News and Analysis: 03-14 Apr 2017 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

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Posted on Wed, 12 Apr 2017:

Dani Rodrik: Too late to compensate free trade's losers, Project Syndicate, 12 Apr 17:
We must, the elites now concede, accept that globalization produces both winners and losers. But the correct response is not to halt or reverse globalization; it is to ensure that the losers are compensated, writes Soc Sci Res Council's inaugural Albert Hirschman Prize awardee

George Ingram: Myths about US foreign aid, Brookings (blog), 07 Apr 17:
If you have a hard time accepting foreign aid as an investment, think of it as insurance. Insurance that is cheaper than at some point having to put US troops in danger, writes Inst senior fellow

Richard Layard: Promoting happiness ethics, World Happiness Report 2016 Update [PDF]:
What should be the purpose of our lives, and what is the source of our ethical obligations? In the 19th century, most people would have given a broadly similar answer to these questions: "We should live as God commands," writes author of Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (2011, 2nd ed)

Posted on Mon, 10 Apr 2017:

Coffers: Long-run global asset returns yield lessons for investors today, London Business School, 23 Feb 17:
In order to make statements regarding future market developments, it is worth taking a look at the past. In the latest Global Investment Returns Yearbook, 3 profs present a far-reaching retrospective of the performance of equities, bonds and money market papers, covering 23 nations from 1900 to 2016

Kevin Hassett: A pro-growth tax reform, National Review, 06 Feb 17 [courtesy Amer Enterp Inst]:
If you tax business profits, businesses can move to Ireland. If you tax the consumption of citizens, they can't move their consumption to Ireland, writes Inst domestic policy res dir (Note: The author is now Pres Trump's Council Econ Advisers chair-designate--Ed.)

Inclusive growth and stats - Leaving nothing out and nobody behind, IMF Survey Mag, 02 Dec 16:
Stats should support the formulation of well-informed policies for a higher and a more inclusive growth. To guide the compilation of stats and come up with informative indicators, a clear definition of inclusive growth is needed first

Posted on Fri, 07 Apr 2017:

Joseph Stiglitz: Illiberal stagnation, Project Syndicate, 03 Apr 17 [via Sri Lanka Guardian]:
Many had high hopes for Russia, and the former Soviet Union more broadly, when the Iron Curtain fell. What went wrong? Who, if anyone, is to blame? Could Russia's post-communist transition have been managed better?, asks 2001 Nobel Laureate

Economic diversification - a priority for action, now more than ever, World Bank (blog), by C Fruman, 01 Mar 17:
Chile, an example of a diversified economy, exports more than 2,800 distinct products to more than 120 nations. Zambia, a nation similarly rich in copper, exports only one-fourth of Chile's export basket, to just 80 nations, writes WB trade/competitiveness dir

In order that they might rest their arguments on facts, AEI-Brookings, by Schanzenbach & assoc, 02 Mar 17:
Businesses use official govt data every day to make critical decisions. And public policy relies on high-quality, accurate official statistics in making decisions that affect millions of households and businesses, writes AEI-Brookings joint project team

Posted on Wed, 05 Apr 2017:

Stephen Roach: The temptations of a resilient China, Project Syndicate, 03 Apr 17 [via Finanz und Wirtschaft/Switz.]:
Near-term resilience and an inward-looking US appear to offer a tantalizing opportunity for China. It's as if China had been preparing to fill the void being left by Donald Trump's "America first", writes Yale U economist

Robert Barro: How to engineer a Trump boom, WSJ, 28 Mar 17 [courtesy Amer Enterp Inst]:
With tax and regulatory reforms and infrastructure investment, econ growth could hit 3% to 4% a year for the next couple of years. It will all be wasted, however, if the US ends up in a 1930-style trade war, writes Harvard economist

The economic value of trust - Lessons from Africa, Amer Econ Assn News, 13 Feb 17:
A pair of economists looks at rose growers in Kenya, where horticulture is a major cash crop. In this market, there is a need to get flowers to market at just the right time, and florists go to great lengths to find suppliers around the world who can be counted on to deliver

Posted on Mon, 03 Apr 2017:

Spence and Brady: Delivering on promises to the middle class, Project Syndicate, 02 Apr 17 [via Times of Oman]:
US Pres Trump owes his electoral victory largely to the older white middle- and working-class voters who have missed out on many of the benefits of the econ growth of the last 3 decades. His admin now faces at least two major challenges, writes 2001 Nobel Prize Laureate; and Hoover Inst senior fellow

Capitalism loses ground in China, Columbia Univ, 16 Feb 17:
"State capitalism has had a good run in China," says MIT 's Yasheng Huang. But, he adds, today's China "is far from a vibrant market economy." His observation flies in the face of the notion that Chinese capitalism has sprinted ahead at a breakneck pace

Peter Henry: Dividends or disaster, Economist - The World in 2017, 29 Nov 16 [PDF, courtesy NY Univ]:
Directing more savings from stagnating rich nations to productive investments in poor ones would boost global growth and the return on retirement savings for an ageing rich world. But there is a risk that these mutually beneficial gains will not occur, writes NYU business school dean

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