Globalization—then and now

Book reviewed in this article:
K. O'Rourke and J. Williamson, Globalization and History     

The disintegrating Canadian labour market? The extent of the market then and now

Abstract.  Analysis of real wages for three occupations in 13 Canadian cities for 1901–50 suggests Canada had a national labour market at least until 1950. However, analysis of real wages for 10 Canadian cities for 1971–2000 yields little evidence favouring integration of Canada's regional labour markets. The apparent lack of labour market integration reflects a weakness of an approach that assumes markets are in equilibrium. Unemployment rates after 1970 suggest that some regional markets may be characterized by excess labour supply. Analysis of relative provincial unemployment rates yields evidence consistent with local labour force adjustment to changing labour market conditions. JEL classification: E24, J61     

Travel patterns and environmental effects now and in the future:: implications of differences in energy consumption among socio-economic groups

Travel patterns among different socio-economic groups in Sweden are investigated. It is shown that elderly persons, persons with low incomes and women in general do not travel extensively. Middle-aged persons, persons with high incomes and men travel much farther. Cars are the dominant transportation mode for all population groups. Aeroplanes are used mostly by high-income earners and men, while public transportation is mostly used by young people and women. Energy consumption for the different travel patterns differs substantially. Men with high incomes consume the most energy, with 94 000 MJ during one year, while elderly women consume 12 000 MJ. When compared to a calculated sustainable level of energy consumption for travel, most population groups are in excess. The level for sustainable energy consumption is calculated based on an assumed global potential for renewable energy of 360 EJ per year, divided equally among the global population. A certain share of this energy potential is supposed to be used for travelling. A scenario for 2020 is presented in which vehicle energy efficiency has increased and travel patterns have changed from what they are today. Sustainability can only be reached when both travel patterns and vehicle technology have changed radically. Differences in energy consumption for travel due to age and gender are likely to remain in the future. Scientific knowledge from the social domains seems to be important for devising efficient strategies for a sustainable society. Current focus on policy measures has been mainly on technical issues.     

Patient care automation: the future is now. Part 4: From philosophy to implementation

Computer systems that meet the five principles and support the nine attributes detailed above are most likely to provide optimized operational support to all providers, enhancing efficiency, efficacy and quality of health care. Each time one feature is not included, providers must substitute by decreasing the quality of care delivered, and/or by increasing the quality of care delivered, and/or by increasing the clerical work needed to manage the care system.     

Immigration,Conflict, and Redistribution

In this paper, we analyze how the possibility of conflict between natives and immigrants shapes income redistribution in developed democracies. This possibility can generate income redistribution towards immigrants even if they have no voting rights. We show that the threat of conflict between natives and immigrants lowers vertical income redistribution (from the rich to the poor) as the level of immigration increases. The opposite holds for horizontal income redistribution (from natives to immigrants), which increases with the level of immigration. Income inequality weakens the negative effect of immigration on vertical redistribution, but it also reduces horizontal redistribution. These theoretical predictions are consistent with the results of our empirical analysis on data from 29 European countries: larger immigrant populations are associated with more redistribution towards immigrants and lower vertical redistribution.     

Immigration, Unemployment and Pensions

This paper examines the impact of immigration on a host country with welfare state arrangements that support both the unemployed and the elderly. It is shown that low‐skilled immigration increases the unemployment rate. Furthermore, it harms the low‐skilled native population and benefits the high‐skilled natives and pensioners. Nevertheless, as under competitive labor markets, immigration generates an unambiguous gain for the native population as a whole. However, in contrast to the findings under full employment, this gain can be dampened by an expansion of the pension system.     

Immigration, Language and Multiculturalism in Australia

This paper uses a unique survey on multiculturalism in Australia to explore attitudes towards immigration and multiculturalism. The ethnic backgrounds of immigrants are shown not to matter as long as immigrants are perceived as wanting to become Australian, rather than remaining apart. Australians support government programs to assist the adjustment process, but oppose programs that encourage distinct language and cultural maintenance or foster linguistic/ethnic concentrations. The apprehension that Australians have towards multiculturalism is that they see it as a mechanism for separate cultural preservation. Linguistic enclaves are shown to reduce the acquisition of English language skills among immigrants, whereas positive attitudes among immigrants towards Australia are associated with greater proficiency in speaking, reading and writing English.     

Patient care automation: the future is now. Part 5. The role of technology

A number of technical issues have been considered in this article; such issues need to be considered in a patient care systems procurement after the philosophic base of the system has been established.     

Revolution,tribalism, and the Cheshire cat: Three paths from now

Examination of the time course of the change in numbers of experimental populations of mice, and of the world population of man, reveals abrupt and apparently irreversible phase changes in the processes governing population dynamics. Such phase changes can lead to extinction of the population or to opening up a new era of evolution. For the past 43,000 years each successive doubling of human world population has required only half the time as the prior doubling. Continuation of this process of population increase will shortly lead to extinction of man as a species. This course is the “Cheshire cat” path, during which each individual becomes less aware of less and less as numbers of individuals exceed the upper optimum. Beyond this nonchoice of future direction there are two major options. First, we can intentionally establish a new world tribalism characterized by zero population growth accompanied by a pervading traditionalism that establishes invariant patterns of social, technological, and ideational function. Second, we can choose to design further evolution (Revolution) with emphasis on continuing to expand individual potentiality or capacity. This path will require a continuing decline of world population accompanied by an increase in the effectiveness of technological prostheses for information processing beyond that possible by biological and social brains.     

Patient care automation: the future is now. Part 3. The five rules of automation

Five key principles for creating effective operations optimization-based patient care automation have now been established: (a) The old system architectures did not provide operations optimization; (b) primary patient care optimization (nurses and doctors) must be the central focus of any effective system; (c) the system must provide a platform that allows for eliminating both the retrospective and prospective (subterranean) paper records; (d) point-of-care data capture, including at the bedside, must be provided; and (e) integration around the patient is critical to success. Systems that ignore these principles will ultimately be doomed to repeat the problems of the manual system. Adherence to these principles opens a myriad of possibilities and provides a road map for how such a system should function. The next installment in this series of articles will address the ramifications of integration in system design and system use. The positive effects that such system designs can have on the realization of demonstrable benefits from system technology will also be reviewed.     

Immigration,Ethnic Diversity,and Political Outcomes: Evidence from Denmark

I study the impact of immigration and increasing ethnic diversity on political outcomes in immigrant‐receiving countries, focusing on immigration and election outcomes in Danish municipalities between 1981 and 2001. A novel instrumental variable strategy based on historical housing stock data addresses issues of endogenous location choices of immigrants and a rich set of control variables is employed to isolate ethnic diversity effects from those of other immigrant characteristics. Increases in local ethnic diversity lead to rightward shifts in election outcomes by shifting electoral support away from traditional “big government” left‐wing parties and towards anti‐immigrant nationalist parties. This holds for both local and national elections.     

Italy: Immigration and the evolution of populism

We study the effect of immigration on the upsurge of right-wing populism in Italy. Our data considers electoral results at the municipality level of the Senate of the Italian Republic and the Chamber of Deputies over the period 2006–2018. Using an IV strategy based on the shift–share instrument, we find that immigration generates a sizable causal increase in votes for the right-wing populist party Lega. Immigration also works as a major catalyst for the electoral distance between Lega and its most direct competitors. We explore how different levels of tax autonomy impact the results, as well as how the re-branding of Lega as a national movement affects the relation between immigration and support for the party.     

Aging,Factor Returns,and Immigration Policy

Immigration has various economic and non‐economic effects on the destination country's inhabitants. In this paper, we focus on the impact of immigration on factor returns and analyze how aging affects immigration policy, employing a dynamic political‐economy model of representative democracy. Aging, that is, a decline in the growth rate of the native population, has an expansionary effect on immigration in this framework. This immigration effect may even overcompensate the initial contraction of the labor force. We show that the immigration rate in the representative democracy equilibrium exceeds the immigration rate that would maximize welfare of current and future generations, and we also discuss the influence of social security on immigration policy.     

Immigration and the Australian Macroeconomy: Perspective and Prospective

Australia has long been a nation of immigrants. The economic purposes of migration and its economic consequences are major public policy issues. This selective review of research looks at the macroeconomic dimensions of this issue for Australia.     

Immigration, fertility, and human capital: A model of economic decline of the West

I show how the influences of unskilled immigration, differential fertility between immigrants and the local indigenous population, and incentives for investment in human capital combine to predict the decline of the West. In particular, indigenous low-skilled workers lose from unskilled immigration even if the indigenous low-skilled workers do not finance redistribution, do not compete with immigrants in the labor market, and do not compete with immigrants for publicly financed income transfers. For the economy at large, high-fertility unskilled immigrants and a low-fertility indigenous population result in economic decline through reduced human capital accumulation and reduced growth of per-capita output.     

Immigration and the Italian labour market: a contradiction

The role of immigration in the evolution of the labor force in Italy is analyzed. The author notes that not only is there a growing number of foreign immigrants, but return migration of natives to Italy is greater than Italian emigration. It is also noted that neither Italian migration policy nor the statistical system have evolved to cope with these new conditions. The high level of illegal immigration is also described, and the author concludes that such immigrants either find work in positions Italians no longer wish to fill, or in the black, or illegal, economy.     

Patient care automation: the future is now. Part 6. Does reality live up to the promise?

By almost any measure, it appears that patient-centered integrated information systems with an operations optimization focus contribute significantly to an institution's efficiency, efficacy, and quality. As with any other management enhancement tool, savings will only accrue if the institution manages to the savings. Nevertheless, such savings appear realizable and achievable. User communities, including nurses, physicians, administrators, and others all profit individually and collectively by using such a system. Finally, by providing better quality care and spending less time on clerical work, patients are the ultimate recipients of the benefits of an integrated patient-centered approach.