I have argued before that states are not the antithesis of markets, unlike what many libertarians (and their fellow travelers) believe. Mike Huben directs me to some relevant and useful writings by Stephen Holmes, the NYU political theorist. Here are a few good passages: It is implausible [...]...

The ugly consequences of having only a weak state in the face of opportunistic behavior by producers are exemplified in a news story reported in today's NYT. David Barboza, a business writer for the Times, reports how he was detained for nine hours in a Chinese factory supplying the Thomas & Fri...

Reflecting on suggestions by Slaughter and Scheve and others that globalization's losers should be compensated by increasing the progressivity of the tax system and other reforms, Clive Crook lays bare a logical inconsistency in many arguments of this kind: The connection between globalisation ...

Wrong! This revisionist piece of economic history comes from Jonh Nye, whose new book War. WIne, and Taxes is forthcoming from Princeton University Press (thanks to Marginal Revolution for the reference). Take a look at the graph below, which shows average tariffs in Britain and France during t...

A few months ago I published an oped in the Financial Times arguing that in order to sustain globalization we need to change the way we go about negotiating international agreements. I emphasized that the binding constraint on globalization is the narrowing of policy space for countries, not ina...

Foreign Policy has a list of five lies economists are supposed to have told everyone: High productivity and low unemployment make us all better off It’s hard to grow without good banks and private property Capital must always be let free to flow The euro will never work Japan—no wait, China—is ...

Non-economists are often baffled by the disagreements among professional economists on the issues of the day--from international trade to the minimum wage, from economic development to health policy. I think the best way to understand the source of these disagreements is to recognize that there...

Martin Wolf's review of two books that favor trade protection for developing countries has led to an interesting debate, including a contribution from Ned Phelps. I find some of the comments there astonishing. Here are a couple. Arvind Panagariya: few free-trade advocates argue that free trade ...

I concluded last night a reading group on globalization that a small band of mostly MPAID students have prevailed on me to hold. We met every two weeks to discuss a recent book. See this file for the list of books:Download globalization_reading_group.doc I use the reading group as an opportunity...

Is offshoring a big deal, requiring us to significantly enhance safety nets, rethink the future of education, and move upscale in the ladder of comparative advantage, as Blinder thinks? Or is there nothing new under the sun, as Bhagwati believes? The two held a debate this afternoon at Harvard, a...

It is Spring Conference time at the Kennedy School, and I just spoke at a panel on demography, poverty, and development chaired by our Dean, David Ellwood. I asked the audience a favorite question of mine: would you rather be poor in a rich country, or rich in a poor country. I gave them the fol...

You should, if you are an academic economist. The International Economic Association is holding its next World Congress in Istanbul on June 25-29, 2008. Here is the announcement: Download IEA2008.pdf. I cannot guarantee that the program will be top-notch (even though I am in the program committe...

This is no joke. Most people think academics get to take the summer off to vacation as they please. Even some of the better informed think the summer is just for research--with students and teaching as far from the mind as possible. The fiction is also reflected in academic salaries, which are p...

I wonder how many MPAID graduates or students have their own blogs. Here is one that does. Way to go Rodrigo! It would be great actually to have a blog just for the MPAIDs, devoted to serious discussion on development combined with poking fun on the faculty, wouldn't it? Any volunteers out there?

A summer internship is a required part of the MPAID curriculum. One of our students, Molly Kinder, is doing her internship at the finance ministry in Liberia, and has started a fascinating blog from Liberia. Check it out for a great mix of pictures, anecdotes, and development economics.

Find out what a group of MPAID students are doing in their summer internships in Liberia. They are actually using what they learned in the first year of the program! I never stop being amazed at what an amazingly talented group of students we manage to attract to the program.

The French newspaper Le Monde ran a lengthy article on our MPAID program in its education supplement. Frankly I wasn't quite sure how this one would come out since the journalist who wrote it (and who attended some classes including mine) seemed quite skeptical about what we were doing. But in t...

In one respect, starting a blog has taken me back to my early days as an academic economist. Since I have an unusual name, references to my work initially often employed a variation on Rodrik, typically "Rodrick." I was happy enough to get referred to, so I didn't fret too much about it, and i...

No, this is not a quiz for Bob Zoellick, but to all of you out there who are working in economic development--whether in government, multilateral organizations, or NGOs. Two questions specifically: 1. What is the one skill you learned in graduate school that is indispensable to your job? and 2. ...