Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Robert Z. Lawrence
Bring back the helium reserve—before the next shock hits
Among the vulnerabilities exposed by the war in Iran is the fragility of the global supply of helium. Iran-linked attacks on Qatar's energy infrastructure forced shutdowns in March at the Ras Laffan complex—one of the world's key hubs for liquefied natural gas that produces helium as a byproduct. Because helium has unique properties as a coolant and plays a vital role in the production of MRI machines, spectroscopes, particle accelerators, and semiconductors, the consequences are severe.
Anchoring Ukraine’s postwar recovery with a US-Ukraine free trade agreement
Ukraine’s reconstruction is often framed as a financing challenge, but the bigger challenge is institutional: Ukraine must credibly reassure domestic and foreign investors that market-oriented rules, transparent regulation, private property protection, and contract enforcement will prevail and that its territorial integrity will be secure. A free trade agreement with the United States can help Ukraine provide this assurance.
Why Trump's Tariffs Are Like Termites
Credit - Illustrations by Chris Gash for TIME Trump made lofty claims about the benefits of raising tariffs. They will reshore American manufacturing jobs and encourage domestic spending, he promised. “Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,” he declared. Virtually no experts agreed, projecting that Trump’s tariffs would raise inflation, cut wages, impose an additional drag on U.S. manufacturers, and weaken the stock market.
Why Trump's Tariffs Are Like Termites
Read More: How Doubling Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Will Hit U.S. Businesses and Consumers Although the U.S. is the world’s largest economy, it is responsible for just 13% of global goods imports and just 9% of exports. The result: Trump’s targets around the world have been able to shrug off turbulent American trade policy. Plus, the backlash many economists feared never fully came to fruition.
What a “Landscape of Consciousness” Means for Neurology and Neuroscience
The following are twelve subcategories under Materialism, each with example theories (Fig. 1). (All theories can be found on the Landscape of Consciousness website, along with their references, 6.) These theories are representative, hardly complete; examples, hardly exhaustive. Philosophical Ways of approaching consciousness (e.g., epiphenomenalism, functionalism, emergence, identity theory, supervenience).
| SAIMechE
Agree & Join LinkedIn By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy. Skip to main content Explore topics Create your free account or sign in to continue your search or New to LinkedIn? Join now or New to LinkedIn? Join now By clicking Continue to join or sign in, you agree to LinkedIn’s User Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy.
"Reciprocal" tariffs: What are they really for?
This Policy Brief evaluates the evolving reasons for and application of the Trump administration’s “reciprocal” tariffs and finds them wanting.
Behind the Curve: Can Manufacturing Still Provide Inclusive Growth?
Lawrence considers how government can create high-paying manufacturing jobs, a common goal of the Biden and Trump administrations. In seeking to increase the share of manufacturing in total employment, U.S. policy is pushing against the tide. Although the country’s manufacturing output continues to expand, manufacturing employment does not, reflecting mechanization and other factors that have boosted output per worker.
No President Can Revive US Manufacturing Employment - Robert Z. Lawrence
Aa Aa Aa - A + WASHINGTON, DC – In the final stretch of the US presidential race, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are........ © Project Syndicate visit website
Is the United States undergoing a manufacturing renaissance that will boost the middle class?
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. made the goal of his economic policies to “build back better.” He emphasized helping workers without college degrees in order “to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.” The emphasis on a manufacturing renaissance is reflected in the special incentives for US manufacturing in President Biden’s programs: the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Populist opposition is threatening progress on climate change
Driven by the push to decarbonize the world and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, a new anti-elite revolt is in the making in developed economies: If mainstream parties ignore the losers of the green transition as they did with globalization, climate populism not only will slow the adoption of climate policies but could also shake Western democracies.
Behind the Curve: Can Manufacturing Still Provide Inclusive Growth?
Book Description Manufacturing jobs, once the backbone of the modern US economy, have declined as a share of GDP over recent decades, darkening opportunities for middle-class advancement. Similar trends have impacted export superpowers like China, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. Driven by nostalgia for a bygone era, however, many countries have turned to reshoring and “industrial policies” to revive manufacturing employment.
Climate action: Implications for factor market reallocation
This paper considers climate policies, not from the perspective of their environmental impacts, but rather their likely effects on labor and investments. While the aggregate impact of the green transition on jobs and investment may be modest, it will require significant reallocation of labor and capital within and across industries.
Behind the Curve: Can Manufacturing Still Provide Inclusive Growth?
Manufacturing jobs, once the backbone of the modern US economy, have declined over recent decades, darkening opportunities for middle-class advancement. The same trend has occurred in many countries, from Europe to Japan, China, and South Korea. To return manufacturing employment to its former glory, many countries have adopted import barriers and “industrial policies.” For the most part, those approaches have been misguided. In this book, Robert Z.
Have trade agreements been bad for America?
Body Many Americans are persuaded that trade agreements of the last 40 years have been a costly mistake. To be sure, open markets leave some people behind, and promises to help those hurt were broken. But on balance, expanding trade has greatly benefited the US economy, and policy approaches taken need to be built on rather than abandoned. Alan Wm. Wolff, Gary Clyde Hufbauer, and Robert Z. Lawrence say more must be done to help those harmed, but protectionism is not the solution.
How to save the WTO with more flexible trading rules
Body The clash between the Western and Chinese economic systems is threatening the world trading system, with countries increasingly using trade as a tool to coerce other countries. It is imperative to return to an inclusive, rules-based international trading order before the problems in trade spill over into the other geopolitical frictions that plague the world.
Looking at all the wrong places to reduce the US trade deficit
Explaining why trade deficits occur is not easy. Common sense seems to suggest that if America stopped importing oil, or erected new barriers to imports, or encouraged more domestic production, the trade deficit would shrink. But as economists have tried to explain for years, trade deficits result when a country spends more in total than it produces, and since the US addiction to foreign borrowing is persistent, piecemeal efforts are unlikely to reduce the US trade deficit.
Income growth for the typical American family has slowed since the early 1970s
From 1948 to 1973, the typical American family’s income grew by 3 percent annually, doubling roughly once a generation. Since 1973, the median family income has risen just 0.6 percent per year, a much slower rate than ought to be possible. Three unfavorable developments have converged to slow income growth. Productivity growth has slowed as firm innovation has not kept pace with the boom of the post-war years.
The price of American economic nostalgia
Event Summary Adam S. Posen will discuss his forthcoming Foreign Affairs article, “The Price of Nostalgia: America’s Self-Defeating Economic Retreat.” The new conventional wisdom that the United States has recklessly pursued international economic openness at the expense of workers, causing populism, is incorrect—successive US administrations have increasingly attempted to insulate the American economy from foreign competition.
Brazil, India, and China have reduced tariffs since 2000, approaching US and EU rates
Trade specialists in the Trump administration routinely accused US trading partners of protecting their markets with high tariffs, putting US exporters at a disadvantage. This complaint had some merit in 2000—when tariffs in large emerging markets were more than five times higher than US tariffs. But it is out of date, overlooking the liberalization that occurred between 2000 and 2018.
The unappreciated trend toward unilateral trade liberalization
March 2021 Photo Credit: REUTERS/Bobby Yip A frequently voiced complaint from the Trump administration was that US firms have faced a competitive disadvantage in exports because the US market is open and US tariffs are low but US trading partners protect their markets with high tariffs. The administration used this concern to justify raising US tariffs whenever it could.
Will smaller trade deficits bring back manufacturing jobs?
President Donald Trump harnessed his successful 2016 presidential campaign to the issue of lost manufacturing jobs and the “evils” of trade deficits. The Republican national convention in August 2020 demonstrated his determination to do so again. Trump blames trade and offshoring of manufacturing jobs overseas. Democratic presidential nominee former vice president Joe Biden is also making the recovery of manufacturing jobs central to his campaign.
Trade surplus or deficit? Neither matters for manufacturing employment shares
September 2020 Photo Credit: REUTERS/Eddie Keogh Many countries have launched industrial policy programs to improve their manufacturing competitiveness based on the idea that countries with larger trade surpluses or smaller deficits in manufacturing will have higher shares of manufacturing employment. And as countries try to generate a recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, these programs are being enlarged.
Import substitution is making an unwelcome comeback
Import substitution is the idea that blocking imports of manufactured goods can help an economy by increasing the demand for domestically produced goods. The logic is simple: Why import foreign-made cars or clothing or chemicals when one could produce those goods at home and employ workers in doing so? This idea goes back centuries in economic thought but is commonly associated with the Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch, who publicized his ideas in Latin America and around the world in the 1950s.
UAE Court Of Cassation Adopts Restrictive Interpretation Of New Arbitration Law
Mondaq Ltd requires you to register and provide information that personally identifies you, including your content preferences, for three primary purposes (full details of Mondaq’s use of your personal data can be found in our Privacy and Cookies Notice): Mondaq hopes that our registered users will support us in maintaining our free to view business model by consenting to our use of your personal data as described below. Mondaq has a "free to view" business model.
COVID-19 Disputes: Adjournments And Time Extensions In Litigation And Arbitration
Mondaq Ltd requires you to register and provide information that personally identifies you, including your content preferences, for three primary purposes (full details of Mondaq’s use of your personal data can be found in our Privacy and Cookies Notice): Mondaq hopes that our registered users will support us in maintaining our free to view business model by consenting to our use of your personal data as described below. Mondaq has a "free to view" business model.
Senator Hawley channels Trump in his attack on the World Trade Organization
President Donald Trump and his trade advisers have often threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organization (WTO). Now Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has introduced a joint resolution of Congress to do just that. The measure has no chance of passage. For one thing, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Charles Grassley, is opposed, and lawmakers on all sides recognize the potential for more economic disruption in the middle of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Covid-19 UAE: Business Resilience
Mondaq Ltd requires you to register and provide information that personally identifies you, including your content preferences, for three primary purposes (full details of Mondaq’s use of your personal data can be found in our Privacy and Cookies Notice): Mondaq hopes that our registered users will support us in maintaining our free to view business model by consenting to our use of your personal data as described below. Mondaq has a "free to view" business model.
Weak exports will not stall China's manufacturing recovery
April 15, 2020 2:30 PM Image credit: China Daily via REUTERS China's manufacturing sector appears to be well on the road to recovery. Some argue that the inevitable global recession resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic will weaken China's manufactured exports, suggesting that this recovery cannot be maintained. But such analyses overstate the importance of exports in China's growth.
COVID-19 Trade: Managing Supply Chain Risk And Disruption
Mondaq Ltd requires you to register and provide information that personally identifies you, including your content preferences, for three primary purposes (full details of Mondaq’s use of your personal data can be found in our Privacy and Cookies Notice): Mondaq hopes that our registered users will support us in maintaining our free to view business model by consenting to our use of your personal data as described below. Mondaq has a "free to view" business model.
Transport And Shipping In Saudi And COVID-19: The Impact For Sectors In Relation To Coronavirus
Mondaq Ltd requires you to register and provide information that personally identifies you, including your content preferences, for three primary purposes (full details of Mondaq’s use of your personal data can be found in our Privacy and Cookies Notice): Mondaq hopes that our registered users will support us in maintaining our free to view business model by consenting to our use of your personal data as described below. Mondaq has a "free to view" business model.
US-Kenya trade negotiations: A chance to get it right
The United States and Kenya recently announced that they would begin negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement.
Assessing the Strategic and Economic Dialogue
Statement before the Hearing on Reviewing the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Subcommittee on Security and International Trade and Finance, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, United States Senate Toward a G-2 I have proposed since 2004 that the United States and China create an informal G-2 to help steer the world economy. The reason is simple: Progress is impossible on most important global economic issues without agreement by these two global economic superpowers.
New US tech import controls are unacceptably broad
Although China and the United States have agreed to a cease-fire that will roll back certain import tariffs, Washington's push to tighten technological security is set to continue and will be arguably far more important for the future of the relationship and for global innovation. There are already so many initiatives that a rule proposed in late November that would grant the US Department of Commerce sweeping new powers over American companies gathered less attention than it should have.
Carbon Capture Sequestration – Orrick Responds to the IRS Request for Comments | JD Supra
Updated: May 25, 2018: JD Supra is a legal publishing service that connects experts and their content with broader audiences of professionals, journalists and associations.
China, Like the US, Faces Challenges in Achieving Inclusive Growth Through Manufacturing
August 2019 Photo Credit: REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV CC For more than three decades the goal of becoming “the factory of the world” has been at the core of China’s development strategy. This strategy, in combination with high rates of domestic investment and low rates of consumption, made Chinese production the most manufacturing intensive in the world. But as its wages have risen, China’s competitiveness in the most labor-intensive manufacturing industries has eroded.
Virginia Proposes to Amend the Permit by Rule Regulations for Small Solar Projects | JD Supra
Updated: May 25, 2018: JD Supra is a legal publishing service that connects experts and their content with broader audiences of professionals, journalists and associations.
Recent US Manufacturing Employment: The Exception that Proves the Rule
November 2017 Photo Credit: REUTERS/Mike Stone This Working Paper challenges the widely held view that trade has been the primary reason for the declining share of manufacturing employment in the United States. Lawrence also shows that faster productivity growth over many decades has interacted with unresponsive demand to cause a declining share of employment in manufacturing in the United States and other industrial economies.
How the United States Should Confront China Without Threatening the Global Trading System
How the United States Should Confront China Without Threatening the Global Trading System The Trump administration’s willingness to violate trade rules to maximize its negotiating leverage is undermining its most important and most legitimate objective in international trade and investment: persuading China to reform its problematic economic system, in which foreign firms are discriminated against in high-tech projects.
Five Reasons Why the Focus on Trade Deficits Is Misleading
Five Reasons Why the Focus on Trade Deficits Is Misleading President Trump has asserted that trade balances are a key measure of a nation’s commercial success and that large US trade deficits prove that past trade approaches have been flawed. But trade deficits are not in fact a good measure of how well a country is doing with respect to its trade policies. Many of the assumptions on which the administration’s beliefs rest are not supported by the evidence.
After 30 Years, the Montreal Protocol Is Paying Ozone Dividends
On rare but breathtaking occasions, waves of opalescent clouds paint the twilight Antarctic sky in a mix of pastel hues. These “nacreous” clouds float at freezing stratospheric altitudes, where they mingle with the ozone layer and intense sunlight. But that same sunlight that produces this spectacle also mixes with something less natural and less beautiful.
Does Manufacturing Have the Largest Employment "Multiplier" for the Domestic Economy?
Does Manufacturing Have the Largest Employment "Multiplier" for the Domestic Economy? A common argument in favor of promoting manufacturing is that jobs in that sector are among the most valuable to American economic health—certainly more valuable than jobs in the service sector because they are associated with more jobs elsewhere.
The Great Irony of the Mexico Tariff Is that Americans Would Pay for It Too
Should the Trump administration’s threats to impose a 20 percent tariff on US imports from Mexico be treated as a serious policy proposal or simply bluster and part of a power play? It’s hard to say. No sooner had it been announced than Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that the proposal was simply “one idea” in “a buffet of options” to get Mexico to pay for the wall.
Column: The great irony of the Mexico tariff is that Americans would pay for it too
Should the Trump Administration’s threats to impose a 20 percent tariff on US imports from Mexico be treated as a serious policy proposal or simply bluster and part of a power play? It’s hard to say. No sooner had it been announced than Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that the proposal was simply “one idea” in “a buffet of options” to get Mexico to pay for the wall.
Trump’s Carrier Deal Is Not a Victory for US Manufacturing
With great fanfare, Donald Trump announced last week that Carrier Corp. will no longer move 1,000 jobs from Indiana to Mexico. The decision has been ascribed to some combination of the persuasive powers of the president-elect, about $7 million in tax breaks from the state of Indiana, and implicit threats to the valuable business Carrier’s parent company United Technologies, a major military contractor, conducts with the federal government.
Making US Trade and Investment Policies Work for Global Development
Making US Trade and Investment Policies Work for Global Development This Policy Brief reviews US trade and investment policy programs focused on global development, such as the Generalized System of Preferences and the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and concludes that many are not realizing their full potential. The authors discuss seven pragmatic but transformative initiatives that could build on past policy successes and help unlock development for the world’s poor.
7 ways Zika can spread
During the past year, we have been learning a lot about the Zika virus.Scientific and medical research has produced a constant stream of new information about what the virus looks like and which diseases it can cause in infants and adults. We have also learned more about Zika virus epidemiology — the various ways that the virus can spread.
7 ways Zika can spread
During the past year, we have been learning a lot about the Zika virus.Scientific and medical research has produced a constant stream of new information about what the virus looks like and which diseases it can cause in infants and adults. We have also learned more about Zika virus epidemiology — the various ways that the virus can spread.
7 ways Zika can spread
During the past year, we have been learning a lot about the Zika virus. Scientific and medical research has produced a constant stream of new information about what the virus looks like and which diseases it can cause in infants and adults. We have also learned more about Zika virus epidemiology — the various ways that the virus can spread. This figure is an illustrated summary of how this is happening in humans based on what we know so far.
7 ways Zika can spread
During the past year, we have been learning a lot about the Zika virus.Scientific and medical research has produced a constant stream of new information about what the virus looks like and which diseases it can cause in infants and adults. We have also learned more about Zika virus epidemiology — the various ways that the virus can spread.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Robert Z.
Contact Robert Z., search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack