Economic research and trade policy analysis
Globalization, Flexicurity and Adult Vocational Training in Denmark
For more than 20 years the performance of the Danish labour market has attracted attention with its relatively low unemployment rates and high but rather compressed wages. While Denmark was hit hard by the global financial crisis a decade ago the unemployment rate did not exceed 8 per cent and it remained below the OECD average. Denmark is a small open economy and the Danish labour market has been exposed to globalization shocks and technological change over the same period of time. Offshoring rising Chinese import competition automation and immigration have forced many Danish firms and workers to adjust but the labour market appears to have coped well with the adjustment process. This chapter discusses whether Danish labour market policies have been particularly effective in times of structural change.
Globalization, structural change and productivity growth
One of the earliest and most central insights of the literature on economic development is that development entails structural change. The countries that manage to pull themselves out of poverty and get richer are those that are able to diversify away from agriculture and other traditional products. As labour and other resources move from agriculture into modern economic activities overall productivity rises and incomes expand. The speed with which this structural transformation takes place is the key factor that differentiates successful countries from unsuccessful ones.
Managing the challenge of acceding post-conflict states
This chapter posits that leaving WTO accession in the hands of trade experts or commercial specialists within the acceding government can be unwise. Accession to the WTO goes far beyond the remit of the trade commerce and/or foreign ministry and even beyond the responsibilities of the minister. In order to conclude an accession what is required of the acceding government will involve many if not most ministries call upon governmental agencies and other authorities and may very well include both regional and municipal levels of government. The acceding government must expect to make hard policy choices. Poorer developing countries are likely to come across particular challenges and solutions. Given the demanding nature of this process it is important that the acceding government is entirely convinced before embarking upon the process that it has the right motivations and expectations in wishing to become a member of the WTO.
Exporting, Importing and Wages in Africa: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee data
The economic and social development of the African continent has been on the agenda of policy makers and the international community for decades. With over a billion inhabitants and the fastest growing population worldwide the African market presents an enormous potential. Despite remarkable economic growth rates however many countries on the continent struggle to translate this potential into significant improvements in socio-economic indicators. International trade is considered by many as one of the main contributors to reductions in poverty and the improvement of livelihoods (Dollar and Kraay 2004; Le Goff and Singh 2014). This stance has been adopted in global policy making with trade forming an integral part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda of the United Nations. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) include the objective to double the share of least developed countries’ (LDC) exports in global exports by 2020. Thirty-four of the 48 LDCs are located on the African continent implying that this endeavor is particularly relevant for Africa.
Acknowledgments
Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Gender Equality is a joint report by the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Maria Liungman and Nadia Rocha from the World Bank and José-Antonio Monteiro and Roberta Piermartini from the WTO coordinated the report. The team is grateful for the guidance and support of our World Bank colleaguesCaroline Freund Global Director Trade Investment and Competitiveness; William Maloney Chief Economist for Equitable Growth Finance and Institutions; the World Bank gender group under the leadership of Caren Grown Global Director Gender; and Antonio Nucifora Practice Manager Trade and Regional Integration Unitand our WTO colleagues Aegyoung Jung Chief Legal Advisor to the Director-General; and Robert Koopman Chief Economist and Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division.
WTO accessions: What does the academic literature say?
This chapter takes stock of the recent academic literature on accessions. It focuses only on the analytical work published since 2000 in books academic journals and working papers by key WTO scholars across the world. These contributions are related to the procedural legal economic and institutional aspects of WTO accessions and to the proposals for their reform. Country-specific studies research on the impact of accessions on individual industries and reports on accessions by national and international institutions are not included.
Remerciements et avertissement
Le Rapport sur le commerce mondial 2018 a été établi sous la responsabilité générale de Xiaozhun Yi Directeur général adjoint de l’OMC et de Robert Koopman Directeur de la Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques. Cette année la rédaction du rapport a été coordonnée par Cosimo Beverelli et Emmanuelle Ganne. Les auteurs du rapport sont Marc Bacchetta Eddy Bekkers Cosimo Beverelli Emmanuelle Ganne John Hancock Mark Koulen Andreas Maurer José-Antonio Monteiro Coleman Nee Roberta Piermartini Stela Rubinova Viktor Stolzenburg Robert Teh et Ankai Xu (Division de la recherche économique et des statistiques).
International cooperation on innovation policies in the digital age
National innovation policies like other government policies serve domestic policy objectives. As discussed in Section C they can generate both positive and negative international spill-over effects and some of the mechanisms through which they generate spillovers involve trade. This section focuses on cooperation aimed at addressing the trade-related international spill-overs from innovation policies. Such cooperation could help to ensure that governments have the policy space to pursue innovation policies and could help to maximize the positive international spill-overs of such policies while minimizing their negative effects on trading partners.
Comment se préparer à la transformation du commerce induite par la technologie?
La présente section examine comment la coopération commerciale internationale peut aider les gouvernements du monde entier à exploiter les technologies numériques et à saisir les nouvelles possibilités commerciales qu’elles créeront pour les entreprises grandes et petites. La section D.1 résume les principales possibilités et les principaux défis qui découlent de l’expansion du commerce numérique. La section D.2 donne des exemples des politiques mises en place par les gouvernements pour tirer parti de ces possibilités et relever ces défis. La section D.3 examine ensuite la question de savoir si et comment la coopération internationale peut aider les gouvernements à bénéficier des gains du commerce numérique à faire face aux défis et en même temps à atteindre leurs objectifs de politique publique aujourd’hui et dans l’avenir.