Global value chains and the “missing exports” of the United States

Many American multinational corporations have turned into factory-less. They outsource the production of their products to foreign companies and derive the largest share of their revenues from intellectual property and services embedded in physical products sold to international consumers. However, conventional trade statistics are compiled based on the value of goods crossing national borders, as declared to customs. The value added associated with intellectual property and services embedded in physical goods is not recorded as an export. Current trade statistics greatly underestimate US exports. In this paper, we use the case of Apple, the largest American consumer products company and a typical factory-less manufacturer, to illustrate the failure of conventional trade statistics to report actual US export capacity in the age of global value chains. According to our analysis of this case, if the value added of Apple intellectual property and services embedded in all Apple products sold to foreign consumers were counted as part of US exports, total US exports in 2015 would increase by 3.4%, and its trade deficit would decrease by 7.0%. In terms of bilateral trade, the value added under examination here would raise the US exports to China and Japan by 16.6% and 8.7% respectively, and lower its trade deficit with the two countries by 5.2% and 7.8% accordingly.     

Education and development: The role of non‐formal education,especially in developing countries

Education plays an important role in development, especially in a developing country. To develop the skills and knowledge of the large percentage of the people outside the reach of formal education, and to offer education programmes which can easily adapt and respond to the specific and immediate needs of a developing community, out‐of‐school programmes should be considered.

This article explains how non‐formal education, that is organized and systematic education offered outside the framework of the formal education system, could complement formal education, and should be organized to support integrated, community‐based development Briefly discussed guidelines for the planning of non‐formal education are the horizontal and vertical integration of all activities, extensive community involvement, a self‐help approach, the use of front line workers and the maximum utilization of existing facilities.     

Inequalities on the eve of mass migration: Agricultural holdings in Sweden and The United States in 1845–1850

Abstract

A comparison of economic conditions in Sweden and America in the middle of the 19th century is of vital interest because it highlights the push-and-pull aspects of migration to America. One method of analysis of this topic would be to compare the distribution of wealth in real estate in Sweden in 1845, say, with that in Illinois or Wisconsin in 1850, or with the distribution in Minnesota in 1860, or, more technically, for Swedes in those states and at those times. Surely the results of such a comparison would point vividly to the fact that the average individual could do better in America; letters from America bear strong testimony that this indeed was true.     

Status and mortality: Is there a Whitehall effect in the United States?

The influential Whitehall studies found that top-ranking civil servants in Britain experienced lower mortality than civil servants below them in the organizational hierarchy due to differential exposure to workplace stress. I test for a Whitehall effect in the United States using a 1930 cohort of white-collar employees at a leading firm – General Electric (GE). All had access to a corporate health and welfare program during a critical period associated with the health transition. I measure status using position in the managerial hierarchy, attendance at prestigious management training camps and promotions, none of which is associated with a Whitehall-like rank-mortality gradient. Instead, senior managers and executives experienced a 3–5-year decrease in lifespan relative to those in lower levels, with the largest mortality penalty experienced by individuals in the second level of the hierarchy. I discuss generalizability and potential explanations for this reversal of the Whitehall phenomenon using additional data on the status and lifespan of top business executives and US senators.     

Tides and Prejudice: Racial Attitudes During Downturns in the United States 1979–2014

What happens to racial prejudice during economic downturns? This paper analyzes white attitudes towards African Americans in the United States at different points in a business cycle from 1979 to 2014. Using a number of indicators of hostility towards African Americans available from the General Social Survey we develop an indicator of racial prejudice. We combine this with data on unemployment from the Current Population Survey and find robust evidence that racial hostility as measured by our indicator of prejudice is counter cyclical and rises during periods of higher unemployment for whites. Specifically a one standard deviation in the unemployment rate being experienced by whites is associated with a .03 to.05 standard deviation increase in the discrimination index. This is of a magnitude comparable with one year less of education. We undertake a quantile regression to show that this effect is widespread across the distribution of prejudice and that apart from those with initially low levels of prejudice, increasing own group unemployment results in statistically significant increases of similar magnitude in prejudice across that distribution.     

An Analysis of Perceptions of Job Insecurity among White and Black Workers in the United States: 1977–2012

While objective measures indicate that the risk of job loss is higher for black workers than for white workers, there is little research on how what workers’ expectations of job loss differ by race. This study looks at how secure black and white workers are feeling about their jobs and how their perceptions of job insecurity have been affected by time trends and regional unemployment rates. I find that perceptions of job security of black male workers, older black workers, and black high school graduates have deteriorated relative to their white counterparts during the period 1977–2012. Among those who attended college, white workers’ perceived job insecurity has increased. Black blue-collar workers’ and construction workers’ perceptions of job insecurity also have increased relative to their white counterparts. Moreover, perceptions of job insecurity among several black groups, such as high school dropouts and old workers, are more sensitive to regional unemployment rates than their white counterparts.     

Can the HOSS framework help shed light on the simultaneous growth of inequality and informalization in developing countries?

Using simple, modified versions of the factor proportions framework, and focusing on structural features within developing economies, this paper attempts to reconcile puzzling developments observed in many post-reform, post-liberalization countries whereby increasing income inequality has emerged side-by-side with informalization of the economy. Measures undertaken to enhance public sector efficiency and attract investment in an import-intensive export sector may increase rental–wage and skilled–unskilled wage gaps, contra the predictions of the simple Heckscher–Ohlin–Stolper–Samuelson (HOSS) framework regarding skill- and capital-scarce countries. The common thread generating our interesting results is the presence of sectors that are even more labor-intensive than those producing traded goods.

Does It Get Better? Recent Estimates of Sexual Orientation and Earnings in the United States

Using 2013–2015 National Health Interview Survey data, we reproduce a well‐documented finding that self‐identified lesbians earn significantly more than comparable heterosexual women. These data also show — for the first time in the literature — that self‐identified gay men also earn significantly more than comparable heterosexual men, a difference on the order of 10% of annual earnings. We discuss several possible explanations for the new finding of a gay male earnings premium and suggest that reduced discrimination and changing patterns of household specialization are unlikely to be the primary mechanisms.     

Dynamic linkages of stock prices between the BRICs and the United States: Effects of the 2008–09 financial crisis

In this paper, we investigate the dynamic linkages between the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and the United States in the mean and variance of stock prices for the period August 2, 2004, to April 30, 2010. In particular, we focus on the impact of the US financial crisis in September 2008 on the dynamic linkages between these stock prices. The sample period is divided into pre- and post-crisis periods in order to study the causal relationships in the mean and variance. The empirical results indicate that the international transmission of stock prices between the BRICs and the United States weakened in both the mean and variance on account of the 2008–09 US financial crisis.     

The main findings of the district pilot project of labour‐intensive road construction and maintenance in Botswana and the implications for similar projects in South Africa

Unemployment has been identified as one of the main problems confronting South Africa. Recently, in order to improve rural infrastructure and create employment, several pilot projects of rural road construction have been initiated in South Africa. In such a context it is considered that attention should be drawn to a pilot project carried out some time ago in Botswana to examine the potential of labour‐intensive methods in the construction and maintenance of rural roads.

The main conclusion of the pilot project was that labour‐intensive methods were viable, although attention had to be paid to several critical factors. In 1982, following its evaluation of the pilot project, the Government of Botswana decided that over the next five years the technical and organisational methods developed during the pilot project should be replicated throughout Botswana.

After a brief survey of the background to the project, the paper summarises several important features of the pilot project and its main findings. The paper closes with some comments on the implications of this pilot project for those currently underway in South Africa.     

Unlocking the potential of unoccupied spectrum in developing countries: Southern African Development Community – case study

The lack of adequate telecommunications infrastructure in developing regions makes wireless systems the most feasible solution for providing Internet connectivity. With the global migration of television (TV) systems from analogue to digital, the TV spectrum is expected to be shared between broadcasting and broadband services. However, the absence of suitable regulatory policies for TV band sharing and low average revenue per user experienced by wireless network operators makes it difficult to deploy broadband networks in developing regions, especially in rural areas. This article presents a co-evolution analysis of three key domains of change (policy, technology and business) in providing broadband connectivity focusing on the Southern African Development Community region. Furthermore, the article proposes public–private partnership and public–private–people partnership models for deploying wireless broadband networks in developing regions. This article is useful to various stakeholders, including policy-makers, governments, the wireless communications industry and academia, by addressing the digital divide in developing regions.     

The settlement preferences of Scandinavian emigrants to the United States, 1850–1960

Abstract

In the past, text books have made a false distinction between the former agrarian structure of Denmark on the one hand and of the remaining Scandinavian countries on the other. The proper dividing line should intersect the kingdom of Sweden, since farmers in Norrland and Finland were peasant-proprietors at the opening of the modern age while elsewhere in Scandinavia they were generally tenants. Much of the land not owned by peasants belonged to the Crown or the churchy but neither of them practised large-scale farming save in exceptional instances. Thus it is of crucial importance to establish at the outset the extent of landownership by the nobility and by other ‘persons of standing’ (stõndspersoner) about 1600 and how this changed during the century. In Sweden noble landownership is defined to include even land held by feudal right (donationer) and freehold or crown land for which a noble has bought or been given the right to levy taxes (frälseköp). Its status as noble property is not affected by whatever proportion of it may be held as virtual peasant freehold with hereditary rights of use (bördsrätt) and security against eviction and incorporation into the tax-exempt demesne farm (säteri) of the feudal property; such a holding is called skattefräise hemman.     

Does health insurance decrease health expenditure risk in developing countries? The case of China

This article studies the impact of health insurance on individual out‐of‐pocket health expenditures in China. Using China Health and Nutrition Survey data between 1991 and 2006, we apply two‐part and sample selection models to address issues caused by censored data and selection on unobservables. We find that, although the probability of accessing health care increases with the availability of health insurance, the level of out‐of‐pocket health expenditure decreases. Our results from a selection model with instrumental variables suggest that having health insurance reduces the expected out‐of‐pocket health expenditure of an individual by 29.42% unconditionally. Meanwhile, conditional on being subjected to positive health expenditure, health insurance helps reduce out‐of‐pocket spending by 44.38%. This beneficial effect of health insurance weakens over time, which may be attributable to increases in the coinsurance rates of health insurances in China.     

On forecasting the relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States

The article discusses the prospects of relations between China and the United States compared to the relations that have taken place between the superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union. A comparison of relations between the two pairs of superpowers is made in the article based on the following parameters: the interaction of the superpowers in economic and financial sectors, the struggle for the world’s mineral resources, relations in the strategic nuclear sphere, naval rivalry, relationship in the land theaters, and conflicts in cyberspace.     

The implications of the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ on globalization and inclusive growth for the Eurasian continent

The ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) and other emergent forms of transnational institution building raise new fundamental issues for economists and social scientists. Can BRI become a template for a new phase in the globalization process – a stage in which China takes a more proactive role? Can BRI help Central Asian economies that until now had been standing on the sidelines become fully integrated into the global division of labor? This article tries to analyze China’s potential of assuming a more central role in international economic governance and globalization process, which would also be in line with the size of its population and GDP. Further, the article analyzes the potential impacts of the BRI on inclusive growth for the poorly integrated Eurasian landmass by inspecting several direct and indirect channels.     

Job Satisfaction in the United States: Are Blacks Still More Satisfied?

Despite the substantial literature on the paradox of the happy female worker, research has been sparse in investigating race differences in job satisfaction. The last national level study on racial differences in job satisfaction was done in 1981 when, using national level U.S. data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Mature Men for 1966, 1969 and 1971, Bartel showed that blacks had significantly more job satisfaction and further, that this racial gap had widened during this time. Though the reasons for this gap and its widening were not investigated, it was suggested, in a close parallel to the reason for the contented female worker, that lower expectations, in this case due to discrimination in the labor market, could be a reasonable explanation. Surprisingly, since then, there have been only a handful of studies focused on smaller, specific groups. This paper exploits two U.S. national level data sets, the GSS and the NLSY 1997, to examine the racial gap in job satisfaction. Simple means show that blacks are much less satisfied than whites and moreover, this difference has persisted not only across genders but also across almost four decades. To isolate the pure race effect, a sequential process is adopted by first examining the simple difference in the means of job satisfaction, then, through probit estimation, seeing the impact of individual attributes, finally progressing to incorporation of job attributes. Probit estimates give robust results. Blacks are significantly less satisfied than whites even when income, benefits and occupations are controlled. However, this racial gap is greater in the case of women and younger black men. An exploratory analysis shows that when discrimination is accounted for, the satisfaction gap is further reduced and the race coefficients are rendered insignificant. Estimates with comparison income show that the satisfaction gap is driven by perceived discrimination and not necessarily discrimination as captured by comparison income. This highlights the importance of policy measures to reduce perceptual discrimination.