"Immigration hurt unskilled workers in the New World. Where unskilled wages lagged furthest behind average incomes, immigration barriers were raised the most. This resulted in another type of globalization backlash during the first period of globalization in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: gradually rising barriers to immigration." (Core Econ, Chapter 18). In today's class we will consider the political and economic consequences of this phenomenon.
You should have read the following sections in Chapter 18 ("The Nation and the World Economy") of Core Econ: 18.8 Migration: Globalization of Labour
Write a blog post about the sections you read for homework, relating the ideas in the reading to the country you have chosen to study.
Share a question that you would like to discuss as part of our Socratic Discussion today.
Participate in a Socratic Discussion. This rubric will be used to evaluate your blog post and discussion.
Read the following sections in Chapter 18 ("The Nation and the World Economy") of Core Econ: 18.9 Globalization and Anti-globalization.
Podcast: In this podcast, Dani Rodrik of Harvard University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about trade, the labor market, and trade policy. Drawing on a recent paper with Margaret McMillan on trade and productivity, Rodrik argues that countries have very differing abilities to respond to increases in productivity that allow production to expand using fewer workers in a particular sector. When workers are displaced by productivity increases, what is their next best alternative? Rodrik discusses how this varies across countries and policies that might improve matters. He argues that poor countries should subsidize new products as a way of overcoming uncertainty and externalities from new ventures.
Podcast: In this podcast, David Autor of MIT talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the fundamentals of trade and his research on the impact on workers and communities from trade with China. Autor's research finds large and persistent effects on manufacturing jobs and communities where those jobs once were. Autor and Roberts discuss whether these results capture the full impact of increased trade with China and what the policy response might be that could help workers hurt by trade.
Podcast: In this podcast, Ed Learmer discusses whether outsourcing good for America and how foreign competition affects wages in the United States? Leamer, professor of economics at UCLA, talks about the effects of outsourcing on wages, jobs, and the U.S. standard of living. Drawing on a review of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, Leamer talks with host Russ Roberts about technology, trade, productivity and inequality.
Book: On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation by David Ricardo
Book: Robert Heilbroner (The Worldly Philosophers) on David Ricardo
Podcast: In this podcast, Nobel Laureate in Economics Angus Deaton of Princeton University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of trade and aid. Deaton wonders if economists should re-think the widely-held view that redistribution from rich nations to poor nations makes the world a better place. The conversation focuses on the challenges facing poor Americans including the rising mortality rate for white Americans ages 45-54.