The Role of Policy in Achieving Shared, Sustainable Economic Prosperity

The Left’s Choice. Dani Rodrik, January 8, 2019, Opinion, “In the face of resurgent right-wing populism, the left’s relative weakness partly reflects the decline of unions and organized labor groups, which have historically formed the backbone of leftist and socialist movements. But four decades of ideological abdication has also played an important role.” Link

Identity Politics and Trade Policy. Elhanan Helpman, October 2, 2018, Paper, “We characterize trade policies that result from political competition when assessments of wellbeing include both material and psychosocial components. The material component reflects, as usual, satisfaction from consumption. Borrowing from social identity theory, we take the psychosocial component as combining the pride and self-esteem an individual draws from the status of groups with which she identities and a dissonance cost she bears from identifying with those that are different from herself.” Link

Populism, Liberalism, and Democracy. Michael Sandel, March 13, 2018, Paper, “The right-wing populism ascendant today is a symptom of the failure of progressive politics. Central to this failure is the uncritical embrace of a neo-liberal version of globalization that benefits those at the top but leaves ordinary citizens feeling disempowered. Progressive parties are unlikely to win back public support unless they learn from the populist protest that has displaced them —not by replicating its xenophobia and strident nationalism, but by taking seriously the legitimate grievances with which these ugly sentiments are entangled. These grievances are not only economic but also moral and cultural; they are not only about wages and jobs but also about social esteem.” Link

Max Weber Lecture with Dani Rodrik (Harvard Kennedy School), Fiesole 14. Dani Rodrik, February 2018, Video, “Dani Rodrik delivered a lecture on ‘Globalisation and the populist backlash’ at the EUI addressing how globalisation has affected the diffusion of populism and the distinctive casues of left-wing and right-wing populism.” Link

Giddy Markets and Grim Politics. Kenneth Rogoff, January 8, 2018, Opinion, “Economists have endless debates about whether culture or institutions lie at the root of economic performance. But there is every reason to be concerned that the recent wave of populism is a threat to both.” Link

Populist Trade Policies will not Protect Jobs Anywhere in the World. Kenneth Rogoff, August 2, 2017, Opinion, “As US and European political leaders fret about the future of quality jobs, they would do well to look at the far bigger problems faced by developing Asia – problems that threaten to place massive downward pressure on global wages. In India, where per capita income is roughly a tenth that of the US, more than 10 million people a year are leaving the countryside and pouring into urban areas, and they often cannot find work even as chaiwalas, much less as computer programmers. The same angst that Americans and Europeans have about the future of jobs is an order of magnitude higher in Asia.” Link

Populism and the Economics of Globalization. Dani Rodrik, June 2017, Paper, “Populism may seem like it has come out of nowhere, but it has been on the rise for a while. I argue that economic history and economic theory both provide ample grounds for anticipating that advanced stages of economic globalization would produce a political backlash. While the backlash may have been predictable, the specific form it took was less so. I distinguish between left-wing and right-wing variants of populism, which differ with respect to the societal cleavages that populist politicians highlight. The first has been predominant in Latin America, and the second in Europe. I argue that these different reactions are related to the relative salience of different types of globalization shocks.” Link

Race, Class, Politics, and the Disappearance of Work. Jennifer Hochschild, June 5, 2017, Paper, ““When Work Disappears” has shaped research agendas on poverty, racial hierarchy, and urban social and economic dynamics. That is a lot for one article, yet two issues warrant more analysis. They are the ways in which socially defined “race” – rather than or in combination with class – explains the impact of sustained joblessness, and the political behaviours that may emerge in response to work’s disappearance. I point to evidence showing that both race and class have independent associations with the loss of work in poor African-American communities, as well as interactive effects. In the political arena – too often neglected by sociologists studying poverty – sustained, community-wide joblessness or underemployment are associated both with withdrawal from political engagement and with the recent resurgence of right-wing populism. Even after several decades of intensive research, we have more to learn about the interactions of race, class, politics, and the disappearance of work.” Link

Growing Out of Populism? Kenneth Rogoff, April 4, 2017, Opinion, “After nine dreary years of downgrading their GDP forecasts, macroeconomic policymakers around the world are shaking their heads in disbelief: Despite a populist-propelled wave of political tumult, global growth is actually set to outperform expectations in 2017. It’s not just American exceptionalism. Although US growth is very strong, Europe has been outperforming expectations by more. There is even happy news for emerging markets, which are still bracing for US Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes but have gained a better backdrop against which to adjust.” Link