An OECD for the Third World

SUMMARY Periodic resolution?passing conferences can educate, legitimize, set the stage for, and sometimes stimulate the process of detailed bargaining and consultation which alone can make progress towards improved international arrangements. The multiplicity of international forums dealing with related issues, and the manner in which pressures in one can generate counter?pressures in others, strengthens the need for a Third World OECD, a professional secretariat capable of developing strategies and tactics across the whole range of international economic issues, developing feasible sequences for reform?mongering efforts in the most appropriate forums. Care should be taken in designing the staffing and conditions of service of such a body to prevent it becoming just another tier of international bureaucracy RESUMEN Una OECD para el Tercer Mundo Sólo el proceso de negociación y consulta detalladas puede producir avances hacia mejores arreglos internacionales, pero las conferencias periódicas que adoptan resoluciones pueden educar, dar legitimidad al proceso, servirle de escenario y a veces estimularlo. La multiplicidad de foros internacionales que tratan problemas conexos y la forma en que las presiones en unos pueden generar contra?presiones en otros refuerza la necesidad de que haya una OECD del Tercer Mundo, un secretariado profesional capaz de formular estrategias y tácticas respecto de toda la problemática económica internacional, planteando secuencias factibles para promover reformas en los foros más apropiados. La contratación del personal y las condiciones de servicio en un organismo como ése deben ser concebidos con cuidado para evitar que pase a ser un escalón más de la burocracia internacional. RESUME Une OCDE au sein du tiers?monde Des conférences regulières, donnant lieu à des résolutions positives favorisent les négociations et consultations les plus propices à la réalisation de meilleures ententes internationales. D'innombrables réunions internationales traitant sans issue de problèmes analogues, n'engendrant que des séries de contrariétés, soulignent le besoin urgent d'une OCDE, savoir un secrétariat professionnel, compétent à élaborer des stratégies adaptées à l'ensemble des problèmes économiques internationaux et à militer, au sein de réunions appropriées, en faveur de réformes valables. Il faudrait veiller à ce que ce nouvel organisme ne tienne aucun trait de bureaucratie internationale

Entreprises transnationales, exportations de produits manufacturés et emploi dans les pays moins développés

This article is an abridged version of a document presented by the author at the World Conference on Employment held in Geneva in 1976. The study deals successively with the role of transnational enterprises in the production (and marketing) of exports to other LDC's and developed countries, the composition of these exports as well as their short and long-term effects on economic development, government revenues, employment and income. Outlining difficulties with which the LDC's will be confronted in their promotion of the export sector, the author puts forward several policy areas where active negotiations between developed countries and LDC's could lead to substantial improvement

Outsourcing Governance: States and the Politics of a ‘Global Value Chain World’

Politics, and by extension states, are marginal in debates about the genesis, evolution and functioning of the GVC-based global economy. We contend here that the core complexity of state agency and state power needs to be much more carefully understood in GVC and related debates, as a basis on which the governance of the evolving GVC world can be properly theorised as revolving around the inseparability of economic and political power. We advance a framework for understanding the role of politics and states in the construction and maintenance of a GVC world, using a three-fold typology of facilitative, regulatory and distributive forms of governance, and propose a notion of ‘outsourcing governance’ as an attempt to capture the ways in which states purposefully, through active political agency, have engaged in a process of delegating a variety of governance functions and authority to private actors. Our overarching argument is normative: ‘outsourced governance’ of the form we currently observe is associated with regressive distributional outcomes, and is antithetical to an inclusive and sustainable global economy

WIDER Advisory Group on International Economic Issues

(A research and training centre of the United Nations University

Is trade liberalization a solution to the unemployment problem?

This paper examines how trade liberalization affects the growth rate of sectoral employment in developed and developing countries. The estimation results imply that trade openness in the form of higher trade volumes has not been successful in generating jobs in developing countries. The overall weak, negative employment response to trade volumes may be explained by the negative output response to trade openness in these countries. Our estimates also indicate that higher trade volumes have adverse effect on industrial employment in developed countries. Moreover, while they have positive effect on employment in industry and services in developing countries, trade barriers have adverse effect on employment growth in services for developed countries. Our overall results imply that while trade barriers have relatively little adverse effects and/or in some case a positive effect on employment both in developing and developed countries, higher trade volumes have an adverse effect on industrial employment in developed economies. Thus, trade openness is not in itself a solution to the unemployment problems of developing countries and yet it has not been the prime factor to blame for the lower employment levels in developed countries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

States and the political economy of unfree labour

A growing body of academic and policy research seeks to understand and address the problem of contemporary unfree labour. In this article, we argue that this literature could be strengthened by a stronger conceptualization of, and more systematic attention towards, the role of national states. In particular, we argue that there is a need to move beyond simplistic conceptualisations of states as simple agents of regulation and criminal justice enforcement who respond to the problem of unfree labour, and to recognize the causal and multifaceted role that national states play in creating the conditions in which unfree labour can flourish. We propose a framework to understand and compare the ways in which national states shape the political economy of unfree labour. Focusing on the United States, we outline three arenas of governance in which national states have been particularly central to enabling the conditions for unfree labour: the regulation of labour mobility, labour market regulation, and business regulation. We conclude by reflecting on the comparative political economy research that will be required to understand the role of different states in shaping the conditions in which unfree labour thrives or is eliminated

International money markets: eurocurrencies

Eurocurrencies are international markets for short-term wholesale bank deposits and loans. They emerged in Western Europe in the late 1950s and rapidly reached a global scale. A Eurocurrency is a form of bank money: an unsecured short-term bank debt denominated in a currency (for instance, US dollars) but issued by banks operating offshore, in a geographical location or a legal space situated outside of the jurisdiction of the national authorities presiding over that currency (for instance, the Federal Reserve). In Eurocurrency markets, banks intermediate mainly between foreign residents. They borrow funds by "accepting" foreign currency deposits and lend foreign currency-denominated funds by "placing" deposits with other banks, by granting short-term loans or investing in other liquid assets. Historically, Eurodollars accounted for the largest share of Eurocurrencies, although other international currencies (Deutsche Marks, Japanese yens, and especially Euros since 1999) played an important role. Eurocurrency markets were a manifestation of financial integration and interdependence in a globalizing economy and performed critical functions in the distribution and creation of international liquidity. At the same time, their fast growth was a recurrent source of concerns for central bankers and policymakers due to their implications for macroeconomic policies and financial stability. This chapter analyzes different aspects of the historical development of Eurocurrency markets and their role in the international monetary and financial system. The first part discusses theoretical interpretations, presents estimates of markets' size, describes their structure, and explains the determinants of their growth. The second part analyzes the spread between Eurodollar rates and other US money market rates, the role of arbitrage, the evolution of risk factors, and the causes of historical episodes of stress and contagion in the interbank market. The last part discusses political economy issues, such as the role of governments and market forces in the emergence of Eurodollars in the 1950s and the failed attempts to impose multilateral controls on Eurocurrency markets in the 1970s