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Articles by Michele Alacevich
Revisiting Albert O. Hirschman on Trade and Development
REVIEW ESSAY Albert O. Hirschman: An Intellectual Biography by Michele Alacevich Columbia University Press, 2021, 352 pages A recent article by Ralph Gomory revisits free trade and its consequences. When nations trade, Gomory points out, it is never “free”: more is exchanged than goods, and advantages accrue that are not simply comparative.
From probable to possible: the ideas of Albert O Hirschman
Like most disciplines, the field of development economics came into being not because of disinterested intellectual curiosity but rather due to pressing contemporary events. In the late 1960s, one prominent international civil servant and development economist reflected that: the cue to the continual reorientation of our work has normally come from the sphere of politics; responding to that cue, students turn to research on issues that have attained political importance.
Video: Mark Blyth on Global Trumpism and the Future of the Global Economy
“With considerable sophistication and a good dose of humor, this book dissects the popular anger that has made our economics unsustainable and our politics dysfunctional. Lonergan and Blyth rightly call for a reset of our current model of capitalism. To their great credit, they also provide creative—and practical—ideas for moving forward.” —Dani Rodrik, Harvard University Why are measures of stress and anxiety on the rise when economists and politicians tell us we have never had it so good?
Rich Neighborhood, Poor Neighborhood: How Segregation Threatens Social Mobility
Race Segregation Down, Income Segregation Up Racial segregation in American cities has declined slowly, but steadily over the past four decades. This is good news. Over the same timeframe, however, the level of economic segregation has been rising.
Economic Mobility of Black and White Families
Executive Summary and Chapter The dream that one can rise up from humble beginnings and achieve a comfortable middle-class living, if not attain great wealth, transcends racial lines. But is this a reality for black and white families alike?
Has the American Dream Moved to Canada?
Happy Canada Day! Canadians, especially those who like to compare themselves to the United States, have a couple of specific causes for celebration: higher median incomes and higher social mobility. A Strong Middle Class: In Canada Canada’s median income level may now exceed America’s, according to a recent report from the New York Times drawing on the Luxemburg Income Study, Strong Social Mobility: In Canada But comparing incomes only touches on part of Canada’s claim to the American dream.
How upwardly mobile are Hispanic children? Depends how you look at it.
People often immigrate to a new country to seek a better life for their children. In their new country, immigrant children very often show rapid upward mobility. But immigrants are very far from being a homogenous group, arriving with very different levels of education, skills, and economic resources. So how are the children of one particular group—Hispanic immigrants—doing? The answer to that question hinges on the point of comparison.
How 5 dimensions of poverty stack up, and who’s at the greatest risk
Poverty is typically defined in terms of a lack of adequate income, especially in U.S. policy debates. But the experience of poverty goes well beyond household finances, and can include a lack of education, work, access to healthcare, or distressed neighborhood conditions. These additional dimensions of poverty can be layered on top of income poverty; they can also put those who are not income-poor at a disadvantage.
How a rising minimum wage may impact the nonprofit sector
As the income inequality discussion continues to simmer across the country, municipal minimum wage ordinances have become hot topics of conversation in many cities. In January 2016, Seattle will implement its second step-up in the local minimum wage in 9 months, reaching $13 for many employers in the city and edging closer to a $15 an hour minimum that will apply to most firms by 2019. San Francisco will reach a $15 an hour minimum by July 2018.
Examining multidimensional poverty
“People think poverty as a measure of income, but as a lived experience for what it means to be poor, it tends to involve a lot of other things as well. We have taken some other dimensions such as low education, lack of health insurance, being in an unemployed household, and being in an area with concentrated poverty, where 1 in 5 of your neighbors in below the poverty line. One of the interesting questions becomes, how do those different dimensions of disadvantage go together?
Promise and pitfalls of housing choice vouchers vary across the nation
A year after Ferguson burst into the national consciousness, poor residents in the St. Louis region continue to struggle with entrenched patterns of racial and economic segregation, despite access to a key program designed to help overcome those divisions.
Why is the number of poor people in Africa increasing when Africa’s economies are growing?
This is a question I hear asked a lot. 2015 marks the 20th year since sub-Saharan Africa started on a path of faster economic growth. During that period, growth has averaged 5.2 percent per year. Meanwhile, the number of people on the continent reportedly living under $1.25 a day has continued to creep upwards from 358 million in 1996 to 415 million in 2011—the most recent year for which official estimates exist. What can explain these divergent trends?
The financial stress of teaching in regions of fast economic growth
executive summary This report highlights the financial stress facing teachers in regions of fast economic growth and high property values. Teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area report far greater financial anxiety than do samples of adults and workers from across the nation. Public schools in areas of increasing property values and other living costs cannot simply relocate teachers to areas with reasonable property values and short commutes.
The Anti-Poverty Case for “Smart” Gentrification, Part 1
Gentrification – the migration of wealthier people into poorer neighborhoods – is a contentious issue in most American cities. Many fear that even if gentrification helps a city in broad terms, for instance by improving the tax base, it will be bad news for low-income residents who are hit by rising rents or even displacement. But this received wisdom is only partially true.
The Anti-Poverty Case for “Smart” Gentrification, Part 2
Poverty is heavily concentrated in a growing number of urban neighborhoods, which as we argued yesterday, is bad news for social mobility. By breaking up semi-permanent poverty patterns, a degree of gentrification can bring in new resources, energy and opportunities.
The case for stronger bridges from school to work: A Q&A with Kate Blosveren Kreamer
Building stronger links between educational institutions and employers is an important step towards improving education, raising the skills of the U.S. workforce, and expanding opportunity. The question is: how? Earlier this month, we convened an expert group of policy makers, practitioners and scholars to address this question. Over the next few weeks, we will share insights gained from the session, by publishing Q&A’s with thought leaders on this topic. First up, Kate Blosveren Kreamer.
Want kids to behave better? Raise family incomes
So-called “soft skills” are important for success in the labor market, and in life, as work by scholars such as Jim Heckman and Angela Duckworth demonstrates. Our behavior and personality matter. These skills or traits are not fixed, but are at least to some extent malleable. Improvements in child personality traits and behaviors have positive long-run implications for educational attainment and success in the labor market.
New Census data finds scant progress against poverty
The latest poverty data from the U.S. Census Bureau underscore the uneven nature of the economic recovery since the Great Recession. While some major metro areas are slowly starting to make progress, for most regions poverty rates and poor populations continue to outstrip their pre-recession levels.
Shared Sovereignty, Jerusalem and the War of Ideas
From Iraq, to Kosovo to Lebanon to Israel and Palestine, we in the United States and the broader international community find ourselves struggling to find solutions to ethnic/religious conflict for control over territory. Despite recent setbacks, President Bush’s July 16th call for an autumn international peace conference on Israel and Palestine underlines both the importance—and the possibility—of a solution.
The geography of desperation in America
America today is as divided as it has ever been, in terms of incomes and opportunities, politics, and, perhaps most importantly, hopes and dreams. Hope matters. As our earlier work shows, individuals who do not believe in their futures are much less likely to invest in them—as in education, health, and job training. This increases the odds of America becoming even more unequal in the future. These divisions are corrosive to our society, our polity, our civic discourse, and to our health.
The unhappiness of the US working class
The US is in crisis. The political divisions are crippling; income and opportunities are as unequally shared as they have ever been; and society is divided in terms of the different lives, hopes, and dreams that the rich and the poor have. The starkest marker of this crisis of societal ill-being is the rising rate of mortality due to premature deaths (suicide, opioids, and alcohol poisoning, among others) primarily among less educated whites.
There’s a better way to celebrate take your kids to work day: Taking someone else’s kid instead
This week, parents are being urged to take their kids to work for the day. But here’s a better idea: Don’t. Strike a blow for equality by taking a kid from a different social background instead. Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day is intended to get children thinking about their future careers, but by having parents take their own kids to work, we perpetuate class divides. If your mother is a lawyer, you spend the day in a law firm.
Sovereignty Reimagined | Brookings Institution
Protecting sovereignty while advancing American interests in the global age Americans have long been protective of the country’s sovereignty—beginning when George Washington retired as president with the admonition for his successors to avoid “permanent” alliances with foreign powers.
Red Tape | Brookings Institution
Death, taxes, and red tape. The inevitable trio no one can escape. That wry sense of reality colors Herbert Kaufman’s classic study of red tape, the bureaucratic phenomenon that all of us have encountered in some form—from the confounding tax form filled out annually to the maddeningly time-consuming wait at the driver’s license bureau. The complaints about red tape, Kaufman concedes, are legion.
Identification Revolution | Brookings Institution
Some 600 million children worldwide do not legally exist. Without verifiable identification, they—and unregistered adults—could face serious difficulties in proving their identity, whether to open a bank account, purchase a SIM card, or cast a vote. Lack of identification is a barrier to full economic and social inclusion. Recent advances in the reach and technological sophistication of identification systems have been nothing less than revolutionary.
Regroup and Reform | Brookings Institution
This incisive report comes at a time of almost unprecedented self-examination for the European Union. Faced with growing nationalism, ‘illiberalism’, economic, security and political challenges—not least to the very membership of the Union—the relevance of the EU has become a matter of intense debate. How the EU responds to these challenges will define the next era of cooperation and integration in Europe.
Mission Incomplete | Brookings Institution
Mission incomplete! This phrase neatly captures the progress made by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) in reflating the economy. In April 2013, under its new governor, the BOJ launched an unprecedented quantitative and qualitative monetary easing policy. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda was certain that the 2% price stability target would be achieved within 2 years. About 4 years later, the BOJ lags behind other major central banks, with actual inflation and inflation expectations still well below 2%.
Arab Politics Beyond the Uprisings | Brookings Institution
Political experimentation and invention survive in unlikely places half a decade after the Arab region erupted in revolt. Attempts to build institutions and ideologies have continued during a period of resurgent authoritarianism and at times amidst violent conflict and state collapse. In this volume, established researchers, new scholars, and active participants in the region’s politics explore some of the spaces where change is still emerging, as well as the dynamic forces arrayed against it.
Rio 2016 | Brookings Institution
A clear-eyed, critical examination of the social, political, and economic costs of hosting the 2016 summer Olympics The selection of Rio de Janeiro as the site of the summer 2016 Olympic Games set off jubilant celebrations in Brazil—and created enormous expectations for economic development and the advancement of Brazil as a major player on the world stage.
The Transatlantic Economy 2017 | Brookings Institution
The Transatlantic Economy 2017 annual survey offers the most up-to-date set of facts and figures describing the deep economic integration binding Europe and the United States. It documents European-sourced jobs, trade and investment in each of the 50 U.S. states, and U.S.-sourced jobs, trade and investment in each member state of the European Union and other European countries. It reviews key headline trends and helps readers understand the distinctive nature of transatlantic economic relations.
In Defense of Israel | Brookings Institution
The revealing memoir of one of Israeli’s most respected statesmen. Moshe Arens is one of the last surviving members of the founding generation of Israelis. He is a political insider who has worked with every Israeli prime minister from Menachem Begin to Benjamin Netanyahu, serving in a variety of important positions, including foreign minister and defense minister.
Slowdown in the People’s Republic of China | Brookings Institution
The economy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has surged almost 10% annually since economic reforms began in 1978, ensuring the PRC’s position as an engine of growth. But by 2016 growth has slowed to less than 7%. Is it a structural or cyclical slowdown? If structural, the implications for growth, trade, and investment in other Asian economies will be significant.
Vision 2020 Bosnia and Herzegovina | Brookings Institution
Reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina are essential if the country is to eventually join the European Union and NATO. The Vision 2020 for Bosnia and Herzegovina project supports ongoing social and economic reforms needed in the country to create a better legal framework in accordance with the European Union, but also to improve the business environment and attract foreign investment.
Turkey and Transatlantic Relations | Brookings Institution
Turkey’s position in transatlantic alliances goes back in the 1950s. Turkish Foreign Policy “Fresh Look” was launched just prior to the failed coup d’etat last July, and was intended to mend ties with its neighbors with whom Turkey has strained relationships. Turkey’s new pragmatic reconciliation policy strives to build bridges without damaging existing transatlantic alliance.
The Terrorist Argument | Brookings Institution
From chants and pamphlets to the Internet, terrorist propaganda can be deadly effective Propaganda used by terrorists and armed groups might not always be the most sophisticated or nuanced form of rhetoric, but with the right mix of emotion and logic it can be extremely effective in motivating supporters and frightening opponents.
What’s In, What’s Out | Brookings Institution
Amanda Glassman is the chief operating officer and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. Her research focuses on priority-setting, resource allocation and value for money in global health, and data for development.
Zhu Rongji on the Record | Brookings Institution
Zhu Rongji served as party secretary and mayor of Shanghai from 1987 to early 1991. During that time, he began to reorganize state-owned industries, cracked down on bureaucratism, planned major reforms in land leasing and public housing, initiated massive infrastructure projects, launched construction projects in Pudong, which eventually doubled the developed land area of Shanghai, and laid the groundwork to transform Shanghai into China’s financial center.
Bombs without Boots | Brookings Institution
Airpower can achieve military objectives—sometimes, in some circumstances It sounds simple: using airpower to intervene militarily in conflicts, thus minimizing the deaths of soldiers and civilians while achieving both tactical and strategic objectives. In reality, airpower alone sometimes does win battles, but the costs can be high and the long-term consequences may fall short of what decision-makers had in mind.
Algeria and Transatlantic Relations | Brookings Institution
The United States and Algeria relationship is characterized by mutual respect and cooperation. The U.S. has been supportive of Algerian independence, and both nations are committed to further improving the bilateral relationship through increased trade, education, and cultural partnerships.
Smart Country – Connected. Intelligent. Digital. | Brookings Institution
With the book Smart Country – Connected. Intelligent. Digital. the Bertelsmann Stiftung aims to demonstrate how the opportunities inherent to digitization can strengthen social inclusion and improve the quality of life across all socioeconomic groups and regions in Germany. The global survey of good practices conducted for the prize highlights innovative solutions to a variety of challenges in eight countries.
Russia in Decline | Brookings Institution
Russia is in precipitous decline, which is unlikely to be reversed. This conclusion, based on the research of Russian and American experts, constitutes the bottom line of The Jamestown Foundation’s project, Russia in Decline. Moreover, the tempo of Russia’s decay is accelerating across virtually every fragment of its politics, economy, society and military, which renders Russia a poor candidate to survive globalization, let alone claim the mantle of a Great Power.
The New Autocracy | Brookings Institution
Corruption, fake news, and the “informational autocracy” sustaining Putin in power After fading into the background for many years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia suddenly has emerged as a new threat—at least in the minds of many Westerners. But Western assumptions about Russia, and in particular about political decision-making in Russia, tend to be out of date or just plain wrong.
The European Border and Coast Guard | Brookings Institution
Sergio Carrera is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Justice and Home Affairs section at CEPS, Visiting Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs (PISA) at Sciences Po, Associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow at the University of Maastricht and Honorary Industry Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the School of Law at Queen Mary, University of London. Steven Blockmans is Senior Research Fellow and Head of EU Foreign Policy at CEPS.
Avoiding the Middle-Income Trap in Asia | Brookings Institution
Since many policymakers aspire to pull their countries out of the middle-income trap and into the ranks of high-income countries, they must understand the factors that hinder or support the transition. This book defines the middle-income trap and examines the roles of manufacturing, finance, and trade openness in achieving sustainable development. The book also explores the role of government policy in fostering growth in the People’s Republic of China.
What Brookings experts are saying about President Trump’s first address to Congress | Brookings Institution
Tonight at 9:00 p.m. (EST), President Donald Trump delivers his first address to a joint session of Congress. It’s not a traditional “State of the Union” speech, but it is customary for a new president to address the legislature soon after the inaugural. Brookings experts will be watching and commenting on the policy issues raised during the address, and perhaps on some not raised. You can follow what they are saying on Twitter on the main Brookings feed, @BrookingsInst.
10 things we learned at Brookings in February | Brookings Institution
The first full month of Donald Trump’s presidency is now past, and it feels like spring has already arrived in the nation’s capital. Here are 10 things we learned from the research and analysis from Brookings experts over the past month. To receive daily updates on new Brookings research, commentary, and events, subscribe to our newsletters. 1.
President Trump’s First 100 Days: What Brookings experts are saying, 2/24/17 | Brookings Institution
Here’s week five of what Brookings experts are saying in the first 100 days about the Trump administration’s policy choices, personnel decisions, and engagements with global and domestic events. To receive daily updates on new Brookings research, commentary, and events, subscribe to our newsletters. Read what Brookings experts had to say about the First 100 Days in: Week Four | Week Three | Week Two | Week One.
Aid for Trade at a Glance 2015 | Brookings Institution
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) groups 31 member countries in an organization that, most importantly, provides governments a setting in which to discuss, develop, and perfect economic and social policy.
President Trump’s First 100 Days: What Brookings experts are saying, 2/10/17 | Brookings Institution
As President Donald Trump begins his administration, this blog presents, on a weekly basis, a selection of what Brookings experts are writing and saying about the new administration’s early policy choices, personnel decisions, and engagements with domestic and global events. Here’s week three of the first 100 days. To receive daily updates on new Brookings research, commentary, and events, subscribe to our newsletters.
Five Bleak Facts on Black Opportunity
What would Martin Luther King Jr. think of America in 2015 if he’d lived to see his eighty-sixth birthday? No doubt, he’d be pleased by the legal and political advances of black Americans, crowned by the election and re-election of President Obama. But King would be disturbed by the stubborn race gaps that remain, especially in opportunity, tarnishing the idea of the American Dream. In terms of opportunity, there are still two Americas, divided by race. Five facts show how far we still have to go. 1.
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