Trade unions,nonneutrality and stagflation

The claim that in policy games nonneutrality and a stagflation bias emerge in equilibrium if the unions care about inflation, per se, is discussed. This assumption is shown to be not necessary to obtain a stagflation bias; the same applies to nonneutrality if a government acts in the economy. The question of whether unions should be envisaged as “institutions” (i.e., interested in variables unrelated to wages and employment) is also addressed. Two model-based alternatives providing “microeconomic” foundations versus “macroeconomic” foundations to unions' behaviour are presented. The conclusion is that the modelling of unions remains an unsettled problem.     

Industries, Occupations, and Trade Policy Preferences

The nature of one’s work, not just who one works for, is central to political and economic life. Yet models of trade policy preferences mostly ignore occupation, focusing exclusively on industries (perhaps because industries are the usual organizing dimension of economic policymaking). This article proposes new measures of how much risk trade imposes on different workers based on how diversified their occupation is across industries, thus considering both industry and occupation. Having a job specific to any sector appears to encourage protectionism, regardless of that sector’s comparative advantage, supporting the idea that public opinion may treat trade policy as insurance.     

Trade, Harmonization, and Domestic Autonomy in Environmental Policy

This article evaluates the environmental criticisms of free trade that have been such an important part of the critique of globalization. The first section briefly surveys the range of criticisms environmentalists have brought against the new economic order. The second section examines the available literature on the race to the bottom, one of the key concerns. The third section analyzes the World Trade Organization trade rules and how they have been interpreted by dispute resolution panels involving environmental issues. The fourth section turns to the specific rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement and examines several case studies of environmental issues in that region. The final section provides a summary evaluation of the environmental criticisms. The article argues that the environmental criticisms are exaggerated. Trade agreements leave far more room for domestic environmental measures than is frequently argued. The political globalization of the environmental movement has helped counter the threat to environmental policy created by the economic and trade aspects of globalization. Environmentalists do need to be careful about how they advance this critique of globalization, however, because their arguments risk becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.     

Capital, Trade, and the Political Economies of Reform

Existing approaches to the study of economic reform have focused on the mobilization of special interests that oppose liberalization and have tended to assume that reform dynamics follow a similar logic across distinct policy arenas. Analysis of the dynamics of capital account and trade liberalization in 19 Latin American countries between 1985 and 1999 demonstrates otherwise. Movement toward liberalization is shaped systematically by the timing and salience of each reform's distributional costs and partisan political dynamics. In turn, the timing and magnitude of costs are mediated by the economic context, while salience depends on the informational environment. Our findings thus differ from the conventional wisdom on several scores, particularly by emphasizing the ways in which good rather than bad economic conditions can facilitate reforms, the conditionality of legislative politics of reform enactment on whether reforms are characterized by ex ante conflict or fears of ex post blame, and how the type of reform shapes its political dynamics .     

中国对外贸易在后SARS时期的应对思路及政策取向

SARS的爆发给我国的国民经济发展带来了巨大的不确定性 ,对外贸易活动亦在其中。同时由于我国是一个内需主导的大国 ,外部变化对中国经济的影响将远低于中国经济自身增长潜力的释放效应。只要政府企业多层面全方位地积极应对 ,我国的对外贸易仍将取得长足发展     

美国工会与贸易保护主义

<正>20世纪30年代的世界经济大萧条,2008年以来的世界金融危机,给人类的一个深刻教训是:在工业化社会,工会应当积极发挥作用,以保持经济社会的平衡,防范经济危机的发生。但是,对于工会在治理和防范金融危机中的真正价值,人们可能存有疑虑。     

基于行业组织的行业管理的实证研究

行业组织通过影响政府行为来实现和维护会员企业乃至整个行业的共同利益;行业组织通过服务于企业,客观地起到了协助政府贯彻实施经济发展方针和行业政策、产业政策的协调监管作用.本文在调研的基础上分析了我国行业组织的发展状况,对我国行业组织促进行业发展、企业成长的积极作用进行了总结与概括,指出行业组织是行业利益的代言人,行业组织是行业经济运行的协调监管者和督战者.     

Racing to the Bottom? Trade,Environmental Governance,and ISO 14001

Globalization critics argue that international trade spurs a race to the bottom among national environmental standards. ISO 14001 is the most widely adopted voluntary environmental regulation which encourages firms to take environmental action beyond what domestic government regulations require. Drawing on a panel study of 108 countries over seven years, we investigate conditions under which trade linkages can encourage ISO 14001 adoption, thereby countering environmental races to the bottom. We find that trade linkages encourage ISO 14001 adoption if countries' major export markets have adopted this voluntary regulation.     

上海工会管理职业学院配合世博开展工会干部专题培训

2010年5月1日，中国2010年上海世博会的大幕正式拉开。“一切始于世博会”，世博是人类文明的盛会。千姿百态的各国建筑、引领先河的最新科技、充满想象的无限创意、精彩纷呈的文艺活动、各式各样的全球美食，世博无异于一场感官和创意的饕餮盛宴。作为上海工会干部教育培训的主阵地，世博对于学院而言更多的还意味着一种责任。因为，世博会激起了上海乃至全国各地的工会干部了解世博参与培训的热情。     

浅析长株潭旅游一体化战略的必要性和可行性

在各行各业都在谋求做大市场的大环境下,分散的区域旅游业如果能够整合成"联合舰队",其威力绝对比单独作战大得多。随着长株潭经济一体化口号的提出,三市加快了融城步伐,旅游一体化战略也相应地提上了议事日程。本文分析了长株潭旅游一体化战略的重要性、必要性和可行性,并就三市旅游一体化提出了基本构想。     

Rail Mergers, Trade, and Federal Regulation in the United States and Canada

Federal rail regulation in the United States and Canada is stronglycentralized. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the CanadianNational railways' 1999 merger application called the existingrules into question. In the United States, the Surface TransportationBoard ordered a 15–month moratorium and produced stricterrules. In Canada, the BNSF/CN application coincided with a majorreview of federal transportation policy. Among the recommendationswas a new merger review process. This article surveys the relevantlegislation, the effects of NAFTA on rail traffic, conflictsbetween rail carriers and shippers, and the two governments'treatment of market forces. In determinations of the publicinterest, the article concludes, states and provinces are interestedparties among many.     

Heavy Traffic: Trucking Deregulation, Federalism, and Canadian-U.S. Trade

Trucking deregulation, in the interest of competition and efficiency,removes rate controls and grants free entry to the market. Whenthe United States deregulated trucking in 1980, it opened theinterstate market to Canadian carriers. Heavy volumes of tradeby trucking between the two countries make entry conditionsan important bilateral issue. Deregulatory symmetry betweenthe two countries would produce a de facto regime of free tradein trucking services. In 1987 the Canadian federal governmentadopted deregulatory measures similar to those of the UnitedStates, but with more complex and problematic results. The reasons,broadly characteristic of the evolution of Canadian federalism,lie in the ability of the provinces to thwart federal initiatives.Trucking regulation is under provincial control, and to achievea practical effect, the federal government depends upon theprovinces to bring their practices into accord with its policy.Because of differing provincial views about deregulation andpressures from Canadian truckers for continued protection fromAmerican competition, much diversity and contention have delayedand compromised the federal governments purpose. Regulatoryreciprocity is also a question of the provinces and states,with a mixture of strict and easy entry policies complicatingthe achievement of bilateral balance and equity. The largerimplications of deregulation and transborder trucking for Canadalie in the ability of a decentralized federal system to pursuenecessary initiatives coherently.     

“三个代表“是毛泽东思想和邓小平理论的逻辑延伸

理论僵化是民族之苦,理论创新是民族之福。从理论对象、理论内核和理论境界等多方面来看,"三个代表"重 要思想是毛泽东思想、邓小平理论的继承和发展,是一种内在的逻辑延伸,是一脉相承的理论创新。