paper 2020-1

Abstract: Labor market mismatch is an important measure of the health of the economy but is notoriously hard to measure since it requires information on both employer needs and job seeker characteristics. In this paper we use data from a large online job search website which has detailed information on both sides of the labor market. Mismatch is measured as the dissimilarity between the distribution of job seekers across a set of predefined categories and the distribution of job vacancies across the same categories. We produce time series measures of mismatch for the US and a set of English-speaking countries from January of 2014 through December of 2019. We find that title-level mismatch is substantial, with about 33% of the labor force needing to change job titles for the US to have zero mismatch in 2019, but that it declined from 40% in 2014 as the labor market has tightened. Furthermore, over the same time period, the mix of job opportunities has shifted substantially, but in a way that has made the overall distribution of jobs more similar to the distribution of job seekers. We interpret this finding as evidence that mismatch between job seekers and employers eased due to jobs coming back in the slow recovery after the Great Recession.

JEL Codes: E24, J11, J21, J24, J40, J62

Keywords: Job search, vacancies, employment, unemployment

“Intervention without Empire: The Ethics of Foreign Influence in a Neo-Colonial World” with Dr. Lucia Rafanelli

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events
Monday, February 3, 2020
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Lindner Family Commons 602
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E St. NW
RSVP

In a world filled with state-sanctioned oppression, many look to the international community to help secure justice when states fail or refuse to do so. But attempts by actors in one society to “promote justice” in another evoke the specter of colonialism. Indeed, even after formal decolonization, global politics bears potent markers of its imperial past. Current geopolitical power structures, embodied in both formal institutions and informal behavioral patterns, continue to empower people in the global West and North and disempower people in the global South, and what some refer to as the “Third World.” This raises the question: is there any way international actors can promote (their ideas of) justice around the world without reinforcing and perpetuating the objectionable power hierarchies associated with colonialism?

 

Dr. Rafanelli will argue there are ways for international actors to do so, but to meet this challenge, they must adhere to certain moral principles.

 

SPEAKER BIO

Dr. Lucia Rafanelli’s work has been published in Political Studies (2019) and The Journal of Political Philosophy (2017). Her book project, Promoting Justice Across Borders: Political Theory for the New Global Politics, develops ethical standards for what she calls “reform intervention” – an expansive category encompassing any deliberate attempt to promote justice in another society. Her primary research interests include contemporary political theory, global justice, and theories of human rights. She also has philosophical interests in collective agency and collective personhood, philosophy of law, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. She received her Ph.D. in Politics (with a specialization in Political Theory) from Princeton University in 2018.

She is an Assistant Professor of Political Science & International Affairs at the George Washington University and is a former affiliate of the Princeton Dialogues on AI and Ethics program and a current affiliate of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the George Washington University.

Read more about her here.

Covering The Other Half Billion: China’s Rural Sector

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Economics of Ultra-Poverty Events, Past Events, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events

Thursday, February 27th, 2020
4:30 PM-6:00 PM

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

RSVP

For much of post-1949 history, the rural sector has been the poor relation of China’s society and economy. Today, however, the rural sector lies at the heart of Xi Jinping’s economic agenda for China’s comprehensive development. The party’s and government’s ability to fulfill major economic goals—those relating to employment, food security and rebalancing of the economic system—depend critically on the success of its rural policies. So too does its ability to realize important social and other goals—including poverty reduction, the creation of a more inclusive society, and environmental sustainability. An economically and socially revitalised Chinese countryside will also impact the political stability which China’s leaders see as the bedrock of their continuing rule. This lecture will explore all of these dimensions.

 

Speakers

Professor Robert Ash

Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan

School of Oriental & African Studies

University of London

Professor Robert Ash is a Professorial Fellow in the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he teaches in the School of Financial and Management Studies as Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan. From 1986 to 1995 he was Head of the Contemporary China Institute at SOAS, and from 1997-2001 was Director of the EU-China Academic Network (ECAN). From 1999 to 2013 he was also Director of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Programme.

Professor Ash has held visiting research and teaching positions at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, France and Italy. He has been researching China for more than 40 years and has published on development issues relating to China, as well as on Taiwan and Hong Kong. His most recent major publication (2017) is a study of China’s agricultural development between 1840 and the present day, Agricultural Development in the World Periphery: A Global Economic History Approach. He has also undertaken a wide range of consultancy work in both private and public sectors—including for the British Government, the European Commission, European Parliament and the UN International Labour Organisation.

Moderator

Professor David Shambaugh

Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs

Director, China Policy Program

The George Washington University

 

Agricultural Transformation and Farmers’ Expectations: Experimental Evidence from Uganda

Adaption to Climate Change Events, Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

12:30 pm -2.00pm

Monroe Hall, Seminar Room 321 

2115 G St NW, Washington, DC 20052

Why adoption rate of potentially pro table agricultural technologies in Africa remains low is still puzzling. This paper uses a randomized control trial to study Ugandan subsistence smallholders’ decisions to adopt cash crops. A unique way of eliciting farmers price and yield expectations allows us to investigate the role of farmers’ ex-ante beliefs about crop profitability on adoption decisions. We find that the provision of extension services increases oilseeds adoption by 15%, and farmers who underestimate oilseeds price at baseline are the most likely to adopt the new crops. The results suggest that changes in expectations drive agricultural technology take-up.

Paper: “Agricultural Transformation and Farmers’ Expectations: Experimental Evidence from Uganda” by Harounan Kazianga (Oklahoma State University)

Colonial Origins and Fertility: Can the Market Overcome History?

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

12:30 pm -2.00pm

Monroe Hall, Seminar Room 321

2115 G St NW, Washington, DC 20052

Can market incentives overcome the long-term impact of historical institutions? We address this question by focusing on the role of colonial reproductive laws in shaping fertility behavior in Africa. Exploiting the arbitrary division of ancestral ethnic homelands and the resulting discontinuity in institutions across the British-French colonial borders, we find that women in former British areas are more likely to delay sexual debut and marriage, and that they have fewer children. However, these effects disappear in areas with exogenously high market access, where the opportunity cost of childbearing appears to be high irrespective of colonizer identity. They are only present in areas with low market access, where economic opportunities are scarcer. This heterogeneous impact of colonial origins remarkably extends to various measures of local economic development and household welfare. Examining causal mechanisms, we find that the fertility effect of colonial origins is directly linked to colonial reproductive laws and their impact on the use of modern methods of birth control. We rule out the impact of British colonization on income and women’s human capital as the primary channels through which its fertility effect operates. By uncovering novel findings on the heterogeneous nature of the colonial origins of comparative fertility behavior and economic development, our analysis implies that appropriately designed economic incentives can overcome the bonds of historical determinism.
 

Paper: “Colonial Origins and Fertility: Can the Market Overcome History?” by Roland Pongou (University of Ottawa)

Data as a Development Issue Conference

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Friday, January 31, 2020
9:00am-5:00pm
Elliott School of International Affairs
Linder Commons Room
1957 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052

RSVP
Livestream Link

Agenda

9:00am: Welcome Professor James Foster, Professor and Director, Institute for International Economic Policy and George Washington University

9:15am: Presentation by Vivien Foster, World Bank, Chief Economist for the Infrastructure Vice-Presidency

9:50am: Coffee Break

10:00am: Data and Development: How will data and the data-drive economy affect development?

  • Emmanuel F. LeTouze, Co-founder and Director, Data Pop

  • Vivian Ranson, Lead, Development Informatics Team, US Agency for International Development

  • Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief of Research and Development, Governance, The Governance Lab

  • Chair: Susan Aaronson, Research Professor and Director, Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, George Washington University 

11:30am: Lunch & Keynote Presentation by Claire Melamed, CEO, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data

1:15pm: Governing Data for Development: What does good data governance look like? How can

development organizations best promote sound data practices?

  • Shaida Badiee, Managing Director, Open Data Watch

  • Agnieszka Rawa, Managing Director, Data Collaboratives for Local Impact, Millennium Challenge Corporation

  • Priya Vora, CEO, Future State

  • Chair: Michael Pisa, Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development

2:45pm: Coffee Break

3:00pm: A Global Framework for Inclusive Development: How can low- and middle-income countries participate on equal terms in a data-driven economy?

  • Burcu Kilic, Director, Digital Rights Program & Research Director, Public Citizen

  • Nanjala Nyabola, Writer, Humanitarian Advocate and Political
    Analyst

  • Sreekanth Mukku, Project Manager, Data Privacy in the Global South, Konnektiv Kollektiv

  • Teresa Scassa, Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
  • Chair: Sabine Muscat, Program Director, Technology and Digital Policy, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Washington, DC

4:30pm: Concluding remarks by Shantayanan Devarajan, Commissioner of the Pathways to Prosperity Commission on Technology and Inclusive Development and Professor at Georgetown University

5:00pm: Conference Concludes

Conference Organizers
Susan Aaronson, Ph.D, George Washington University
Sebastian Duwe, Ph.D., Heinrich Boll Foundation, Washington DC
Michael Pisa, Center for Global Development, Washington DC
Sabine Weyand Heinrich Boll Foundation, Washington DC
Thanks to Kyle Renner and his staff for making the trains run on time, outreach, and food..

 

7th Annual Conference Washington Area Development Economics Symposium (WADES)

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events, Research Conference

Friday, April 5, 2019
Center for Global Development
2055 L St NW, 5th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20036

The Washington Area Development Economics Symposium (WADES) is an annual research conference which highlights academic work from researchers at leading economics institutions in development economics in the Washington DC area. Researchers from George Washington University, University of Maryland, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia, the World Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), American University, George Mason University, and the Center for Global Development are all participants in the symposium.

Conference Organizers:
Remi Jedwab, George Washington University
Jessica Goldberg, University of Maryland
Molly Lipscomb, University of Virginia
Andrew Zeitlin, Georgetown University

Agenda

8:30 – 9:00: Registration

9:00 – 9:45: Faculty Presentation:

“The Sustainability of Early Education Interventions: Do Learning Gains and Improved Teacher Practices Persist?” Jacobus Cilliers (Georgetown University)

9:45 – 10:30: Graduate Student Presentation:

“The gains from market integration: Rural roads, and separability of production and consumption decisions in smallholder farms” Hundanol Kebede (University of Virginia), Discussant: Jessica Goldberg (University of Maryland)

10:30 – 10:45: Coffee Break

10:45 – 11:30: Graduate Student Presentation:

“Measuring External Validity” Hao Bo (University of Maryland), Discussant: Owen Ozier (World Bank)
11:30 – 12:15 Faculty presentation: “Repelling Rape: Foreign Direct Investment Empowers Women” Sheetal Sekhri (University of Virginia)

12:15 – 1:00: Lunch

1:00 – 1:45: Graduate Student Presentation:

“The Precocious Period: Menarche, Education and Marriage in India” Madhulika Khanna (Georgetown University), Discussant: Pamela Jakiela (Center for Global Development)

1:45 – 2:30: Graduate Student Presentation:

“The Silenced Women: An Investigation on Reporting of Violence Against Women” Abhilasha Sahay (George Washington University), Discussant: Kelly Jones (American University)

2:30 – 3:15: Faculty Presentation:

“Peer effects on Violence: Experimental Evidence in El Salvador” Lelys Dinarte (World Bank)

3:15 – 3:30: Coffee Break

3:30 – 4:15: Faculty Presentation:

“Including Males: Improving Sexual and Reproductive Health for Female Adolescents” Jennifer Muz (George Washington University)

4:15 – 5:00: Faculty Presentation:

“Persuasion by Populist Propaganda: Individual Level Evidence from the 2015 Argentine Ballotage” Sebastian Galiani (University of Maryland)

Technology, Taxation, and Corruption Evidence from the Introduction of Electronic Tax Filing

Economics of Ultra-Poverty Events, International Finance Events, Past Events

Tuesday, December 10, 2019
12:30pm-2:00pm
John W. Kendrick Seminar Room
Monroe Hall/Hall of Government, Room 321
2115 G St. Washington, D.C. 20052

Please join us with welcoming Oyebola Okunogbe (World Bank) as she will be be presenting a Trade & Development Workshop.

Many e-government initiatives introduce technology to improve efficiency and avoid potential human bias. Electronic tax filing (e-filing) is an important example, as developing countries increasingly adopt online submission of tax declarations to replace in-person submission to tax officials. This paper examines the impact of e-filing on compliance costs, tax payments, and bribe payments using experimental variation and data from Tajikistan firms. Firms that e-file have lower compliance costs, spending five fewer hours each month on fulfilling tax obligations. There are no significant average effects of e-filing on tax or bribe payments, but significant heterogeneity exists across firms by their baseline likelihood of tax evasion. Among firms previously more likely to evade, e-filing doubles tax payments, likely by disrupting collusion with officials. Conversely, among firms less likely to have been evading, e-filing reduces tax payments, suggesting that officials had previously required them to pay more. These firms also pay fewer bribes, as e-filing reduces opportunity for extortion. In all, the results indicate that e-filing limits tax officials’ discretion and makes the distribution of tax payments across firms arguably more equitable.

Numerological Preferences, Timing of Births and the Long-term Effect on Schooling

2019, Cheng Huang, Working Papers

October 2019

Cheng Huang, Xiaojing Ma, Shiying Zhang, Qingguo Zhao

IIEP working paper 2019-16

Abstract: Cultural beliefs may affect demographic behaviors. According to traditional Chinese astrology, babies born on auspicious days will have good luck in their lifetime, whereas those born on inauspicious days will have bad luck. Using administrative data from birth certificates in Guangdong, China, we provide empirical evidence on the short-term effects of such numerological preferences. We find that approximately 3.9% extra births occur on auspicious days and 1.4% of births are avoided on inauspicious days. Additionally, there is a higher male/female sex ratio for births on auspicious days. Since such manipulation of the birthdate is typically performed through scheduled C-sections, C-section births increase significantly on auspicious days. Moreover, we use a second dataset to examine the long-term effect of numerological preferences and find that people born on auspicious days are more likely to attend college.

Keywords: Numerological preferences. Birthdate . Timed births. Chinese astrology

JEL: I21 . Z10 .J13 . D19

Search for Yield in Large International Corporate Bonds: Investor Behavior and Firm Responses

2019, Global Governance, Tomas Williams, Working Paper Authors, Working Papers

November 2019

Tomas Williams, Charles W. Calomiris, Mauricio Larrain, Sergio L. Schmukler

IIEP working paper 2019-15

Abstract: Emerging market corporations have significantly increased their borrowing in international markets since 2008. We show that this increase was driven by large denomination bond issuances, most of them with face value of exactly US$500 million. Large issuances are eligible for inclusion in important international market indexes. These bonds appeal to institutional investors because they are more liquid and facilitate targeting market benchmarks. We find that the rewards of issuing index-eligible bonds rose drastically after 2008. Emerging market firms were able to cut their cost of funds by more than 76 basis points by issuing bonds with a face value equal to or greater than US$500 million relative to smaller bonds. Firms contemplating whether to take advantage of this cost saving faced a tradeoff after 2008: they could benefit from the lower yields associated with large, indexeligible bonds, but they paid the potential cost of having to hoard low-yielding cash assets if their investment opportunities were less than US$500 million. Because of the post-2008 “size yield discount,” many companies issued index-eligible bonds, while substantially increasing their cash holdings. We present evidence suggesting that these post-2008 behaviors reflected a search for yield by institutional investors into higher-risk securities. These patterns are not apparent in the issuance of investment grade bonds by firms in developed economies.

JEL Classification Codes: F21, F23, F32, F36, F65, G11, G15, G31

Keywords: benchmark indexes, bond issuance, corporate financing, emerging markets,
institutional investors

Emerging Trade Battlefield with China: Export Competition and Firms’ Coping Strategies

2019, Global Governance, US-China, Yao Pan

October 2019

Yao Pan, Katariina Nilsson Hakkala

IIEP working paper 2019-14

Abstract: This paper analyzes how intensified Chinese export competition affects the exports and product ranges of Western firms. Using a novel identification strategy that exploits changes in Chinese export policies, we find that Chinese export competition reduces aggregate product level exports of Finland. Firm-level analysis using administrative data further shows that Chinese competition leads to substantial price cuts to retain market shares, especially for homogeneous products. In addition, we also discover that firms respond to the increased level of Chinese export competition by dropping their marginal products. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of export competition with China for developed countries.

Keywords: Trade Flows, Export Competition, Firm-level, Product Mix, China

JEL Classification: F14, F61, L25

Mardi Dungey Memorial Research Conference

Economics of Ultra-Poverty Events, Global Economic Governance Events, International Finance Events, International Trade Events, Past Events, Research Conference

Mardi Dungey Memorial Research Conference
Friday, February 21, 2020
8:00 am – 5:30 pm (Conference)
5:30pm – 7:30 pm (Reception)
Lindner Commons, Suite 602
1957 E St NW
Washington, D.C. 20052

RSVP
Livestream Link

On behalf of the Institute for International Economic Policy, the Research Program on Forecasting, the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, University of Tasmania, and the Society for Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics, you are cordially invited to the Mardi Dungey Memorial Research Conference on February 21, 2020. The event is named in honor of Mardi Dungey, Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Tasmania, Adjunct Professor and Program Director, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, ANU, Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Financial Analysis and Policy at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

Agenda

8:00am- 8:45am: Breakfast

8:45am – 9:10am

Introduction, Stephen Smith, Chair, Department of Economics and Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Institute for International Economic Policy, GWU

Opening Remarks, Tara Sinclair, George Washington University

9:10 – 9:30am: A Panel on Mardi Dungey’s Contributions

Vanessa Smith, University of York

Renee Fry-McKibbin, Australian National University

Warwick McKibbin, Australian National University

Chaired by: Renee Fry-McKibbin, Australian National University

9:30 – 10:30am

Econometrics of Option Pricing with Stochastic Volatility, Eric Renault, University of Warwick

Chaired by: Vance Martin, University of Melbourne

10:30 – 11:00am: Coffee Break

11:00 – 11:45am

Leaning Against the Wind: An Empirical Cost-Benefit Analysis, Gaston Gelos, International Monetary Fund

Chaired by: Tara Sinclair, George Washington University

11:45am – 12:30pm

The Gains from Catch-up for China and the U.S.: An Empirical Framework, Denise Osborn, University of Manchester

Chaired by: Simon van Norden, HEC Montréal, CIREQ & CIRANO

12:30 – 1:30pm: Lunch Break

1:30 – 2:30pm

Measurement of Factor Strength: Theory and Practice, Hashem Pesaran, Cambridge University

Chaired by: Nigel Ray, International Monetary Fund

2:30 – 2:45pm: Coffee Break

2:45 – 3:30pm

Inflation: Expectations, Structural Breaks, and Global Factors, Pierre Siklos, Wilfrid Laurier University

Chaired by: Gerald Dwyer, Clemson University

3:30 – 4:15pm

Multivariate Trend-Cycle-Seasonal Decomposition with Correlated Innovations, Jing Tian, University of Tasmania

Chaired by: Edda Claus, Wilfrid Laurier University

4:15 – 4:30pm: Coffee Break

4:30 – 5:15pm

The Center and the Periphery: Two Hundred Years of International Borrowing Cycles, Graciela Kaminsky, George Washington University

Chaired by: Brenda Gonzalez-Hermosillo, International Monetary Fund

5:15 – 5:30pm: Closing Remarks

Marty Robinson, Australian Treasury

Vladimir Volkov, University of Tasmania

Warwick McKibbin, Australian National University

Chaired by: Renee Fry-McKibbin, Australian National University

5:30 – 7:30pm: Reception

2nd Annual Washington Area Labor Economics Symposium (WALES)

Past Events, Research Conference

February 28th, 2020
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Linder Family Commons, Suite 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E St NW
Washington, D.C. 20052

RSVP

WALES is a one-day labor economics conference that brings together researchers from DC-area institutions. The goal is to provide an outlet to share work in progress and get to know other researchers. Breakfast, lunch and coffee will be served.

Click here to find an archive of the previous WALES conferences.

Agenda 

8:15am- 8:50am: Breakfast & Welcome

8:45am-9:00am: Welcome Bryan Stuart and TBD

Session 1: Recessions and the Labor Market

9:00am-9:30pm: “The Long-Lived Cyclicality of the Labor Force Participation Rate”, Joshua

Montes, Federal Reserve, with Tomaz Cajner and John Coglianese

9:30am-10:00am: “Did Timing Matter? Life Cycle Differences in Exposure to the Great Recession”,

Kevin Rinz, Census Bureau 

10:00am-10:30am: “Excess Capacity and Heterogeneity in the Fiscal Multiplier: Evidence from the

Obama Stimulus Package”, Thomas Hegland, Agency for Healthcare Research and

Quality with Arindrajit Dube, Ethan Kaplan, and Ben Zipperer

10:30am-11:00am: Coffee Break

Session 2: Discrimination

11:00am-11:30am: “Gender Bias and Intergenerational Educational Mobility: Theory and Evidence

from China and India”, Forhad Shilpi, World Bank with M. Shahe Emran and

Hanchen Jiang

11:30am- 12:00pm: “In-group Bias and the Police: Evidence from Award Nominations”, Nayoung

Rim, US Naval Academy, with Bocar Ba and Roman Rivera

12:00pm- 1:30pm: Lunch & Poster Session

Session 3: Public Sector Employment

1:30pm-2:00pm: “Managers and Productivity in the Public Sector”, Alessandra Fenizia, GWU

2:00pm-2:30pm: “Recruitment, effort, and retention effects of performance contracts for civil

servants: Experimental evidence from Rwandan primary schools”, Andrew Zeitlin,

Georgetown University, with Clare Leaver, Owen Ozier, and Pieter Serneelsz

2:30pm-2:50pm: Coffee Break

Session 4: Labor Supply

2:50pm-3:20pm: “Rural Labor Market Responses to Large Lumpy Cash Transfers: Evidence from

Malawi”, Kate Ambler, International Food Policy Research Institute, with Alan de

Brauw and Susan Godlonton

3:20pm-3:50pm: “Hope for the Family: The Effects of College Costs on Maternal Labor Supply”,

Breno Braga, Urban Institute, with Olga Malkova

3:50pm-4:00pm: Break

Session 5: Education and the Labor Market

4:00pm-4:30pm: “Inequality and Wage Dynamics by Academic Majors”, Natalia Radchenko,

American University, with Natalia Kyui 

4:30:pm-5:00pm: “Do Postsecondary Training Programs Respond to Changes in the Labor Market?”,

Michel Grosz, FTC

5:00pm-6:00pm: Reception

Posters

Miriam Bruhn, World Bank, “The Impact of Mobile Money on Poor Rural Households: Experimental Evidence from Uganda” (with Christina Wieser, Johannes Kinzinger, Christian Ruckteschler, Soren Heitmann)

Elizabeth Anna Weber Handwerker, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Variation in the Impact of Explicit Oligopsony by Occupation” (with Matthew Dey)

Kelly Jones, American University, Reducing Maternal Labor Market Detachment: A role for Paid Family Leave (with Britni Wilcher)

Joshua Mask, University of Illinois Chicago, “Consequences of Immigrating During a Recession: Evidence from the US Refugee Resettlement Program”

Daniela Morar, Yale University, “Foreign TAs and student STEM outcomes”

Dani Sandler, Census Bureau, “Maternal Labor Dynamics: Participation, Earnings, and Employer Changes” (with Nichole Szembrot)

Tara Sinclair, George Washington University, “Mismatch in Online Job Search” (with Martha Gimbel)

All Aboard: The Aggregate Effects of Port Development

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Past Events

Wednesday, October 30, 2019
2:30 p.m.- 4:00 p.m.
Kendrick Conference Room
Monroe Hall, Room 321
2115 G St NW Washington, D.C., 20052.

Please join us to listen to Claudia Steinwender from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Steinwender has written extensively in the area of international trade, economic history and innovation and productivity. She will be presenting a paper called “All Aboard: The Aggregate Effects of Port Development”.

 

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Digital Trade

International Trade Events, Past Events, Research Conference

Thursday, October 31, 2019
12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Lindner Family Commons, Room 602
1957 E Street NW
Washington, D.C 20052

RSVP

Data has become the most traded good and/or service across borders. The American economy is increasingly reliant on digital trade. But the US does not yet participate in any explicit binding digital trade agreements. Meanwhile, many countries have adopted policies that inhibit digital trade, including requirements that data be stored locally or restricting services provided by foreign firms. Such policies not only affect U.S. Internet and technology firms, but the users and small businesses that rely on an open digital environment.

There have been lots of panels on digital trade, but this event will provide an opportunity to better understand why data is governed in trade agreements, what are the barriers to digital trade, and how digital trade rules may affect important policy objectives such as internet openness, the gig economy, innovation, and national security.​

PANELISTS:
Matthew Reisman
Microsoft
Meredith Broadbent
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Rachael Stelly
Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA)
Burcu Kilic
Public Citizen

MODERATOR:
Susan Aaronson
Research Professor, GWU and Director, Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub

This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP at GWU), the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, and the Internet Society DC (ISOC-DC). This event is also organized in conjunction with the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA).

Click Here for Live Stream

Elusive Development in Latin America: Structural Challenges and Instability Hotspots

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Past Events

Friday, October 11th, 2019

2:00 – 3:30pm, Room 212

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E St NW, Washington, DC 20052

RSVP

The event will feature Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP. He will be speaking as part of IIEP’s International Economic Policy Forum series. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies M.A. program (LASP).

Schism: China, America and the Fracturing of the Global Trading System

Uncategorized

Thursday, October 17, 2019
9:00-10:30 a.m.
Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Commons, Room 602
1957 E Street, NW
Washington, D.C., 20052

RSVP

This event is a book launch for Schism: China, America and the Fracturing of the Global Trading System. In this book, author Paul Blustein chronicles the contentious process resulting in China’s WTO membership and the transformative changes that followed, both good and bad — for China, its trading partners and the global trading system as a whole.

Speakers include: 

Paul Blustein, CIGI Senior Fellow and former reporter at the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal

Steve Suranovic, Associate Professor of Economics and International Affairs at GWU

Scott Kennedy, Senior Advisor and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at CSIS

Moderator: Susan Aaronson, CIGI Senior Fellow and Research Professor and the Director of the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub at GWU. 

 

This event is co-sponsored by the the Institute for International Economic Policy, in partnership with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), and the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub at GWU.

Seminar on Governing Finance for Sustainability

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Wednesday, October 16th, 2019

9:30am-11:30am, Light Lunch: 11:30am-12:30pm

City View Room, 7th Floor

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E St NW, Washington, DC 20052

RSVP

Synopsis

The nexus between financial governance, macroeconomic and financial stability, social cohesion, and environmental sustainability has become the subject of a growing debate among policymakers and market participants. Current beliefs on central banking and financial regulation are being questioned in the face of systemic challenges such as rising income inequality, growing market concentration, political polarization, accelerating climate change, and  disruptions from new financial technologies.  

Do the mandates and instruments of financial authorities remain fit for purpose? Do the objectives and operations of central banks and financial regulators, along with their independence and accountability, need revision to deal with the rapidly changing conditions of the 21st century? How do financial authorities ensure alignment with longer term policy goals? To what extent should social and environmental sustainability feature on their agendas?

The panel discussion will examine this important debate, including the following questions: 

  • What objectives should central banks and financial regulators pursue?
  • What reforms, if any, are required to reflect these objectives in mandates, instruments, and institutions?
  • What could be the pathways to reform?

Agenda

9.00 – 9.30 am:  Arrival of panelists and participants

9.30 – 9.45 am: Welcome and Introductory Remarks

James Foster, Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs and Economics, and Director, Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP), Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (GWU).

Sunil Sharma, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, IIEP, Elliott School, GWU, former Assistant Director, Research Department, IMF.

9.45 – 11.30 am: Panel Discussion and Q & A

Patrick Honohan, Honorary Professor of Economics, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; former Governor, Central Bank of Ireland.

Signe Krogstrup, Assistant Governor, Head of Economics and Monetary Policy, Danmarks Nationalbank; former Adviser, Research Department, IMF.

Gillian Tett, Chair, Editorial Board, and Editor-at-Large, US, The Financial Times. 

William White, Senior Fellow, C.D. Howe Institute, Canada; and former Economic Adviser and Head of the Monetary and Economic Department, Bank for International Settlements.

Moderator: Alexander Barkawi, Director, Council on Economic Policies, Switzerland.

11.30 am – 12.30 pm: Light Lunch 

Organizing Committee: Alexander Barkawi (CEP), Kyle Renner (IIEP, GWU), Sunil Sharma (IIEP, GWU), Simon Zadek (UNDP).

Co-sponsored by the Council on Economic Policies

 

A New Push on Women’s Economic Empowerment: A High Level Ministerial Panel

Global Economic Governance Events

Wednesday, October 16th, 2019
3:00pm- 4:15pm
City View Room, 7th Floor
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW Washington DC 20052

RSVP

The aim of the high-level ministerial panel is to provide fresh impetus to the push for Women’s Economic Empowerment, bringing together thought leaders and policy practitioners in a frank discussion of what more can be done in the context of effective and inclusive development strategies. The panel will focus on concrete ways to remove constraints to women’s economic activity, enabling them to increase incomes and status, while at the same time contributing to more equitable economic growth.

Speakers include:

Hon. Arturo Herrera, Minister of Finance, Mexico.

Hon. Benigno Lopez, Minister of Finance, Paraguay.

Dr. Nancy Birdsall, Founder of the Center for Global Development and former Executive Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Moderated by: Prof. Danny Leipziger, Professor of International Business and International Affairs, George Washington University, Managing Director of the Growth Dialogue

This event is co-sponsored by the Growth Dialogue at the George Washington Business School and the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies M.A. Program and the Gender Equality in International Affairs Initiative.

Policy-making in a World of Greater Uncertainty

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Wednesday, October 16, 2019
4:45 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
City View Room, 7th Floor
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW
Washington, D.C., 20052

RSVP

The aim of the high-level panel is to consider the host of new economic challenges facing policymakers, as they face increased global uncertainty. In Emerging Market Economies in particular, trade wars, uncertain monetary stances, disruptive technologies, and increased nationalism have created new sets of policy problems for governments attempting to deal with their domestic concerns in an increasingly fractured global environment.

Speakers include: 

Hon. Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance, Ethiopia.
Dr. Reza Moghadam, Vice Chairman, Morgan Stanley International.
Dr. Joaquim Levy, former Minister of Finance, Brazil.

Moderator: Dr.Danny Leipziger, Professor of International Business and International Affairs, George Washington University and Managing Director of the Growth Dialogue.

 

This event is co-sponsored by the Growth Dialogue at the George Washington School of Business and the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies M.A. program (LASP).

Ethics and Leadership: A discussion on ‘America First’ Foreign Policy with Patrick Fine

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Monday, September 16th from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Elliott School of International Affairs
Conference Room 505
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

RSVP

Patrick C. Fine is the Chief Executive Officer of FHI 360, a nonprofit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions.

Before joining FHI 360, Fine served as the Vice President for Compact Operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), where he helped to shape nontraditional approaches to U.S. bilateral assistance through his oversight of large-scale investment partnerships with 24 countries. From 2006 to 2010, he was Senior Vice President of the Global Learning Group at the Academy for Educational Development (AED).

As a career member of the Foreign Service at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Fine served as the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Africa Bureau and Mission Director in Afghanistan, where he led the rapid expansion of U.S. assistance for reconstruction and development…read more

The Power of Public Private Partnerships to Drive Gender Equality – SDG #5

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Global Economic Governance Events

Thursday, October 17th, 2019

4:00 pm – 5:30pm

Lisner Auditorium

800 21st St NW, Washington, DC 20052

Watch Video

This panel aims to build a greater understanding of the power of public-private partnership investments and their ability to impact and accelerate change in support of SDG #5.
​
The program will provide a forum for exchange on global best practices related to education, healthcare, access to capital/business and leadership.
​
Please also join us for a networking reception immediately following the panel session.

MODERATOR:
Ambassador Melanne Verveer
Co-founder Seneca Women
​
SPEAKERS:
Stephanie von Friedeburg
Chief Operating Officer, International Finance Corporation
Jane Fraser
CEO of Latin America, Citi
Julie Monaco
Global Head of Public Sector Coverage, Citi
Henriette Kolb
Manager, Gender Business Department, International Finance Corporation
Kathryn Kaufman
Managing Director for Global Women’s Initiatives, Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Jacqueline Caglia
Director of Communications and US Programs, Merck
Jill Miller
Chief Program and Administrative Officer, Girl Rising
Anna Falth
Senior Programme Manager of the WE EMPOWER – G7, UN Women

This event is co-sponsored by Citi and the International Finance Corporation. 

IMF October 2019 World Economic Outlook

Global Economic Governance Events, International Finance Events, Past Events, Research Conference

Friday, November 1, 2019
9:30a.m. – 12:15p.m.
Lindner Family Commons (6th Floor)
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20052

RSVP
Schedule of Events 

9:00 a.m. – Breakfast and Registration

9:30 a.m. – Opening Remarks
                     James Foster, Director, Institute for International Economic Policy,
                    GWU

9:45 a.m. – Chapter 1:Global Prospects and Policies
                     Presenter: Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti

10:15 a.m. – Coffee Break

10:30 a.m. – Chapter 2: Closer Together or Further Apart? Subnational Regional
                     Disparities and Adjustment in Advanced Economies

                     Presenter: Natalija Novta
                     Discussant: Ryan Nunn

Chapter 2 of the latest World Economic Outlook examines the rise in within-country regional disparities in economic performance across advanced economies.  The chapter explores how lagging regions differ from the rest, in terms of demographics, labor market outcomes, sectoral labor productivity and sectoral employment. It also explores how regions adjust to trade and technology shocks, comparing lagging to other regions.

11:15 a.m. – Coffee Break

11:30 a.m. – Chapter 3: Reigniting Growth in Emerging Market and Low-Income
                     Economies: What Role for Structural Reforms?

                     Presenter: Cian Ruane
                     Discussant: Danny Leipziger

The forthcoming IMF World Economic Outlook analytical chapter provides new evidence on the short-to-medium-term effects of reforms, based on a newly constructed database of reforms in domestic and external finance, trade, labor and product markets. The chapter discusses sources of cross-country heterogeneity in reform payoffs, including the role of governance and informality in mediating the gains from reforms, and  political economy issues related to reform implementation.

12:15 p.m. – Concluding Remarks

12:30 p.m. –  Lunch

 

South Africa: Rebuilding the Dream

Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Past Events

Monday, November 11th, 2019

2:00pm – 3:30pm

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602

Elliott School for International Affairs

1957 E Street, NW Washington DC 20052

RSVP

Event Overview

Twenty-five years after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s economy is in crisis. Inequality in South Africa is the highest in the world; unemployment is on the rise; and economic growth (projected at 0.8 percent in 2019) has hovered precariously close to recession. In After Dawn: Hope After State Capture, former South African Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, the man who first blew the whistle on corruption in the Zuma administration, offers a blunt assessment of the country’s economic woes and the failures of governance that caused it. He proposes a series of practical solutions to build a growing, job-creating economy that can begin to meet South African’s unfulfilled expectations of economic transformation.

Panelists 
 
Mcebisi Jonas, Author of After Dawn: Hope after State Capture and former Deputy Finance Minister of South Africa
Mcebisi Jonas is author of After Dawn: Hope after State Capture, and chairman designate of MTN, one of Africa’s largest techonology companies. He is the former Deputy Finance Minister of South Africa, a position he held from 2014 to 2016. In that position, he was an early whistle-blower in the “Gupta-Gate” state capture scandal, and was subsequently fired by President Jacob Zuma. He currently serves on President Cyril Ramphosa’s team of international trade and investment “ambassadors.” 
 
Stephen Smith, Professor of Economics and International Affairs and Chair, Department of Economics, GW
Stephen Smith’s work focuses on economic development, with a special focus on solutions to poverty. He also researches economic development strategies, developing country financing issues, and the economics of adaptation to climate change in low-income countries. He has also conducted extensive research on the economics of cooperatives, works councils, and codetermination. He is currently on sabbatical at the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, in Florence, Italy, where he is a UNICEF Senior Fellow.
 
Yusuf Shahid, Chief Economist, The Growth Dialogue
Shahid Yusuf is Chief Economist of the Growth Dialogue. Dr. Yusuf brings many decades of economic development experience to the Dialogue, having been intensively involved with the growth policies of many of the most successful East Asian economies during key periods of their histories. He has written extensively on development issues, with a special focus on East Asia and has also published widely in various academic journals. He has authored or edited 24 books on industrial and urban development, innovation systems and tertiary education.
 
Moderated by Jennifer Cooke, Director of the Institute for African Studies
Jennifer Cooke is formerly the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she led research and analysis on political, economic, and security dynamics in Africa. She is a frequent writer and lecturer on U.S.-Africa policy and provides briefings, testimony, and policy recommendations to U.S. policymakers, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. military. 

This event is co-sponosored by the Institute for African Studies. 

The Venezuelan Migration Crisis: its Human and Economic Faces

Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Wednesday, November 13, 2019
5:30 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.* 
Linder Family Commons, Room 602
Elliot School of International Affairs
1957 E St NW, Washington, DC 20052

RSVP

*Food and beverages will be available before the event at 5:15 pm

With a repressive regime and a collapsing economy driving millions of people out of Venezuela, the hemisphere is faced with the ramifications of this massive exodus. The tragic impact on the lives of Venezuelans living as refugees and migrants combined with the economic costs for the receiving countries makes this a crisis that is screaming for greater attention. This panel will examine these two different, yet overlapping, components by looking at the economic and human faces of this migration crisis. This discussion will be led by the following speakers:
 
Moderator/Commentator: Marie Price, Professor of Geography and International Affairs, George Washington University (GWU)
Oscar Valencia, Lead Specialist at the Fiscal Management Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
Francisco Quintana, Director of the Venezuelan Human Mobility Program and the Andean, North-American and Caribbean Region of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)

This event is co-sponosored by the Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Program (LAHSP), the Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP at GWU), the International Development Studies Program (IDS), and LATAM@GW.

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