International Trade – Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP)

12th Annual WAITS

Friday, April 21st, 2023,
9:00 am – 7:00pm ET
134 Van Metre Hall Auditorium
George Mason University

Conference Program

08:30-08:55: Breakfast

08:55-09:00: Opening Remarks

Session I: Frictions and Trade

9:00-9:45: Brian Cevallos Fujiy (U.S. Census Bureau), “Cultural Proximity and Production
Networks”
Discussant: Yingyan Zhao (GWU)

9:45-10:30: Christian Volpe (Inter-American Development Bank), “The Value of International
Certifications”
Discussant: Andrew McCallum (Federal Reserve Board)

10:30-11:00: Coffee Break

Session II: Immigration

11:00-11:45: Mine Senses (JHU SAIS), “The Fiscal Impact of Immigration in the United States:
Evidence at the Local Level”
Discussant: Charly Porcher (Georgetown)

11:45-12:30: Michael Clemens (GMU), “The Effect of Low-Skill Immigration Restrictions on US
Firms and Workers: Evidence from a Randomized Lottery”
Discussant: Juan Blyde (Inter-American Development Bank)

12:30-13:15: Lunch

Session III: Trade and Inequality

13:15-14:00: Miguel Acosta (Federal Reserve Board), “The Regressive Nature of the U.S. Tariff
Code: Origins and Implications”
Discussant: Daniel Bernhofen (American)
14:00-14:45: Kara Reynolds (American), “Backlash against Trade in an Unequal World”
Discussant: Cristina Tello-Trillo (U.S. Census Bureau)

14:45-15:15: Coffee Break

Session IV: The Pandemic Trade Shock

15:15-16:00: Ariel Weinberger (GWU), “Surviving Pandemics: The Role of Spillovers”
Discussant: Anne Beck (World Bank)
16:00-16:45: Dhevaki Ghose (World Bank), “Production Networks and Firm-Level Elasticities
of Substitution”
Discussant: Ritam Chauri (JHU SAIS)
16:45-17:30: Ferdinando Monte (Georgetown), “Remote Work and City Structure”
Discussant: Maurice Kugler (GMU)

17:30-18:30: Reception

Are China and India Likely to Miss the Convergence?

April 13, 2022April 18, 2022Development Economics, International Trade, Past Events

Wednesday, April 13th, 2022
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. EDT / 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. IST
via Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to the sixth webinar in the 2021-2022 Envisioning India series, co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Institute for International Economic Policy. This is a platform for dialogue and debate in a series of important discussions.

This event featured Arvind Subramanian, Senior Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, and Kalpana Kochhar, Director of Development Policy and Finance at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provided discussant remarks.

The event reflected on the development experiences, similar and different, of China and India, as well as their prospects going forward.

The Envisioning India series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh, Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Distinguished Visiting Scholar Ajay Chhibber.

About the Speaker:

Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) to the Government of India between 2014 and 2018, is now Senior Fellow, Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and Distinguished Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development. Previously, he was Professor at Ashoka University (2020-21), taught at the Harvard Kennedy School (2018-2020), and was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (2011-2014). Foreign Policy magazine named him as one of the world’s top 100 global thinkers in 2011. As CEA, he oversaw the publication of the annual Economic Survey of India, which became a widely read document on Indian economic policy and development. For example, the 2018 Survey had 20 million views from over 190 countries in its first year of publication. Among the major ideas and policies he initiated and helped implement were a simplified goods and services tax (GST), attempts to tackle the Twin Balance Sheet challenge, creating the financial and digital platform for connectivity (the so-called JAM trinity), charting a new fiscal framework, and Universal Basic Income. Announcing his departure as CEA, the former Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley wrote a Facebook post, Thank You, Arvind. His award-winning book Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance was published in September 2011 and had printed 130,000 copies world-wide in four languages. His latest, best-selling book, reflecting on his time in India, “Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi-Jaitley Economy,” was published by Penguin Random House in December 2018.

Joshua Felman is currently the head of JH Consulting, providing economic advice to academics and policy practitioners. Before that, he was for many years a senior official at the IMF, where he specialized in Asia and especially India.

His familiarity with India started in the 1980s, when he first began analyzing the economy, as it started to open up to the outside world. During the boom of the mid-2000s, he moved to Delhi to take charge of the IMF’s India office. And in 2015 he returned to India to work for several years in the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance.

Mr. Felman also has extensive familiarity with crises. During the East Asian crisis, he was posted to the IMF’s Jakarta office, where he worked closely with the authorities as they reconstructed a shattered financial system, following the collapse of more than 200 banks. Then, he led the IMF’s operations in the Philippines, as they sought to overcome the lingering effects of the crisis. And after that he led the IMF’s work in Korea, when that country was suffering from a household debt crisis.

Following the Global Financial Crisis, he was appointed Assistant Director in the IMF’s Research Department, where he worked closely with Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard, analyzing the implications for the global economy — and also for our understanding of economics.

Mr. Felman did his graduate work at Oxford University in England.

About the Discussants:

Dr. Kalpana Kochhar is Director, Development Policy and Finance at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to taking this position, she spent 33 years at the IMF, ending her career there as the Director of the Human Resources Department of the IMF between 2016 and 2021. She has also held positions as Deputy Director in the Asia and Pacific Department of the IMF where she worked on India, China, Korea, Japan and several other Asian countries, and in the Strategy, Policy and Review Department where she launched the IMF’s work on the macroeconomic implications of gender inequality and women’s economic empowerment. Between 2010 and 2012, she was seconded to the World Bank as the Chief Economist for the South Asia Region of the World Bank. Ms. Kochhar’s research interests and publications have been on emerging markets including India and China, and jobs and inclusive growth, gender and inequality issues, structural reforms, and regional integration in South Asia. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Economics from Brown University and an M.A. in Economics from Delhi School of Economics in India. She has a B.A in Economics from Madras University in India.

David Dollar is a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution and host of the Brookings trade podcast, Dollar&Sense. He is a leading expert on China’s economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013, Dollar was the U.S. Treasury’s economic and financial emissary to China, based in Beijing, facilitating the macroeconomic and financial policy dialogue between the United States and China. Prior to joining Treasury, Dollar worked 20 years for the World Bank, serving as country director for China and Mongolia, based in Beijing (2004-2009). His other World Bank assignments focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. Dollar also worked in the World Bank’s research department. His publications focus on economic reform in China, globalization, and economic growth. He also taught economics at University of California Los Angeles, during which time he spent a semester in Beijing at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1986. He has a doctorate in economics from New York University and a bachelor’s in Chinese history and language from Dartmouth College.

More From This Series

Missing migrants: Border Closures as a Labor Supply Shock, joint with Dave Maré and Lynda Sanderson

April 12, 2022April 27, 2022International Trade Events, Past Events

Tuesday, April 12th, 2022
12:30 – 2:00 p.m. EST
via Zoom

We study the economic impact of the March 2020 closure of the New Zealand border. The border closed in the middle of the fall RSE arrival season, causing seasonal migrants to not enter the country as planned. We identify firms that were expecting workers but the workers did not arrive before the border closure and compare these firms to other firms where the workers arrived just before the border closure. We study the firm-level response to these `missing migrants’. Did affected firms hire other workers? Did wages need to increase to do so? Was productivity lower as a result? We find that firms without migrants employed other workers — a combination of working holiday makers and New Zealand citizens/residents — and did not face lower employment levels. We find no evidence that firms without migrants increased wages for other workers. We find suggestive evidence that firms without migrants faced a productivity loss of up to 8\%, but this result is statistically insignificant.

About the Speaker:

Melanie Morten is a development economist who focuses on the migration of low-income people. Human mobility has long helped to determine people’s living conditions. Individuals move, both across and within countries, searching for better employment prospects, higher wages, and other opportunities. Beyond impacting individuals’ own outcomes, migration sometimes occurs at such a large scale that it affects the overall organization of economic activity within countries. Her work explores the causes and effects of different types of movement, including internal and international migration, temporary and permanent relocations, and within-city residential movements. She considers both the microeconomic and macroeconomic implications of migration and formulate spatial equilibrium models to understand how impacts in one location may spill over to other areas. Her research has been supported by several grants, including an NSF CAREER award and a Sloan Fellowship.

China’s rebranding campaign during the Covid-19 pandemic: How successful is it?

April 11, 2022May 10, 2022International Trade, Past Events, US-China

Friday, April 22, 2022,

9:30-11 a.m. ET

Lindner Family Commons (in-person) and via Zoom

At this event Dr. Yanzhong Huang will examine China’s efforts to improve its international image and project global influence by looking at three key aspects of the campaign 1) the efforts to promote China’s pandemic response model; 2) its efforts to frame itself as a leader in the provision of global public goods; and 3) its efforts to dispute the Covid-19 origins.

Speaker:

Dr. Yanzhong Huang is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he directs the Global Health Governance roundtable series. He is also a professor and the director of global health studies at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations, where he developed the first academic concentration among U.S. professional schools of international affairs that explicitly addresses the security and foreign policy aspects of health issues. He is the founding editor of Global Health Governance: The Scholarly Journal for the New Health Security Paradigm.

Dr. Huang has written extensively on China and global health. He is the author of Governing Health in Contemporary China (2013) and Toxic Politics: China’s Environmental Health Crisis and Its Challenge to the Chinese State (2020). He has also published numerous reports, journal articles, and book chapters, including articles in Survival, Foreign Affairs, Public Health, Bioterrorism and Biosecurity, and China Leadership Monitor, as well as opinion pieces in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and the South China Morning Post, among others. In 2006, he co-authored the first scholarly article that systematically examined China’s soft power.

Dr. Huang has testified before U.S. congressional committees many times and regularly is consulted by major media outlets, the private sector, and governmental and nongovernmental organizations on global health issues and China. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and a board member of the Institute of Global Health (Georgia). In 2012, InsideJersey listed him as one of the “20 Brainiest People in New Jersey.” He previously was a research associate at the National Asia Research Program, a public intellectuals fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, an associate fellow at the Asia Society, a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, and a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has taught at Barnard College and Columbia University. He obtained his BA and MA from Fudan University and his PhD from the University of Chicago.

Discussants:

Dr. Zoë McLaren is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and an Affiliate of the Health Econometrics and Data Group at York University. Dr. McLaren is a health economist whose research informs health and economic policy to combat infectious disease epidemics including HIV, tuberculosis and COVID19 in the United States and abroad. She develops rigorous applied statistical approaches to answer important policy questions using real-world data. Her work builds the evidence base in three key research areas: (1) the impact of health and economic policies to fight HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19 globally, (2) the relationship between access to health resources and economic outcomes, and (3) the causes of persistent poverty. Dr. McLaren was formerly an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy at the George Washington University Elliot School of International Affairs. She received her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Economics from the University of Michigan and her B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Joan Kaufman is the NY–based Senior Director for Academic Programs for the Schwarzman Scholars Program. She is Lecturer in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Visiting Professor at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University where she teaches on global health policy. Dr. Kaufman is an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations. An expert on both China and global health policy, she was the Director of Columbia University’s Global Center for East Asia (Beijing) from 2012-2016 and Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. From 2002-2010 she was based at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where she founded and directed the AIDS Public Policy Project. She was Distinguished Scientist, Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of the Master Program in Health Policy and Management at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management from 2003-2012. She was selected as a Radcliffe fellow in residence at Harvard from 2001-2002. She has lived and worked in China for 15 years since 1980 for the United Nations (1980-1984) the Ford Foundation (1996-2001), as the China Team Leader for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (2002-2012), and Columbia University (2012-2016). She holds a Doctorate in Public Health from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, as well as a MA and BA cum laude in Chinese Studies. She serves on the Advisory Boards for Sup China, Uplift International, and several Chinese NGOs, has consulted for many foundations and international organizations and has published widely on global health policy, HIV/AIDS, women’s rights, reproductive health, population, emerging infectious diseases, and civil society with a focus on China.

This event is part of our China conference series and is cosponsored by the Sigur Center and GW-CIBER.

More From This Conference

China’s Irreconcilable Choices on Ukraine

April 11, 2022May 10, 2022Michael O. Moore, Past Events, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events

Friday, April 22, 2022,

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET

Lindner Family Commons (in-person) and via Zoom

At this event Evan Feigenbaum will discuss how China bridges the geo-economic and geo-political terrain in its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. How does China manage its relationships with the U.S. and Russia? How do they triangulate? How can China simultaneously be an ally to Russia and a stakeholder in the global system? Immediately following his keynote remarks, we’ll hear from discussants from the economic angle and the Eurasian/Russian angle to flesh out other viewpoints and highlight tricky issues. The event will conclude with a robust audience Q&A.

Speaker

Evan A. Feigenbaum is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research in Washington, Beijing, and New Delhi on a dynamic region encompassing both East Asia and South Asia. He was also the 2019-20 James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, where he is now a practitioner senior fellow. Initially an academic with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, Feigenbaum’s career has spanned government service, think tanks, the private sector, and three major regions of Asia. He is the author of three books and monographs, including The United States in the New Asia (CFR, 2009, co-author) and China’s Techno-Warriors: National Security and Strategic Competition from the Nuclear to the Information Age (Stanford University Press, 2003), which was selected by Foreign Affairs as a best book of 2003 on the Asia-Pacific, as well as numerous articles and essays.

Discussants

Michael Moore received his B.A. in liberal arts from the University of Texas at Austin and his M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is Director of the Masters of Arts in International Economic Policy program and has been a faculty member at the Elliott School since receiving his doctorate in 1988. Professor Moore teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in international trade theory and policy as well as international macroeconomics. He also has taught international economics to US diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute and students at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (Sciences-Po) in Paris. He has published in numerous academic journals including the Journal of International Economics, International Trade Journal, Canadian Journal of Economics, Review of International Economics, European Journal of Political Economy, and Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, and has been a contributor to five books. His commentary has appeared in numerous media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Financial Times, CNN, CBC, NPR, and NBC.

This event is part of our China conference series and is cosponsored by the Sigur Center and GW-CIBER.

U.S.-China Tension

April 1, 2022April 18, 2022Past Events, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events

Friday, April 1, 2022

9:30 a.m
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the 14th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year, the conference takes place as a virtual series. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER).

Since 1949, US–China relations have evolved from tense standoffs to a complex mix of intensifying diplomacy, growing international rivalry, and increasingly intertwined economies. Continued escalation of trade disputes and blame over the spread of the coronavirus are emblematic of a significant hardening of positions that extends well beyond these two issues. The importance of US–China tension in shaping either macroeconomic outcomes or firm-level decisions over a long time span has not been studied empirically, mainly for lack of an indicator that can quantify these tensions. The paper that will be discussed measures the intensity of public concerns over US–China tension and shows that there are adverse economic consequences for both countries due to heightened tensions.

About the Speaker:

Bo Sun is a Principal Economist at the Federal Reserve Board. She currently serves as an associated editor of the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. She served on the faculty at Guanghua School of Management of Peking University from 2011 to 2014, and taught courses in corporate finance at undergraduate, Masters, MBA, and Ph.D. levels. Her research interests include finance and macroeconomics, with a particular focus on information frictions. Her research has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Monetary Economics, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Literature, and American Economic Journal: Microeconomics. Her research has also been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, Brookings, Chicago Booth Review, and Deutsche Bank Research, among other outlets. She was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Canada, Bank of England, World Bank, and Carnegie Mellon University. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia and B.A. in Finance from Peking University.

Mary Lovely (Syracuse and PIIE) will discuss.

More From This Conference

Trade Links: New Rules for a New World

March 23, 2022April 11, 2022International Trade, Past Events

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET
Lindner Family Commons, 6th floor at the Elliott School
and via Zoom

The World Trade Organization is undergoing an existential crisis. Trade links the world not only through the flow of international commerce in goods, services, and ideas; but also through its economic, environmental, and social impacts. Trade links are supported by a WTO trading system founded on rules established in the 20th century which do not account for all the modern changes in the global economy.

James Bacchus, a founder of the WTO, posits that this global organization can survive and continue to succeed only if the trade links among WTO members are revitalized and reimagined. He explains how to bring the WTO into the twenty-first century, exploring the ways it can be utilized to combat future pandemics and climate change and advance sustainable development, all while continuing to foster free trade.

This event was co-sponsored by the Washington International Trade Association (WITA).

About the Speaker

James Bacchus is Distinguished University Professor of Global Affairs and Director of the Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity of the University of Central Florida. He was a founding judge and was twice Chairman – the chief judge – of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization. He is a former Member of the Congress of the United States, from Florida, and a former US trade negotiator. He serves on the United States Leadership Council of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, served on the High-Level Advisory Panel to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, chaired the global council on governance for sustainability of the World Economic Forum, and chaired the Commission on Trade and Investment Policy of the International Chamber of Commerce. He is adjunct scholar for the Cato Institute in Washington, DC; global fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Canada; distinguished fellow of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations, and Pao Yue-Kong University Chair Professor of international law at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Professor Bacchus is the author of Trade and Freedom (London: Cameron May, 2004); The Willing World: Shaping and Sharing a Sustainable Global Prosperity (London: Cambridge University Press, 2018), named one of the “Best Books of the Year” by the Financial Times of London; and, with co-author Inu Manak, The Development Dimension: Special and Differential Treatment in Trade (London: Routledge Press, 2021). His new book, Trade Links: New Rules for a New World, will be published by Cambridge University Press in early 2022.

Introductory Remarks

Alyssa Ayres is the Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Before joining the Elliott School, she was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia under the Obama administration. She holds a Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago.

About the Moderator

Jay Shambaugh is Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

GW Students, Faculty, and Staff are welcome to attend this event in person at the address below or via Zoom:

Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Family Commons, Suite 602
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

Alumni, Guests, and General Public are also welcome to attend the event in person or via Zoom. We require that guests follow the George Washington University Visitor guidelines.

The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China

March 22, 2022April 11, 2022Events, Past Events, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events

Tuesday, March 22 | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
Format: Hybrid In Person and Virtual Event
In person: Elliott School of International Affairs
The Lindner Family Commons,
Room 602
1957 E St NW, Washington DC 20052
Virtual: via Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to a joint Elliott School Book Launch Series and IIEP Policy Forum at GW featuring Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society, on his new book, The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China. Elliott School Dean Alyssa Ayres provided welcome remarks. Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, International Affairs, and Political Science David Shambaugh engaged with the Hon. Kevin Rudd in conversation, and there was a lengthy moderated Q&A. Books were available for purchase and signing after the end of the event.

About The Speaker

Kevin Rudd is a former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society. He became President and CEO of Asia Society in January 2021 and has been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute since January 2015. He served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. He is also a leading international authority on China. He began his career as a China scholar, serving as an Australian diplomat in Beijing before entering Australian politics.

About The Moderator

David Shambaugh is an internationally recognized authority and award-winning author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. He currently is the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs, and the founding Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He was also a formerly a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution and Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Introductory Remarks

Looking for Balanced Growth in China: Insights from the latest IMF Staff report

February 25, 2022April 11, 2022Chao Wei, International Trade, International Trade Events, Past Events, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events, US-China

Friday, March 4th, 2022
9:30 – 11:00 a.m. ET
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the fourth event in the 14th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. This year, the conference will take place as a virtual series. This conference is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER).

China’s recovery is well advanced—but it lacks balance and momentum has slowed, reflecting the rapid withdrawal of fiscal support, lagging consumption amid recurrent COVID-19 outbreaks despite a successful vaccination campaign, and slowing real estate investment following policy efforts to reduce leverage in the property sector. Regulatory measures targeting the technology sector, intended to enhance competition, consumer privacy, and data governance, have increased policy uncertainty. China’s climate strategy has begun to take shape with the release of detailed action plans. Productivity growth is declining as decoupling pressures are increasing, while a stalling of key structural reforms and rebalancing are delaying the transition to “high-quality”—balanced, inclusive and green—growth.

China rebounded strongly from the pandemic, but growth is losing momentum while remaining overly dependent on support from investment and exports. This imperils the nation’s long-sought transition to sustained high-quality growth that’s balanced, inclusive and green.

While China’s many challenges have no easy answer, the key message of the IMF’s annual Article IV review of the economy is that rebalancing toward a more consumption-based model will boost growth prospects in the short term and deliver high-quality expansion in the long run. Importantly, it will also help bring the country closer to achieving its climate goal of carbon neutrality before 2060.

About the Speakers:

Helge Berger is an Assistant Director in the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department. He is also an adjunct professor of monetary economics at Free University of Berlin. He was educated in Munich, Germany, where he received his Ph.D. and the venia legendi for economics. Previously, he taught at Princeton University as a John Foster Dulles Visiting Lecturer, helped to coordinate the Munich-based CESifo network as its research director, and served as full professor (tenured) at Free University Berlin. At the IMF, he has worked in the Research and European Departments.

Wenjie Chen is a senior economist on the IMF’s China team. Prior to that, she worked in the Research Department, where she was part of the World Economic Outlook team. She has also worked in the African Department on South Africa and South Sudan. Before joining the IMF, Wenjie worked as a professor at George Washington University School of Business and Elliott School of International Affairs. She received her MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan.

About the Discussant:

Chao Wei is an associate professor of economics at the George Washington University who previously taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the 2010-2011 Economic Policy Fellow at the Congressional Budget Office. Her primary research areas are: Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Financial Economics, China Economy, and Energy and Environmental Economics. She has published papers, including at the top journal of the economics field, on the impact of energy price shocks on the stock market, the effect of personal and corporate income taxes on asset returns, and the endogenous determination of gasoline use and vehicle fuel efficiency. Her recent research focuses on the relationship between family structure and parental human capital investment, marital and labor supply behaviors of older adults, and the trade-off between stimulus and environmental objectives in the green stimulus programs. She holds degrees from Fudan University (BA), Columbia University (M.A.) and Stanford University (Ph.D.).

About the Moderator:

More From This Conference

Trade Shocks and Supply Chains: What is Happening to the WTO and Globalization?

February 22, 2022April 11, 2022International Trade, International Trade Events, Michael O. Moore, Past Events

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. EST/6:30 – 7:30 p.m. CET
via Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to join the Insitute for International Economic Policy for a webinar featuring the Chief Economist of the WTO Bob Koopman discussing “Trade Shocks and Supply Chains: What is Happening to the WTO and Globalization?” Prof. Michael Moore moderated and IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh provided welcoming remarks. This event was in partnership with the GW Department of Economics Trade and Development Workshop organized by Yingyan Zhao and Remi Jedwab.

Since 2016 international trade has been subjected to increased geo-political uncertainty and more recently a major global health shock. How has the WTO and globalization responded? The initial Trump administration policy shocks resulted in mainly higher prices and trade diversion. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a number of restrictive trade policies mainly due to health policy restrictions, but also substantial fiscal and monetary policy responses in the advanced economies. The combination of economic and health policies brought about a dramatic compositional shift in demand from in-person services to tradeable goods stressing global and national supply chains. How has the global trading system responded? What role, if any, will globalization play in the future on the Phillips curve and inflation? These are important questions for the global trading system given the prospect of continued global health challenges and rising climate challenges.

About the Speaker:

Bob Koopman is currently the Chief Economist of the World Trade Organization and an Adjunct Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. At the WTO Bob serves as Chief Economic Counsellor to the Director-General, and provides the WTO Secretariat and Member Countries with analysis and information that promotes a deeper understanding of trade and trade policy’s role in economic growth and development. At the Graduate Institute Bob teaches courses on international trade. Bob also serves as the WTO representative to the G20 Trade and Investment Working Group and the G20 Framework Group. He is a research associate of CEPR, London, and an editor of the Springer Series on Advances in Applied General Equilibrium Modeling.

Prior to joining the WTO and the Graduate Institute Bob was Chief Operating Officer at the United States International Trade Commission and an Adjunct Professor of Economics at Georgetown University. Bob has also previously served as Chief Economist at the USITC, Deputy Administrator for social sciences at what is now the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, USDA, and various leadership and analyst positions at the Economic Research Service of USDA.

About the Moderator:

Professor Moore has served as Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy, Director of the International Trade and Investment Policy Program, and Associate Dean at the Elliott School.

Professor Moore served as Senior Economist for international trade on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors from 2002 to 2003.

Welcoming Remarks:

Jay Shambaugh is a Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Escaping Sanctions? Iranian Firm Response and Market Reallocation Under International Trade Sanctions

November 9, 2021March 16, 2022International Trade, Past Events, Seminar

Tuesday, November 9th, 2021
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST
via Zoom

How do targeted firms respond to international trade sanctions? While the macroeconomic effect of trade sanctions has been extensively studied, little is known about how trade sanctions shape firm dynamics and their heterogeneous effects in a targeted country. Exploring detailed Iranian manufacturing firm surveys, I examine firm-level asymmetric effects of the 2012-2013 U.S. and EU trade sanctions against Iran due to Iran’s nuclear program. Empirical analysis shows that the sanctions cut Iranian firms’ exports in half and imports by over 30 percent and, on average, reduced firm-level productivity, profit, revenue, and employment. However, intriguingly, exporting firms were found to mitigate negative effects of sanctions through increased presence in the domestic market, transferring sanction shocks to non-exporting firms. At the same time, importing firms responded to sanctions by sourcing more domestic inputs at the expense of non-importing firms. Based on a stylized model featuring heterogeneous firms with capacity constraints, I show that the export sanctions increased consumer welfare by 4.35 percent with decreasing domestic prices for a given income level. In contrast, import sanctions led to a 7.5 percent consumer welfare loss by increasing prices. The stylized model implies alleviating exporting firm capacity constraints during adverse trade shocks increases positive impacts through export channels.

About the Speaker:

Ebad Ebadi is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at George Washington University, where he researches the impacts of economic sanctions on firms and individuals and gender inequality in the Iranian labor market. He has written for numerous publications, including the Atlantic Council. He holds M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the University of Tehran.

Linkages with Multinationals: The Effects on Domestic Firms’ Exports

November 5, 2021April 11, 2022Development Economics, International Trade, Past Events

Tuesday, November 16th, 2021
12.30 p.m. – 2.00 p.m. ET
via Zoom

Christian Volpe Martincus, Principal Economist at the Integration and Trade Sector (INT) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will present his paper, Linkages with Multinationals: The Effects on Domestic Firms’ Exports.

Abstract: Multinational firms’ affiliates are typically larger, more productive, and more likely to export. Existing empirical evidence suggests that domestic firms that are connected to these affiliates tend to have better export outcomes. However, this evidence relies on firm-to-firm connections that are assumed based on country-level input-output matrices rather than actually observed. In this paper, we examine, whether and how linking up with multinational firms results in improved export performance for domestic firms, using a unique dataset that includes data on firm-to-firm purchases and sales both within and across countries. Our estimation results indicate that selling to a multinational firm is associated with a significant increase in the probability that a domestic firm starts to export, especially to a country where the respective multinational firm is headquartered or has an affiliate. This estimated effect is larger when the multinational firms themselves sell abroad and when the linkage intensity is higher.

About the Speaker:

Christian Volpe Martincus is Principal Economist at the Integration and Trade Sector (INT) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). He previously worked for the Ministry of the Economy of the Province of Buenos Aires and was advisor at the MERCOSUR Commission of the National Representatives Chamber in Argentina.

He is the technical leader of INT impact evaluation work related to trade and investment operations and initiatives, the INT networks ELSNIT and TIGN, and the INT Trade Policy Research Seminar Series. He has also advised several governments in both Latin American and the Caribbean and OECD countries on export promotion, investment promotion, trade facilitation, and the evaluation of the respective programs.

Christian holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bonn, Germany and a Master in Economics from the National University of La Plata (Argentina). He has presented in numerous international academic and policy workshops and conferences and has published on international trade and economic geography in several international professional journals. Christian is a CESifo Research Fellow and serves as an Associate Editor for the Review of International Economics.

Taking on China – the Imperative and agenda for India

October 31, 2021March 16, 2022Development Economics, India, International Trade, International Trade Events, Past Events

Wednesday, November 17th, 2021
8:30 – 10:00 am EDT / 7:00 – 8:30 pm IST

This was the third webinar in the 2021-2022 Envisioning India series, co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Institute for International Economic Policy, a platform for dialogue and debate. We invited you to engage with us in this series of important discussions.

The Envisioning India series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh, Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Distinguished Visiting Scholar Ajay Chhibber. The third event of the 2021-2022 series featured Ambassador (Retd) Gautam Bambawale (Distinguished Professor, Symbiosis University, Pune, India) and Dr. Ganesh Natarajan (5F World and Lighthouse Communities) to discuss “Taking on China – The Imperative and Agenda for India.” Manjeet Kripalani (Gateway House) and Dr. Jaimini Bhagwati (CSEP) provided discussant remarks.

India and China were more or less comparable in terms of economy size and global influence in the past but the rapid growth of China in the last five decades has taken China to near super power status and an economy which is over four times the size of India (14 trillion vs 3 trillion USD). This has seen increasing belligerence from China in the last year or so and we believe that India must act and act on multiple fronts if we are to retain our position on the High Table of global affairs.

Six senior members of the Pune International Center in India came together over a one year period in 2021-21 to produce a book Rising to the China Challenge: Winning Through Strategic Patience and Economic Growth that has been recently published and widely read in political, diplomatic and economic circles. Our submission is that there is a need for significant policy responses and diplomatic moves on the one hand and a renewed focus on restoring economic symmetry with China on the other to restore some level of equilibrium between the two nations. Two of the authors, Ambassador (Retd) Gautam Bambawale and Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, will present the book.

In the talk, three areas of great importance will be addressed.
1. Redressing the economic imbalance by focusing on industry sectors where India has the opportunity to redress the huge disparity that currently exists in domestic independence and global position, sectors where we have the imperative and the ability to catch up and build much higher values in the years to come and finally areas where India can indeed take the lead and build jobs for the future.
2. Diplomatic responses needed from India by having new models of engagement with global nations of importance, China’s neighbors and India’s own neighbors to counter China’s growing dominance in world affairs.
3. India’s own domestic and international imperatives and policies and programs that are essential to set India on a path of sustained and significant growth as a democratic force of significance to the world.

About the Speakers:

Ambassador (Retd) Gautam Bambawale was a member of the Indian Foreign Service from 1984 to 2018. He was India’s Ambassador to Bhutan, Pakistan and China. Bambawale was stationed in Washington DC in 2004-07 during the Indo-US nuclear deal which transformed ties between the two countries. He has been India’s first Consul General in Guangzhou (China) 2007-09. He was Director of the Indian Cultural Centre, Berlin 1994-98. Ambassador Bambawale worked in the Prime Minister’s Office 2002-04. At the Ministry of External Affairs he was Joint Secretary for East Asia from 2009-2014. Bambawale has dealt with China for 15 years of his 34 year diplomatic career. He is currently Distinguished Professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Symbiosis International University, Pune.

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman and Co-Founder of 5F World and Lighthouse Communities. He is an investor and mentor to digital platforms and AI entrepreneurs in India and USA. Ganesh is a Board Director of SBI, Hinduja Global Solutions and Asian Venture Philanthropy Network and is Chairman of Honeywell Automation India. Ganesh is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and Harvard Business School and a recipient of IIT’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.

About the Discussants:

Manjeet Kripalani is Executive Director of Gateway House. Prior to the founding of Gateway House, she was India Bureau chief of Businessweek magazine from 1996 to 2009. During her extensive career in journalism (Businessweek, Worth and Forbes magazines, New York), she has won several awards, including the Gerald Loeb Award, the George Polk Award, Overseas Press Club and Daniel Pearl Awards. Kripalani was the 2006-07 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York, which inspired her to found Gateway House. Her political career spans being the deputy press secretary to Steve Forbes during his first run in 1995-96 as Republican candidate for U.S. President in New Jersey, to being press secretary for the Lok Sabha campaign for independent candidate Meera Sanyal in 2008 and 2014 in Mumbai. Kripalani holds two bachelor’s degrees from Bombay University (Bachelor of Law, Bachelor of Arts in English and History) and a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, New York. She sits on the executive board of Gateway House and is a member of the Rotary Club of Bombay.

Dr. Jaimini Bhagwati is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), Chairman of the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) Asset Management Trustee Company and Board member of IDFC Limited. Dr. Bhagwati was India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and India’s Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg. He has held senior positions in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Department of Atomic Anergy and the World bank Treasury. His responsibilities at the World Bank included bond funding including execution of over-the-counter derivatives transactions. Between 2013-2018 Dr. Bhagwati was the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor at ICRIER. Dr. Bhagwati was educated at St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, Tufts University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.

More From This Series

The Future Global Economic and Spatial Consequences of Climate Change

October 29, 2021April 11, 2022Adaption to Climate Change Events, Climate Adaptation, Past Events

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Online

Trade & Development Workshop

Speaker: Klaus Desmet (SMU)

Local Sectoral Specialization in a Warming World

Abstract: This paper quantitatively assesses the world’s changing economic geography and sectoral specialization due to global warming. It proposes a two-sector dynamic spatial growth model that incorporates the relation between economic activity, carbon emissions, and temperature. The model is taken to the data at the 1◦ by 1◦resolution for the entire world. Over a 200-year horizon, rising temperatures consistent with emissions under Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 push people and economic activity northwards to Siberia, Canada, and Scandinavia. Compared to a world without climate change, clusters of agricultural specialization shift from Central Africa, Brazil, and India’s Ganges Valley, to Central Asia, parts of China and northern Canada. Equatorial latitudes that lose agriculture specialize more in non-agriculture but, due to their persistently low productivity, lose population. By the year 2200, predicted losses in real GDP and utility are 6% and 15%, respectively. Higher trade costs make adaptation through changes in sectoral specialization more costly, leading to less geographic concentration in agriculture and larger climate-induced migration.

IMF World Economic Outlook: Recovery During a Pandemic – Health Concerns, Supply Disruptions, and Price Pressures

October 26, 2021April 11, 2022Global Governance, International Trade, Past Events, Tara Sinclair

Friday, October 29th, 2021
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. EDT
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy hosted a discussion of the International Monetary Fund’s October 2021 World Economic Outlook titled “IMF World Economic Outlook: Recovery During a Pandemic – Health Concerns, Supply Disruptions, and Price Pressures.” This event featured John Bluedorn (IMF), Christoffer Koch (IMF), Tara Sinclair (GWU), Jean-Marc Natal (IMF), and Benjamin Jones (Northwestern University). This event was moderated by IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh.

The global economic recovery is continuing, even as the pandemic resurges. The fault lines opened up by COVID-19 are looking more persistent—near-term divergences are expected to leave lasting imprints on medium-term performance. Vaccine access and early policy support are the principal drivers of the gaps.

The IMF World Economic Outlook — the flagship publication of the IMF — details the state of the global economy and its prospects going forward. It also includes two analytical chapters considering key policy issues facing the world economy. Chapter 2 considers the appropriate policy mix as many countries face elevated or rising inflation. Chapter 3 examines how countries could use science and innovation policy to boost long run economic growth. This event presents an opportunity for policymakers and academics to consider these crucial issues.

Event Agenda

Welcoming Remarks
Jay Shambaugh, George Washington University

Chapter 1: Global Prospects and Policies
Presenter: John Bluedorn, International Monetary Fund

Chapter 2: Inflation Scares
Presenter: Christoffer Koch, International Monetary Fund
Discussant: Tara Sinclair, George Washington University

Chapter 3: Research and Innovation: Fighting the Pandemic and Boosting Long-Term Growth
Presenter: Jean-Marc Natal, International Monetary Fund
Discussant: Benjamin Jones, Northwestern University

General Q&A and Concluding Remarks
Moderated by Jay Shambaugh, George Washington University

About the Speakers:

John Bluedorn is a deputy division chief on the World Economic Outlook in the IMF’s Research Department. Previously, he has been a senior economist in the Research Department’s Structural Reforms Unit, a member of the IMF’s euro area team in the European Department and worked on the World Economic Outlook as an economist, contributing to a number of chapters. Before joining the IMF, he was a professor at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, after a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford. Mr. Bluedorn has published on a range of topics in international finance, macroeconomics, and development. He holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.

Christoffer Koch works in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that he had spent a decade as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. His policy and research interests are in macroeconomics, money and banking. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of St Andrews, and his PhD from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Jean-Marc Natal is Deputy Division Chief in the World Economic Studies Division in the IMF’s Research Department. Prior to joining the IMF, he was Deputy Director of Research at the Swiss National Bank where he advised the Board on quarterly monetary policy decisions and communication. Mr Natal has taught Monetary Theory and Policy at the University of Geneva and has published in various economics journals, including the Economic Journal and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. His research covers the study of monetary and exchange rate regimes, policy transmission, inflation dynamics and macroeconomic modeling. He holds a PhD in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

About the Discussants:

Tara M. Sinclair is a faculty affiliate of the Institute for International Economic Policy and professor of economics and international affairs at the George Washington University, where she has been on faculty since earning her PhD in economics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2005. Professor Sinclair is a senior fellow at job search site Indeed, the co-director of the H. O. Stekler Research Program on Forecasting, a member of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Technical Advisory Committee, a research professor at the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) in Germany, and a research associate at the Center for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA). She has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a visiting associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and an academic visitor at the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales. Professor Sinclair also serves as the moderator for the monthly inflation meet-ups for the National Association for Business Economics. Professor Sinclair’s research focuses on developing new tools and data sources to improve decision making. Her early research built empirical models to study economic fluctuations and trends, and these models remain a continuing thread in her publications. As part of the Indeed Hiring Lab, Professor Sinclair uses Indeed’s unique labor market data to develop new economic indicators. As co-director of the H. O. Stekler Research Program on Forecasting, she evaluates real time economic data and forecasts with a focus on their role in policy. Professor Sinclair regularly speaks at conferences and with the press on issues related to forecasting, recessions, labor markets, big data, macroeconomics, and policy issues.

Benjamin F. Jones is the Gordon and Llura Gund Family Professor of Entrepreneurship, a Professor of Strategy, and the faculty director of the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. An economist by training, Professor Jones studies the sources of economic growth in advanced economies, with an emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship, and scientific progress. He also studies global economic development, including the roles of education, climate, and national leadership in explaining the wealth and poverty of nations. His research has appeared in journals such as Science, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the American Economic Review, and has been profiled in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and The New Yorker. A former Rhodes Scholar, Professor Jones served in 2010-2011 as the senior economist for macroeconomics for the White House Council of Economic Advisers and earlier served in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Professor Jones is a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

About the Moderator:

IMF WEO Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1: Global Prospects and Policies

The global economic recovery continues amid a resurging pandemic that poses unique policy challenges. Gaps in expected recoveries across economy groups have widened since the July forecast, for instance between advanced economies and low-income developing countries. Meanwhile, inflation has increased markedly in the United States and some emerging market economies. As restrictions are relaxed, demand has accelerated, but supply has been slower to respond. Although price pressures are expected to subside in most countries in 2022, inflation prospects are highly uncertain. These increases in inflation are occurring even as employment is below pre-pandemic levels in many economies, forcing difficult choices on policymakers. Strong policy effort at the multilateral level is needed on vaccine deployment, climate change, and international liquidity to strengthen global economic prospects. National policies to complement the multilateral effort will require much more tailoring to country-specific conditions and better targeting, as policy space constraints become more binding the longer the pandemic lasts.

Chapter 2: Inflation Scares

Despite recent increases in headline inflation in both advanced and emerging market economies, long-term inflation expectations remain anchored. Looking ahead, headline inflation is projected to peak in the final months of 2021 but is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2022 for most economies. But given the recovery’s uncharted nature, considerable uncertainty remains, and inflation could exceed forecasts for a variety of reasons. Clear communication, combined with appropriate monetary and fiscal policies, can help prevent “inflation scares” from unhinging inflation expectations.

Chapter 3: Research and Innovation: Fighting the Pandemic and Boosting Long-Term Growth

How can policymakers boost long-term growth in the post–COVID-19 global economy? This chapter looks at the role of basic research—undirected, theoretical, or experimental work. Using rich new data that draw on connections from individual innovations and scientific articles, this chapter shows that basic research is an essential input into innovation, with wide-ranging international spillovers and long-lasting economic impacts.

Gender Inclusiveness in Trade: Barriers, Challenges, and Opportunities

October 25, 2021March 16, 2022Global Governance, International Trade, Past Events

Thursday, November 18th 2021
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. ET
Lindner Commons and Online via Zoom
There was a networking portion for those in person from 10:30 – 11:00 a.m.

This was a discussion leading up to the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12), where the panel addressed the nexus between gender and international trade. As the issue of gender equality rises to the top of public policy debate globally, it is critical to consider how trade may impact gender, including the barriers, the challenges and opportunities women face as they participate in trade as entrepreneurs, traders or workers. This event featured panelists Renata Amaral (WTO Program on Women in Trade), Jamaica Gayle (Global Innovation Forum), and Nadia Bourely (Canadian Embassy to the U.S.A.). Lisa Schroeter (Dow Chemical and IIEP Executive Circle) moderated, and IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh provided welcoming remarks.

This event was organized by members of the recently launched Executive Circle of George Washington University’s Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP). Established by the IIEP, the Circle is a leadership group designed to support and disseminate research and policies connected to global finance, trade, and development. Its members are senior leaders at the highest levels of their fields, and dynamic mid-career and young professionals who exhibit extraordinary potential, all who believe in the power of academic research and analysis to improve policy and enhance the wellbeing and prosperity of people around the globe. The event was co-sponsored by the Association of Women in International Trade (WIIT) and the Washington International Trade Association (WITA). The Association for Women in International Trade (WIIT) works to promote the professional development of women in international trade and business and to raise public awareness of the importance of international trade to economic development.

About the Panelists:

Renata Amaral is an experienced international trade lawyer, with an extensive and proven record of successful engagement at the WTO dispute settlement, bilateral and regional trade negotiations. She holds a Ph.D. from Maastricht University and currently serves as Adjunct Professor at the American University Washington College of Law, where she co-directs the certificate program on WTO and US Trade Law and Policy. She is the founder of Women Inside Trade, a non-profit international organization that aims to contribute to the empowerment of women through its global network of professionals, specialized training and leadership development, and a member of the recently created WTO Gender Research Hub.

Jamaica Gayle serves as Acting Executive Director of the National Foreign Trade Council’s Global Innovation Forum (GIF), a nonprofit that connects small businesses and policymakers to highlight the opportunities and challenges of engaging in the global marketplace. In this role, she leads the organization’s work advocating for trade policies and technology solutions that enable inclusive, sustainable growth. She is also responsible for managing engagements with international organizations including the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on issues related to small businesses and inclusive trade. Jamaica started her career with the National Association of Manufacturers, working with the policy and government relations division. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the American University in Washington, DC.

Nadia Bourély is the Minister Counsellor for Economic and Trade Policy at the Embassy of Canada in Washington D.C. In this capacity, she leads the Embassy’s economic and trade policy team. Prior to joining the Embassy in February 2020, Ms. Bourély held various positions at Global Affairs Canada, including Director for Trade Policy and Negotiations, Senior Legal Counsel in the Trade Law Bureau and Deputy Director for Strategic Policy Planning. She was also Senior Analyst for the Americas at the Foreign Affairs Secretariat of the Privy Council Office. Ms. Bourély served abroad as Senior Trade Commissioner and Counsellor at the Embassy of Canada to the Republic of Indonesia and as First Secretary at Canada’s Mission to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Prior to joining Global Affairs Canada, Ms. Bourély worked in private legal practice in Montréal, Québec, and at the Secretariat for Legal Affairs of the Organization of American States in Washington D.C. Ms. Bourély is a member of the Québec Bar and holds a LL.B. from the Université de Montréal and a LL.M. (Honours) from the McGill University Institute of Comparative Law.

About the Moderator:

Lisa Schroeter is the Global Director of Trade and Investment Policy for Dow. As part of the corporate Global Government Affairs team, Lisa’s responsibilities focus on trade policy and regulations, trade negotiations, and investment issues that foster growth in Dow’s global businesses. The role drives bilateral, regional and multilateral strategies to promote policies that secure market access and facilitates global trade across Dow’s value chains and manufacturing.

Her role has direct responsibility for developing corporate strategies across trade policy, from tariff reduction to regulatory simplification; from export controls and sanctions to IP protection and to promote growth of environmental markets and diverse, inclusive workforces. Lisa regularly works with international colleagues and business leaders to engage on trade policy issues critical to drive Dow’s operations around the world. For the industry, she leads the global chemical industry trade association (ICCA) work on trade policy and global regulatory cooperation.

Before joining Dow, Lisa was the Executive Director of the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD). TABD was a unique trade-facilitation process by which American and European CEOs worked with the U.S. Administration and the European Commission to implement practical, detailed recommendations. Ms. Schroeter joined TABD in 1999 and managed the process on behalf of the Boeing Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, United Technologies Corporation and Xerox.

Lisa is currently Chair of the WIIT Trust, driving a women’s empowerment and skills sharing program with local universities and was previously the President of WIIT (Association of Women in International Trade). In addition, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR); and a Board member of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA). She recently and successfully completed the Georgetown University Qiyadat Women’s Leadership program.

As a long-term DC resident, Lisa is also a Board Member of Cultural Tourism DC, celebrating the unique heritage and history of the U.S. Capital.

Welcoming Remarks:

GW Students, Faculty, and Staff are welcome to attend this event in person at the address below or via Zoom:

Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Family Commons, Suite 602
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

Alumni, Guests, and General Public: Non-GW individuals are able to attend in person, but they have to complete the Covid registration form that GW now requires.

There will be a networking portion for those in person from 10:30-11:00 a.m.

A note about COVID-19: The health and well-being of GW students, alumni, friends, faculty, and staff remains a top priority for GW and all alumni events will proceed in compliance with all state, local, and public health guidelines.

Please complete the above form to officially register. Please register yourself individually for possible contact tracing or to ensure receipt of Zoom information. For questions, please contact the IIEP team at iiep@gwu.edu.

What Can We Hope For at MC12?

October 20, 2021April 11, 2022International Trade, International Trade Events, Past Events

Thursday, November 18th, 2021
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. EST
via Zoom

The 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, being held November 30 – December 3rd, comes at a critical time for organization and the world trading system. WITA and GWU discussed what might be achieved at the Ministerial, and what that may signal for the future of the organization – and the multilateral trading system as a whole.

This event was free to attend.

Featured Remarks:

Alan Wm. Wolff, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE); former Deputy Director General of the WTO

Discussion Featuring:

Jake Colvin, President, National Foreign Trade Council

Isabel Jarrett, Manager, Reducing Harmful Fisheries Subsidies, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Andrew Jory, Minister-Counsellor (Trade), Embassy of Australia

Sharon Bomer Lauritsen, Principal, AgTrade Strategies, LLC, on behalf of Aggies for WTO Reform; former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Agricultural Affairs and Commodity Policy, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Catherine Mellor, Vice President, UPS

Moderator: Michael Moore, Director, MA in International Economic Policy (MIEP), Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University

Did U.S. Politicians Expect the China Shock?

October 9, 2021March 19, 2022International Trade, Maggie Chen, Past Events, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events, US-China

Friday, October 15th, 2021
9:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. EDT
via Zoom

In the two decades straddling China’s WTO accession, the China Shock, i.e. the rapid trade integration of China in the early 2000’s, has had a profound economic impact across U.S. regions. It is now both an internationally litigated issue and the casus belli for a global trade war. Were its consequences unexpected? Did U.S. politicians have imperfect information about the extent of China Shock’s repercussions in their district at the time when they voted on China’s Normal Trade Relations status? Or did they have accurate expectations, yet placed a relatively low weight on the subconstituencies that ended up being adversely affected?

In this inaugural event, HKU’s Bingjing Li discussed how information sets, expectations, and preferences of U.S. politicians are fundamental, but unobserved determinants of their policy choices in regards to the China Shock. Prof. Li applies a moment inequality approach designed to deliver unbiased estimates under weak informational assumptions on the information sets of members of Congress. Employing repeated roll call votes in the U.S. House of Representatives on China’s Normal Trade Relations status, she formally tests what information politicians had at the time of their decision and consistently estimates the weights that constituent interests, ideology, and other factors had in congressional votes. She will show how assuming perfect foresight of the shocks biases the role of constituent interests and how standard proxies to modeling politician’s expectations bias the estimation. She cannot reject that politicians could predict the initial China Shock in the early 1990’s, but not around 2000, when China started entering new sectors, and find a moderate role of constituent interests, compared to ideology. Overall, she will show how U.S. legislators appeared to have had accurate information on the China Shock, but did not place substantial weight on its adverse consequences.

Boston University’s James Feigenbaum served as a discussant and IIEP’s Maggie Chen moderated with an introduction from IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Bingjing Li is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Hong Kong. Her main research fields are international trade and applied microeconomics. Using both micro data and quantitative models, her works focus on understanding the interactions of international trade with development and political economy factors, and their consequences.

About the Discussant:

James Feigenbaum is an Assistant Professor in the Boston University Department of Economics. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER in the Development of the American Economy program and a Junior Faculty Fellow at BU’s Hariri Institute for Computing. James studies economic history, labor economics, and political economy. His research interests include understanding the effects of economic shocks on politics and politicians. Prof. Feigenbaum received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University and his B.A. with High Honors in Economics and Mathematics from Wesleyan University.

About the Moderator:

Maggie Chen is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. She has served as Director of GW’s Institute for International Economic Policy and worked as an economist in the research department of the World Bank and a consultant for the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Professor Chen’s research areas include multinational firms, international trade, and regional trade agreements. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. She is a co-editor of Economic Inquiry and an associate editor of Economic Modeling.

Introduction by:

Are Pitcairn Island (UK), China and Taiwan really joining CPTPP?

September 23, 2021April 11, 2022International Trade, Past Events

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST
via Zoom

WITA and the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University discussed the potential for the UK and China to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Ken Levinson, WITA Executive Director, provided welcoming remarks.

Panel Discussion:

The Honorable Tim Groser, former Ambassador of New Zealand, and former Minister of Trade

Wendy Cutler, former US negotiator of the original TransPacific Partnership, and current Senior Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute

Shanker Singham, CEO, Competere, and Director of the International Trade and Competition Unit at the Institute of Economic Affairs, and Head of Trade at the Centre for Economics and Business Research

Led and moderated by Jay Shambaugh, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University, and former Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors

India’s Trade Policy: Past, Present, Future

April 22, 2021April 13, 2022India, International Economic Policy, International Trade, James Foster, Past Events

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021
9:00am – 10:30 am EDT
via Zoom

This was the ninth webinar in the “Envisioning India” series, co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Institute for International Economic Policy. This is a platform for dialogue and debate. We invited you to engage with us in this series of important discussions.

The “Envisioning India” series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Co-Director James Foster, Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Distinguished Visiting Scholar Ajay Chhibber. The ninth event featured Harsha Vardhana Singh, Chairman, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP and Former Deputy Director-General at WTO, discussing “India’s Trade Policy: Past, Present, Future.” Dean Alyssa Ayres (GWU), Judith Dean (Brandeis), and Rajeev Kher provided discussant remarks. IIEP Co-Director Jay Shambaugh moderated.

India liberalised its trade regime in 1991 as part of a larger reform initiative. India’s trade surged and the economy grew to become the world’s 5th largest in 2019. Since 2018, India’s trade regime has become more protectionist with an aim to stem the trade deficit and promote domestic industry. India’s concern with a high trade deficit, in particular with China and ASEAN, has also impacted its approach to trade agreements. More recently, India opted out of RCEP. In 2020, India announced a new program of self-reliance (Atmanirbharta). Some fear that this is a signal of turning further inward. Yet India’s stated goals are to attract more FDI – especially as an alternative to China, enter global value chains, and encourage exports. How should we assess India’s recent policy changes and reconcile these shifts? What are the likely pathways for India’s future trade stance? Will India seek to substantively enhance growing US-India trade ties? Will its renewed interest in trade agreements with others such as the EU move forward giving some substantive results? Is it permanently out of RCEP? What steps by other nations could facilitate India’s increased trade engagements with major economies? What choices India makes will affect India and the world. Our distinguished speakers addressed these and related issues in this 9th talk on Envisioning India.

About the speakers:

Harsha Vardhana Singh is Chairman, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP, a consulting firm working on trade policy, industrial policy and regulatory issues. He has been a member of High-Level Expert Groups within India and abroad that inter alia address policy concerns related to trade policy, industrial policy, competition and regulatory policy. Earlier, he has worked at the GATT/WTO for 20 years (eight years as Deputy Director General, WTO), was Secretary Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Executive Director of Brookings India, Senior Fellow at Think Tanks in Switzerland and Canada, taught at Universities in the US and China, and been Chair/secretary of GATT/WTO Dispute Settlement Panels. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Oxford, where he went as a Rhodes Scholar from India in 1979.

As WTO Deputy Director General, he had direct responsibility for Trade in Services, Trade in Agriculture, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Trade and Environment, Technical Barriers to Trade, Chairman of the Groups on E-Commerce Program and the Cotton Development Agenda. As Economic Advisor and Secretary of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, he was part of the small group of officials that conceptualized and implemented a number of telecom sector policy reforms, resulting in large growth in the sector.

His recent engagements include: Senior Fellow, Council on Emerging Market Enterprises, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, USA (ongoing); Member of the Advisory Board of UNCTAD’s “Transnational Corporations Journal” (ongoing); Member of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) International Trade Policy Council (ongoing); Non-Resident Senior Fellow, South Asia Center, Atlantic Council (ongoing); Senior Research Affiliate, Berkeley APEC Study Center, US (ongoing); Member, High Level Advisory Group on International Trade, established by Government of India; Member, Competition Law Review Committee to revise the Competition Act, established by Government of India; Member, Expert Enquiry Committee Set Up by UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Trade Out of Poverty on “Can the Commonwealth help countries trade out of poverty?”; Member, High Level Board of Experts on the Future of Trade Governance, set up by Bertelsmann Stiftung; Senior Adviser to the Global Commission on Internet Governance on the topic, “Governance of International Trade and the Internet: Existing and Evolving Regulatory Systems”; Senior Advisor, Asia Society Policy Institute, on the topic “India and APEC: Charting a Path to Membership.”

Alyssa Ayres was appointed Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University effective February 1, 2021. Ayres is a foreign policy practitioner and award-winning author with senior experience in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. From 2013 to 2021, she was senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she remains an adjunct senior fellow. From 2010 to 2013 Ayres served as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia. During her tenure at the State Department in the Barack Obama administration, she covered all issues across a dynamic region of 1.3 billion people at the time (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and provided policy direction for four U.S. embassies and four consulates.

Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Her book about India’s rise on the world stage, Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World, was published by Oxford University Press in January 2018 and was selected by the Financial Times for its “Summer 2018: Politics” list. An updated paperback edition was released in 2019. She served as the project director for the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on U.S.-India relations, and, from 2014 to 2016, as the project director for an initiative on the new geopolitics of China, India, and Pakistan supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

Judith Dean is the Professor of International Economics in the Brandeis International Business School. Her research focuses on international trade and economic development. Much of her work examines the relationship between trade and the environment. In a series of empirical studies using Chinese data, she has been exploring the possibility that trade growth, foreign investment and production fragmentation may have beneficial effects on the environment. In other work, she studies global value chain trade, non-tariff barriers. and trade preferences for developing countries. Her new work on India explores the impact of trade liberalization on Indian poverty. Judy came to Brandeis from the US International Trade Commission (USITC) where she was a Senior International Economist in the Research Division of the Office of Economics. Prior to joining the USITC, Judy was Associate Professor of Economics at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, and Assistant Professor at Bowdoin College. She has been a consultant to the World Bank and the OECD, and a Visiting Scholar at the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi, India. She has also helped facilitate research collaboration for the USITC with Tsinghua University and the India Development Foundation. Judy was named one of six Visiting Scholars in the Clayton Yeutter International Trade Program, University of Nebraska, 2012-13. In 2018, she gave the 4th Annual John Mason Lecture at Gordon College in 2018. Judy recently completed many years of service on the Board of Directors of World Relief, and the Board of Trustees of Gordon College.

Rajeev Kher superannuated as Commerce Secretary, Government of India in 2015 after a career of 35 years in the Indian Administrative Service. He then worked as a Member in the Competition Appellate Tribunal for two years. He has now associated himself with some leading think tanks. He also advises a Private Equity. His field of experience includes broad areas of International Trade and Commerce, Competition Law and Policy, Sustainable Development Policy, Environmental Management, Global Governance, particularly with reference to trade and environment and Decentralised Governance. He has held several important assignments in the Central Government and the State Government of UP. Some of the more prominent once include a tenure of 9 years in the Department of Trade and Commerce, a stint of 8 years in the Ministry of Environment and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Delhi and senior level assignments in the Departments of Renewable Energy, Finance, Planning and Science and Technology, besides administering two very challenging charges of District Magistrates. He is credited with bringing in the first comprehensive Foreign Trade Policy for India. His vision on international trade issues has been well respected by the stakeholder community within India and abroad. He led negotiations on behalf of his country for Trade Agreements with major blocks such as EU, EFTA, RCEP and ASEAN. His initiatives to bring discourse on India’s competitiveness in Trade in Services, evolution of Policy on Technical Regulations and Standards and India’s position on the Global and Regional value chains in the forefront of Policy making are much recognised by the stakeholder community. He is also credited with hand holding the Pharmaceutical sector in its pursuit to become global leader in Generic Medicine and his work is highly appreciated by the industry. He has published work on India’s Patent Policy, Trade Policy, WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Product standards and Technical Regulations and several other related areas.

About the Moderator:

James E. Foster is the Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs, Professor of Economics, and Co-Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the George Washington University. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at Oxford University. Professor Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate and enhance the wellbeing of people. His work underlies many well-known social indices including the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published annually by the UNDP in the Human Development Report, dozens of national MPIs used to guide domestic policy against poverty, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) at USAID, the Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan, the Better Jobs Index of the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Statistical Performance Index of the World Bank. Prof. Foster received his PhD in Economics from Cornell University and has a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Autónoma del Estado Hidalgo (Mexico).

This event and seminar series was jointly organized with the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the UNDP Human Development Report Office.

More From This Series

Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas

March 28, 2021April 11, 2022International Finance, Past Events, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events

Friday, April 30, 2021
9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EDT
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy and the GW Elliott School of International Affairs Book Launch Series was pleased to invite you to a book launch discussion of Prof. Stephen B. Kaplan’s Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas (Cambridge University Press).

China’s overseas financing is a distinct form of “patient capital” that marshals the country’s vast domestic resources to create commercial opportunities internationally. Its long-term risk tolerance and lack of policy conditionality has allowed developing economies to sidestep the fiscal austerity tendencies of Western markets and multilaterals. Professor Stephen B. Kaplan will discuss his new book, Globalizing Patient Capital: The Political Economy of Chinese Finance in the Americas, which examines China’s state-led capitalism, and the costs and benefits of state versus market approaches to development. In the talk, Professor Kaplan explores how patient capital affects national-level governance across the Americas and beyond, including how Chinese leaders might react to developing nation’s ongoing struggles with debt and dependency.

The book launch was also part of our 13th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. The conference took place as a virtual series. This conference was co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the GW Center for International Business Education and Research, the Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Program (LAHSP) at GW, the GW Department of Political Science, and the Elliott School Book Launch Series.

Meet the Speaker:

Stephen Kaplan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs. Professor Kaplan’s research and teaching interests focus on the frontiers of international and comparative political economy, where he specializes in the political economy of global finance and development, the rise of China in the Western Hemisphere, and Latin American politics.

Professor Kaplan joined the GWU faculty in the fall of 2010 after completing a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University and his Ph.D at Yale University. While at Yale, Kaplan also worked as a researcher for former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Prior to his doctoral studies, Professor Kaplan was a senior economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, writing extensively on developing country economics, global financial market developments, and emerging market crises from 1998 to 2003.

Meet the Discussants:

Professor Carol Wise, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Southern California (USC), has written widely on trade integration, exchange rate crises, institutional reform, and the political economy of market restructuring in the Latin American region. Wise is author of the book, Dragonomics: How Latin America is Maximizing (or Missing Out) on China’s International Development Strategy (Yale University Press, 2020), which received USC’s Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award in 2021 and the Luciano Tomassini 2021 Award-Honorable Mention for the Best Book on International Relations from the Latin American Studies Association. Professor Wise’s most recent journal articles include: “Playing both Sides of the Pacific: Latin America’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with China,” Pacific Affairs (2016); “Conceptualizing China-Latin America Relations in the 21 st Century” (with Victoria Chonn Ching), The Pacific Review (2017); and, “International Trade Norms in the Age of Covid-19” (with Nicolas Albertoni), Fudan Humanities and Social Science Journal (2020). Professor Wise has held Fulbright Grants to Canada, Mexico, and Peru. She is a member of the core social science faculty at Renmin University’s annual International Summer Program, Beijing. In 2019, Wise was the Fulbright-Masaryk University Distinguished Chair in the Czech Republic. Her latest research compares the political economy of development in Latin America and Central/Eastern Europe.

Roselyn Hsueh is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she codirects the Certificate in Political Economy. She is the recipient of the Fulbright Global Scholar Award for research in India, Mexico, and Russia. Her next book, Micro-Institutional Foundations of Capitalism: Sectoral Pathways to Globalization in China, India, and Russia, is under contract with Cambridge University Press. She is the author of China’s Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization (Cornell, 2011), and scholarly articles and book chapters. BBC World News, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, and other media outlets have featured her research. She has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and consulted for The Center for Strategic and International Studies. Dr. Hsueh has served as a Global Order Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, member of the Georgetown Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, and Residential Research Faculty Fellow at U.C. Berkeley. She also lectured as a Visiting Professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. She held the Hayward R. Alker Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Southern California and conducted international fieldwork in China, Japan, and Taiwan as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and David L. Boren National Security Fellow. She earned her B.A. and doctorate in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Meet the Moderator:

Jay Shambaugh is Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Co- Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

More From This Conference

10th Washington Area International Trade Symposium (WAITS) Conference

March 27, 2021April 11, 2022International Trade, Past Events, Research Conference, Seminar

Thursday, April 29, 2021 – Friday, April 30, 2021
8:45 a.m. – 01:00 p.m. EDT
via Zoom

View the conference page for more information

Reshaping Global Trade: The Immediate and Long-Run Effects of Bank Failures

February 1, 2021March 23, 2022International Finance Events, International Trade Events, Past Events

Wednesday, February 24, 2021
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
via Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to the second virtual event of the Macro-International Seminar of Spring 2021. The Macro-International seminar hosts speakers from all over the world that present recent and cutting edge research on different topics in macroeconomics, open economy macroeconomics and international finance. The seminar series is co-organized by Prof. Tomás Williams and Prof. Graciela Kaminsky. On Wednesday, February 10, 2021, Chenzi Xu of Stanford Graduate School of Business presented “Reshaping Global Trade: The Immediate and Long-Run Effects of Bank Failures.”

Chenzi Xu studies the first modern global banking crisis that began in London in 1866 and provides causal evidence that financial sector disruptions can reshape international trade patterns for decades. Using newly collected archival loan records that link banks to their operations abroad, Xu estimates that countries exposed to banks whose headquarters in London failed exported 17% less on average to each destination until 1905. Exporters trading with destinations for the first time, facing more competition in goods markets, and with little access to alternative forms of credit experienced more persistent losses, consistent with hysteresis arising from high sunk costs of entry into exporting.

About the Speaker:

Chenzi Xu is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Her research is focused on the intersection of finance, international trade, and economic history. Xu has received an AB and PhD in Economics at Harvard University as well as a MPhil in Economic and Social History from the University of Cambridge. Through her study, she has received awards and honors such as the 2019 “AQR Top Finance Graduate Award” and the 2018 “Economic History Society New Researcher Prize.”

This event was co-sponsored with GW Department of Economics.

International Trade in the Asia-Pacific Region Amidst U.S.-China Tensions

October 28, 2020April 11, 2022International Trade Events, Maggie Chen, Past Events, Research Conference, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events

Tuesday, November 10, 2020
7:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. EST
via Zoom

The Institute for International Economic Policy was pleased to invite you to the 13th annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations. The conference took place as a virtual series and was co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the GW Center for International Business Education and Research. This event in the series was co-sponsored and hosted by Elliott School of International Affairs Alumni Programs.

Since 2017, trade disputes between the U.S. and China have spiraled into a full blown economic and trade war. U.S. tariff rates on Chinese imports rose from an average 3.1 percent “Most Favored Nation” rate in 2017 to above 20 percent in 2020, covering essentially all imports including both intermediate and consumer goods. China responded by imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products ranging from soybeans to electrical equipment and autos. This trade war has rippled throughout the region to affect the countries of the Asia-Pacific and beyond.

This online panel discussion featured two prominent GW alumni working in the Asia-Pacific region: Chris Fussner, CCAS BA ’79, founder and president of TransTechnology Worldwide, based in Singapore, and Frank Wong, ESIA BA ’79, president of Scholastic Asia, based in Hong Kong. Prof. Maggie Chen, professor of economics and international affairs at the George Washington University, moderated the discussion.

Meet the Discussants:

Maggie Chen is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. She has served as Director of GW’s Institute for International Economic Policy and worked as an economist in the research department of the World Bank and a consultant for the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Professor Chen’s research areas include multinational firms, international trade, and regional trade agreements. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. She is a co-editor of Economic Inquiry and an associate editor of Economic Modeling.

Chris Fussner is founder and president of TransTechnology Worldwide, based in Singapore, a market leader in the sales and distribution of surface mount technology with offices in 9 countries in Asia and 3 countries in North America. Prior to forming TransTechnology in 1988, Mr. Fussner headed Far East Sales for Amistar Corporation based in Seoul, Korea and Singapore, where he was responsible for Sales and Service for electronics manufacturing industry machines in the Pacific, as well as the Western United States. Mr. Fussner started his international career working with relief and refugee resettlement in West Africa and Malaysia. He holds a B.A. in History and Asian Studies from GW, and a Master of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He previously served on the board of advisors for GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

Frank Wong is President of Scholastic Asia, and based in Hong Kong. Before joining Scholastic Asia as President over 15 years ago, he was Managing Director of PepsiCo’s food business in China and established best practices in sales execution and in-store merchandising. Prior to PepsiCo, Frank Wong spent 5 years with Nabisco, successfully building the company’s international brand identity. Wong also held various marketing positions at Colgate-Palmolive in New York and was co-founder and President of a start-up venture to develop and market special electronic products for the visually impaired around the world. Mr. Wong was born in Hong Kong and speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese. In addition to his degree from GW, he holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University and did advanced studies at Harvard’s JFK School of Government. He is the recipient of the 2015 Alumni Outstanding Service Award from the GW Alumni Association.

More From This Series

IMF October 2020 World Economic Outlook

October 9, 2020April 11, 2022Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events, Tara Sinclair

October 28, 2020

11:00 am – 12:30 pm

via WebEx

The Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) hosted a virtual discussion of the IMF’s October 2020 World Economic Outlook.

Agenda

11:00 – 11:05 a.m. Welcoming Remarks:
James Foster and Jay Shambaugh, IIEP Co-Directors, George Washington University

11:05 – 11:35 a.m. Chapter 1: Global Prospects and Policies
Presenter: Malhar Nabar, International Monetary Fund
Discussant: Claudia Sahm, SAHM Consulting

11:35 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Chapter 2: The Great Lockdown: Dissecting the Economic Effects
Presenter: Francesca Caselli, International Monetary Fund
Discussant: Tara Sinclair, George Washington University

12:00 – 12:25 p.m. Chapter 3: Mitigating Climate Change: Growth-and-Distribution-Friendly Strategies
Presenters: Florence Jaumotte , International Monetary Fund
Discussant: Ken Gillingham, Yale University

12:25 – 12:30 p.m. General Q&A and Concluding Remarks

Chapter 1: Global Prospects and Policies

The months after the release of the June 2020 World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update have offered a glimpse of how difficult rekindling economic activity will be while the pandemic surges. During May and June, as many economies tentatively reopened from the Great Lockdown, the global economy started to climb from the depths to which it had plunged in April. But with the pandemic spreading and accelerating in places, many countries slowed reopening, and some are reinstating partial lockdowns. While the swift recovery in China has surprised on the upside, the global economy’s long ascent back to pre-pandemic levels of activity remains prone to setbacks.

Chapter 2: The Great Lockdown: Dissecting the Economic Effects

To contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and protect susceptible populations, most countries imposed stringent lockdown measures in the first half of 2020. Meanwhile, economic activity contracted dramatically on a global scale. This chapter aims to dissect the nature of the economic crisis in the first seven months of the pandemic. It finds that the adoption of lockdowns was an important factor in the recession, but voluntary social distancing in response to rising infections also contributed very substantially to the economic contraction. Therefore, although easing lockdowns can lead to a partial recovery, economic activity is likely to remain subdued until health risks abate.

Chapter 3: Mitigating Climate Change: Growth-and-Distributional-Friendly Strategies

Without further action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the planet is on course to reach temperatures not seen in millions of years, with potentially catastrophic implications. The analysis in this chapter suggests that an initial green investment push combined with steadily rising carbon prices would deliver the needed emission reductions at reasonable transitional global output effects, putting the global economy on a stronger and more sustainable footing over the medium term.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement: Trading Up in the Era of COVID-19

September 10, 2020April 11, 2022Global Economic Governance Events, International Trade Events, Past Events, Seminar

Friday, October 23, 2020
9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. (EDT)
Via Webex

The ACFTA and Africa’s Economic Future

A conversation with Albert Muchanga, African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry, on the road ahead for the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. If successful, the AfCTFA agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world, connecting 1.3 billion people across 55 countries, for a combined GDP of some $3.4 trillion. The COVID-19 crisis has generated new challenges but has made the success of the agreement–which offers a major opportunity to accelerate growth, increase exports and foreign direct investment, and potentially lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty–a matter of even greater urgency. Joining the conversation was be Florizelle Liser, president and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa and former U.S. Trade Representative for Africa; and Anthony Carroll, Vice President of Manchester Trade, and a specialist in trade, investment, and development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

About the Speakers:

Albert Muchanga joined the African Union Commission as Commissioner for Trade and Industry in March 2017. In this position, he has spearheaded the AU’s efforts in driving the negotiations, conclusion and ratification of the AfCFTA agreement, which entered into force in May 2019. Ambassador Muchanga has extensive experience in the promotion of inter-governmental relations, engagement with the private sector and civil society as well as promotion of regional integration and cooperation as levers of sustainable development. He previously worked in the Zambian Civil Service and served as Zambia’s Ambassador to Brazil and Ethiopia, and Deputy Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community.

Florizelle (Florie) Liser is the third President and CEO of CCA. Ms. Liser brings expertise and an extensive network on trade and Africa to her new role, along with a strong track record of working with the private sector to translate policy into action. She is the first woman to lead the Council since its founding in 1993.

Ms. Liser joined CCA from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she was the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa since 2003. At USTR, she led trade and investment policy towards 49 sub-Saharan African nations and oversaw implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).  Previously, Ms. Liser served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Industry, Market Access, and Telecommunications from 2000-2003. She also served as Senior Trade Policy Advisor in the Office of International Transportation and Trade at the Department of Transportation from 1987-2000; worked as a Director in USTR’s Office of GATT Affairs, and served as an Associate Fellow at the Overseas Development Council (ODC) from 1975-1980.

Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Council for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Advisory Committee and Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee for the Export-Import Bank (EXIM), and a Board member with the Women in International Trade (WITT). Ms. Liser holds a M.A. in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a B.A. in International Relations and Political Science from Dickinson College.

Tony Carroll is vice president of Manchester Trade, a Washington trade, development and business consulting firm. He is also an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University/SAIS and senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has 35 years of business and development experience in Africa dating from his Peace Corps service in Botswana (1976-78). He specializes in investments that involve transferring new technologies and methodologies to Africa. He served as assistant general counsel to the Peace Corps, member of the advisory boards of EXIM Bank, OPIC and USTR and was a congressional nominee to the Board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. He currently serves as a director to the Acorus Fund in Hong Kong. He has degrees in economics and law from the University of Denver and an MAPA from the Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Jennifer G. Cooke is director of the Institute for African Studies at The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. The Institute serves as central for research, scholarly discussion, and debate on issues relevant to Africa. She is a professor of practice in international affairs, teaching courses on U.S. Policy Toward Africa and Transnational Security Threats in Africa.

Cooke joined George Washington University in August 2018, after 18 years as director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she led research and analysis on political, economic, and security dynamics in Africa. While at CSIS, Cooke directed projects on a wide range of African issues, including on violent extremist organizations in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, China’s growing role in Africa, democracy and elections in Nigeria, religion and state authority in Africa, “stress-testing” state stability in Africa, Africa’s changing energy landscape, and more. She is a frequent writer and lecturer on U.S.-Africa policy and has provided briefing, commentary, and testimony to the media, US Congress, AFRICOM leadership and the U.S. military.

She has traveled widely in Africa and has been an election observer in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, and Nigeria. As a teenager, she lived in Cote d’Ivoire and the Central African Republic. She holds an M.A. in African studies and international economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. in government, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.

Cosponsored by:

Are Informal Workers Benefiting from Globalization? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in India

July 15, 2020April 11, 2022Global Economic Governance Events, James Foster, Maggie Chen, Past Events, Seminar

Tuesday, August 4, 2020
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
WebEx

We were pleased to invite you to the webinar series “Facing Inequality”, hosted by the Institute for International Economic Policy. This virtual series focuses on current and emerging inequality issues in the U.S. and around the globe. The series brings attention to aspects of inequality being made increasingly relevant by the current COVID-19 pandemic and associated crises. The series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Director James Foster, Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Faculty Affiliate Trevor Jackson, Assistant Professor of History. The series is co-sponsored by the GW Interdisciplinary Inequality Series, co-organized by Prof. Jackson from the Department of History and Prof. Bryan Stuart from the Department of Economics.

The seventh event, “Are Informal Workers Benefiting from Globalization? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in India” featured Dr. Nita Rudra of Georgetown University. The discussion focused on the following: Are citizens in the developing world convinced about the benefits of globalization? By leveraging their comparative advantage in low labor costs, economists predict once-poor citizens will be better off with open markets. Yet, surprisingly little rigorous research exists on if and how workers in developing countries actually experience the benefits of increasing trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), particularly in an era of rapidly expanding global supply chains. To answer this question, we focused on the largest cluster of low-wage laborers in developing countries, informal workers, and their experience with FDI. Using observational and experimental methods, we find that both formal and informal workers in India strongly approve of foreign investment. However, the latter are deeply skeptical that the benefits of FDI will ever trickle down to themselves or their future generations. India’s much smaller population of formal workers, by contrast, are confident that they have privileged access to coveted jobs in foreign firms – regardless of skill level- and social mobility prospects will improve. These findings provide new insights on (macro and micro-level) drivers of growing global inequalities, and call for caution amongst scholars, policymakers, the international business community, and all those who anticipate that globalization is lifting all boats.

About the Moderator:

James Foster is the Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs, Professor of Economics, and Co-Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the George Washington University. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at Oxford University. Professor Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate and enhance the wellbeing of people. His work underlies many well-known social indices including the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published annually by the UNDP in the Human Development Report, dozens of national MPIs used to guide domestic policy against poverty, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) at USAID, the Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan, the Better Jobs Index of the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Statistical Performance Index of the World Bank. Prof. Foster received his PhD in Economics from Cornell University and has a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Autónoma del Estado Hidalgo (Mexico).

About the Speaker:

Nita Rudra is a Professor of Government at Georgetown University. Her research interests include: the distributional impacts of trade and financial liberalization as they are mediated by politics and institutions; the influence of international organizations on policies in developing economies; the politics of trade agreements involving developing economies, and the causes and effects of democracy in globalizing developing nations. Her most critical works appear in the British Journal of Political Science, World Politics, Journal of Politics, American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization and International Studies Quarterly . Her most recent book with Cambridge University Press is entitled: Democracies in Peril: Taxation and Redistribution in Globalizing Economies. Her current projects analyze how and why widespread poverty persists in rapidly globalizing economies, the politics supporting/resisting changes to the informal sector, the anti-globalization backlash, and the politics of trade and trade agreements.

About the Discussants:

Picture of Deepa Ollapally Deepa Ollapally is a political scientist specializing in Indian foreign policy, India-China relations, and Asian regional and maritime security. She is Research Professor of International Affairs and the Associate Director of the Sigur Center. She also directs the Rising Powers Initiative, a major research program that tracks and analyzes foreign policy debates in aspiring powers of Asia and Eurasia. Dr. Ollapally is currently working on a funded book, Big Power Competition for Influence in the Indian Ocean Region, which assesses the shifting patterns of geopolitical influence by major powers in the region since 2005 and the drivers of these changes. She is the author of five books including Worldviews of Aspiring Powers (Oxford, 2012) and The Politics of Extremism in South Asia (Cambridge, 2008). Her most recent books are two edited volumes, Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (Routledge, 2017), and Nuclear Debates in Asia: The Role of Geopolitics and Domestic Processes (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Dr. Ollapally has received grants from the Carnegie Corporation, MacArthur Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Asia Foundation for projects related to India and Asia. Previously, she was Associate Professor at Swarthmore College and has been a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London and at Columbia University. Dr. Ollapally also held senior positions in the policy world including the US Institute of Peace, Washington DC and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. She is a frequent commentator in the media, including appearances on CNN, BBC, CBS, Diane Rehm Show and Reuters TV. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.

More From This Series

Webinar: Innovations in Digital Trade: The Sequel

July 9, 2020April 11, 2022Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events, Seminar

Thursday July 16, 2020

11:00AM – 12:00PM EDT

via Zoom.us

The US and the UK have a long history of collaborating to create innovative trade agreements. Continuing discussions on innovations in digital trade and data governance, this webinar addresses how the two nations may negotiate the digital trade chapter of the proposed US/UK trade agreement. The UK’s approach may build on its draft negotiating language for its free trade agreement with the EU, while the US plans to include “state of the art” rules, including a ban on mandates to disclose source code and algorithms and “rules limiting platform liability for third-party content.” The event was held on Thursday, July 16. Our speakers included:

– Sabina Ciofu, Head of EU and Trade Policy, techUK

– Sam duPont, Deputy Director, Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative, German Marshall Fund (former Director, Digital Trade, Office of the US Trade Representative)

– Nigel Cory, Associate Director, Trade Policy, Information and Technology Innovation Foundation (and former Australian trade official)

– Susan Aaronson, (moderator) Research Professor and Director of the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, also GWU Cross-Disciplinary Fellow and Senior Fellow at CIGI

This event is co-sponsored by Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub; UK Trade Policy Observatory; Internet Society: Greater Washington DC Chapter; George Washington Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER); Centre for International Governance Innovation; World Wide Web Foundation; and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

Elliott Experts Weigh in: The Global Economic System in the Age of Coronavirus

May 3, 2020April 11, 2022Global Economic Governance Events, Maggie Chen, Past Events

Thursday, May 7, 2020
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
via Zoom (EDT)

In this edition of the Elliott School’s Experts Weigh In Series, Professor Maggie Chen (George Washington University) discussed the global economic system in the age of coronavirus. Following the best year for stocks since 2019, coronavirus managed to fell the global market faster than during the Great Depression. More Americans have filed for unemployment than ever before and dozens of countries have already sought the assistance of the IMF. Professor Chen will provide an overview of the current state of play and the factors influencing the global economic situation, as well as offer thoughts on what recovery might look like.

Maggie Xiaoyang Chen is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. She has worked as an economist in the research department of the World Bank and a consultant for the World Bank, the International Finance Cooperation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. She has served as Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at George Washington University and is a co-editor of the Economic Inquiry and an associate editor of the Economic Modelling. Professor Chen’s research areas include multinational firms, international trade, and regional trade agreements. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. Professor Chen received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her B.A. in Economics from Beijing Normal University.

Webinar on E-Commerce at the WTO: What’s Going On?

April 17, 2020April 11, 2022Development Economics and Poverty Alleviation Events, Economics of Ultra-Poverty Events, Global Economic Governance Events, Past Events

Monday, March 30, 2020
11:00 am EST
Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to the first webinar hosted by The Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub in a series of free webinars on current and emerging data governance issues. As we “social distance,” we can simultaneously build a broader understanding of domestic and international data governance issues. The Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub is partnering with business associations such as the Computer and Communications Industry Association, civil society groups such as the Internet Society Washington DC and the World Wide Web Foundation, and other research organizations such as the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) to host these events. The webinars were conducted on Zoom and attendees were encouraged to ask questions of the speakers.

The inaugural seminar, which took place at 11am (EST) on March 30, 2020, was “E-Commerce at the WTO: What’s Going On?” The speaker was be Victor do Prado, Director, Council and Trade Negotiations Committee Division, WTO. The event was be co-organized with the Computer and Communications Industry Association and co-sponsored with the Institute for International Economic Policy. Mr. do Prado’s remarks covered the history, status and future of the talks, including the e-commerce moratorium. He spoke for 15 minutes and then the floor was opened to questions using Zoom’s raise-your-hand application. As a WTO official, Mr. do Prado spoke off the record. His remarks cannot be attributed but can be used on background. The press was welcome to attend and observe Chatham House rules.

Please contact James Nelson, Director of Communications and Strategy at the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, with any questions or suggestions for webinars jinelson@gwu.edu

This event is co-sponsored by Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub; Internet Society: Greater Washington DC Chapter; Centre for International Governance Innovation; World Wide Web Foundation; and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy.

India and USA: Shared Prosperity, Opportunities, and Challenges

March 19, 2019March 28, 2022India, International Trade, International Trade Events, Maggie Chen, Past Events

Tuesday, March 19th, 2019

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Location: City View Room

Watch

About the Event:

This event is hosted by the Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP), the Federation of India’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. Elliott School Dean Reuben Brigety III will provide welcoming remarks, which will be followed by a fireside chat with H.E. Amb. Shringla moderated by IIEP Visiting Scholar and FICCI Chief Economic Advisor, Ajay Chhibber. A panel of experts on education, infrastructure investments, and pharmaceuticals will conclude the event.

Schedule:

Welcome remarks………………… Professor Maggie Chen
Director, Institute for International Economic Policy, GWU
………………… Ambassador Reuben E. Brigety II
Dean, Elliot School of International Affairs, GWU
Fireside chat………………………… H.E. Harsh Vardhan Shringla
Ambassador of India to the United States of America
…………………………. Ajay Chhibber
Visiting Scholar, Institute for International Economic Policy, GWU
Chief Economic Advisor, Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry
Expert panel……………………..… Subir V. Gokarn
Executive Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and SriLanka, International Monetary Fund
…………………..…… Sofia Mumtaz
President, Lupin Limited
……..………………… Adrian Mutton
Founder & CEO, Sannam S4 Group of companies & U.S.
Business Centers
Moderated by………………….… Ridhika Batra
Country Head / Director, Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry, U.S.

Full Report

Prioritizing African Trade: Policies & Practices

April 19, 2017March 30, 2022Forum, International Trade Events, Michael O. Moore, Past Events

A Discussion on Prioritizing African Trade: Policies and Practices

Click here to view a recording of the event

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

4:00 to 6:00pm

Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

China’s New Silk Road Strategy and India’s Options: Competitive Competition?

April 17, 2017March 30, 2022Ajay Chhibber, Forum, International Trade Events, Past Events

Dr. Ajay Chhibber

Visiting Scholar, Institute for International Economic Policy, GWU

China’s New Silk Road Strategy and India’s Options: Competitive Cooperation?

Monday, April 17, 2017

12:15 to 1:30pm

Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

Trumping Trade Orthodoxy

February 3, 2017March 30, 2022International Trade Events, Jay Shambaugh, Maggie Chen, Michael O. Moore, Past Events, Research Conference, Steve Charnovitz

Friday, February 3, 2017

9:00am to 4:00pm

Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Commons, 6th floor
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

President Trump has promised a markedly new direction in U.S. trade policy through tweets, appointments, and executive orders. Regardless of these first steps and initial press reports, substantial questions remain about whether some of the actions in fact can be adopted within existing legislative and constitutional constraints. In other areas, President Trump’s authority to pursue radically different policies likely are well-established. George Washington’s Institute for International Economic Policy hosted a full day conference to examine what President Trump can, and cannot, do on trade policy without new congressional authorization. Participants will hear from panels that will include a team of two leading lawyers and economists with substantial first-hand trade policy experience. This conference provided audience members with important perspectives on the limits of President Trump’s emerging trade policy.

View video from the conference at the IIEP YouTube Channel

View the Schedule

8:15 AM – 9:00 AM: Registration and Breakfast

9:00 AM – 9:15 AM: Opening Remarks and Introduction, Michael Moore (George Washington University)

9:15 AM – 10:15 AM: Trade Remedies

The President has substantial leeway for initiating various trade remedy actions (antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguards). U.S. trade law practice and procedure may limit the scope of imposing duties under these provisions.

Matt Nolan, Arent Fox LLP
Michael Moore, George Washington University

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM: China as a ‘Currency Manipulator’

The U.S. Treasury may determine that a country manipulates its currency but only under certain statutory conditions. Would China qualify under those provisions? What consequences might it face if China is declared a “currency manipulator”?

Steve Charnovitz, George Washington University
Jay Shambaugh, George Washington University

11:15 AM – 11:30 AM: Coffee Break

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Renegotiating/Leaving Existing Trade Agreements

U.S. trade agreements such as NAFTA allow for either Party to announce a withdrawal with six months’ notice. Can President Trump do so without congressional approval? What would be the impact on U.S. trade and investment flows if he were to follow through with such threats?

Joel Trachtman, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Thomas Prusa, Rutgers University

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM: Lunch

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM: Tax Policy, Investment Agreements, & Foreign Direct Investment

President Trump has suggested imposing 35 percent tariffs on individual U.S. firms that offshore manufacturing jobs. Can the Administration single out individual companies in this way? How might such threats increase uncertainty on inward and outward U.S. foreign investment?

Michael Smart, Rock Creek Advisors
Maggie Chen, George Washington University

2:30 PM – 2:45 PM: Coffee Break

2:45 PM – 3:45 PM: Possible WTO Disputes

An aggressive new U.S. trade policy may result in formal disputes with WTO members. What are the most likely cases that might arise? How might the U.S. economy be affected if the WTO rules in favor of those who contest new U.S. approaches in trade policy?

James Mendenhall, Sidley Austin LLP
Chad Bown, Peterson Institute for International Economics

3:45 PM – 4:00 PM: Concluding Remarks

9th Annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S. China Economic Relations

November 11, 2016March 30, 2022Chao Wei, Maggie Chen, Past Events, Remi Jedwab, Research Conference, Steve Charnovitz, Susan Aaronson, U.S.-China Economic Relations EventsLeave a Comment

Click here to view videos

The U.S.-China relationship is now second to none in importance for international economic relations and policy and accordingly is a major focus of IIEP. The centerpiece of this initiative is our annual Conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic and Political Relations

This year, key topics discussed will include China’s financial market, the state of China’s macro-economy, the China-Africa relationship, and China’s outward investments and their impacts. For more information about the conference and bios of each panelist, visit our blog.

An archive of all previous Annual Conferences on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations is available here. For more information, please contact Kyle Renner at iiep@gwu.edu or 202-994-5320.

Schedule of Events

8:00 – 8:50AM Coffee and Continental Breakfast

8:50 – 9:00AM Welcome and Overview of the Conference

Stephen Smith, Director, Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP), Professor of Economics and International Affairs, GWU

9:00 – 11:00AM Panel 1: The Future of Trade Integration in the Asia Pacific

Moderated by IIEP affiliate Steve Suranovic, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, The George Washington University

Jeff Schott, Peterson Institute for International Economics, “Will the US Invest in or Divest from Asia-Pacific Economic Integration?”
Michael Plummer, JHU, “Megaregionalism in the Asia-Pacific and Options for Shared Chinese-US Leadership”
Jiandong Ju, Shanghai University of Finance & Economics, “Huaxia Community: A FTA and a New Architecture for the Global Economic System”

11:00 – 11:15AM Coffee Break

11:15 – 12:45PM Panel 2:The Internet in China’s Economy

Moderated by IIEP affiliate Susan Aaronson, Research Professor of Intenrational Affairs, The George Washington University

Hong Xue, Beijing Normal University, “Chinese Electronic Commerce Law: the New Basic Law for Digital Economy”
Jingting Fan, UMD, “The Alibaba Effect: Spatial Consumption Inequality and the Welfare Gains from e-Commerce”
Maggie Chen, George Washington University, “International Trade on the Internet: Evidence from Alibaba”

12:45 – 2:00PM Lunch

2:00 – 3:30PM Panel 3: Trade, Migration, and Wage Premium in China

Moderated by IIEP affiliate Joseph Pelzman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, The George Washington University

Chao Wei, George Washington University, The Short and Long of Trade and Migration Reforms in China (joint with Xiaodong Zhu)
RuiXue Jia, UCSD, “Access to Elite Education, Wage Premium, and Social Mobility: The Truth and Illusion of China’s College Entrance Exam”
Eunhee Lee, University of Maryland at College Park, “Trade, Inequality, and the Endogenous Sorting of Heterogeneous workers”

3:30 – 4:00PM: Coffee Break

4:00 – 5:30PM Panel 4: China’s Macroeconomy, Urban Growth and Policy Analysis

Moderated by IIEP affiliate Remi Jedwab, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, The George Washington University

Zheng Liu, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (also affiliated with the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance),“Reserve Requirements and Optimal Chinese Stabilization Policy”
Matthew Turner, Brown University, “Highways, Market Access and Urban Growth in China”
Kai Zhao, University of Connecticut, “The Chinese Saving Rate: Productivity, Old Age Support and Demographics

Digital Trade Conference: The End of Trade as We Know It?

May 5, 2016March 30, 2022Past Events, Research Conference, Susan Aaronson, U.S.-China Economic Relations Events

Thursday and Friday, May 5-6, 2016

Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Commons, 6th floor
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

The Internet and associated technologies are both a platform for trade and a technology transforming trade. We define digital trade as commerce in products and services delivered via the Internet (USITC: 2013, i). Although digital trade is the fastest growing component of trade, policymakers are just learning how to create an environment to facilitate such trade in developed and developing countries alike. The Transpacific Partnership (TPP) is the first trade agreement to include binding provisions related to the information flows that power digital trade, but that agreement (and others under negotiation) say little about the domestic and international regulatory context in which the Internet functions. However, as the World Bank notes, an effective regulatory environment is essential to reaping the benefits of the information economy and digital trade (World Bank: 2016)

Trade agreements may not be the best place to regulate information flows — which are a global public good that governments should provide and regulate effectively in a cooperative manner with other governments. Moreover, many Internet issues that involve information flows, such as privacy or the security of data are not market access issues (the traditional turf of trade agreements) issues (Aaronson: 2016).

In this conference, we will examine digital trade as well as barriers to cross-border information flows. We will also discuss the role of trade agreements as tools of Internet governance; examine the domestic and international regulatory environment for information; and focus on how to cooperate to encourage cross-border information flows. We plan to encourage audience and panelist dialogue about these issues.

The Internet Society DC Chapter (ISOC-DC) will be providing a live stream of the conference to be linked to this page.

Susan Ariel Aaronson, Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs

Susan Ariel Aaronson is Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She is currently the Carvalho Fellow at the Government Accountability Project and was the former Minerva Chair at the National War College. Aaronson’s research examines the relationship between economic change and human rights. She is currently directing projects on digital trade and digital rights, repression and civil conflict; trade, trust and transparency; and whistleblowers at international organizations such as the UN and WIPO. Her work has been funded by major international foundations including MacArthur, Ford, and Rockefeller; governments such as the Netherlands, U.S., and Canada; the UN, ILO, and World Bank, and U.S. corporations including Ford Motor and Levi Strauss. Dr. Aaronson is a frequent speaker on public understanding of globalization issues and international economic developments. She regularly comments on international economics on “Marketplace” and was a monthly commentator on “All Things Considered,” “Marketplace,” and “Morning Edition.” She has also appeared on CNN, the BBC, and PBS to discuss trade and globalization issues. Aaronson was a Guest Scholar in Economics at the Brookings Institution (1995–1999); and a Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute 2008-2012.

Maja Andjelkovic, World Bank Mobile Innovation Specialist

Maja is interested in the potential of entrepreneurship and human ingenuity to contribute to economic, environmental and social development. She has spent over 12 years connecting these fields, including as product manager in a web-technology startup, lead researcher at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and counselor for Canada for the World Bank Group. Since 2009, she has worked to expand infoDev’s mobile innovation program, including by extending our offering to better serve women founders of tech startups in emerging and frontier markets. Maja is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Oxford under Professor Bill Dutton, with a focus on innovation ecosystems and with support from Oxford University Press.

Michael Ferrantino, World Bank Lead Economist

Michael J. Ferrantino is Lead Economist in the World Bank Group Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice. Prior to joining the Bank, he was Lead International Economist at the US International Trade Commission. Michael’s published research spans a wide array of topics relating to international trade, including non-tariff measures and trade facilitation, global value chains, the relationship of trade to the environment, innovation, and productivity, and US-China trade. He has taught at Southern Methodist, Youngstown State, Georgetown, American, and George Washington Universities. Michael’s recent work includes: “The Benefits of Trade Facilitation: A Modelling Exercise,” prepared for the World Economic Forum’s January 2013 report on supply chains, “Enabling Trade: Valuing Growth Opportunities;” a chapter on non-tariff measures in The Ashgate Research Companion to International Trade Policy (2012); and “Evasion Behaviors of Exporters and Importers; Evidence from the U.S.-China Trade Data Discrepancy,” with Xuepeng Liu and Zhi Wang, Journal of International Economics, 2012. Michael holds a PhD from Yale University.

Kyle Renner, IIEP Operations Manager

Kyle Renner manages the Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP) and provides career and academic advice for the International Trade and Investment Policy (ITIP) master’s program at the Elliott School for International Affairs. Kyle manages IIEP’s research agenda which is broadly concentrated on the areas of international trade, international finance, and international development; with special focus on U.S.-China economic relations, climate change adaptation, ultra-poverty, and global economic governance. He has managed sponsored research projects funded by USAID, the Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Army Research Office, and the Hewlett, Ford, and MacArthur foundations among others. He is also responsible for organizing IIEP’s many events, including scholarly seminars, working groups, policy fora, and research conferences. Kyle provides academic and professional counseling to students in the ITIP program, and serves on the ITIP Program Committee. Kyle completed his B.A. and M.A. in International Affairs at the Elliott School for International Affairs, focusing on international politics, conflict and conflict resolution, and the Middle East. He is interested in the areas of self-sustainable education and business development, and their impact on civil society and economic growth.

Keynote Speakers

Susan Lund, Partner, McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Company (author of Digital Globalization—the New Flows)

Susan Lund is a partner of McKinsey & Company and a leader of the McKinsey Global Institute. She conducts economic research on global financial markets, trade, labor markets, and country productivity and growth.

Her latest report focuses on how digital technologies are transforming globalization. Other recent research examines the continuing accumulation of global debt and potential risks; how digital talent platforms are transforming labor markets; and growth prospects for African economies given the collapse of commodity prices. Susan has an active travel schedule discussing research findings with business executives and policy makers, and she is a frequent speaker at global conferences.

She has authored numerous articles on digital globalization. Susan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Association of Business Economists, and the Conference of Business Economists.

Klaus Tilmes, Senior Director, World Bank Group Global Practice on Trade and Competitiveness

Klaus Tilmes is Director of the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice at the World Bank Group. In his position, Tilmes is responsible for such global themes as Trade, Competitive Sectors, Investment Climate and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Prior to his current position, Klaus was the Director of the Financial and Private Sector Development (FPD) Network at the World Bank, a position he held from 2010 to 2014. Tilmes has a Master’s degree in Public Administration focused on Development Economics and Public Sector Management from Harvard University, and a Master’s in Economics from the University of Mannheim.

Panelists

Susan Ariel Aaronson, Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs

Daniel Adidwa, Tour2.0, South Africa

Mr. Adidwa is a leader who is passionate about entrepreneurship and technology. He takes pleasure in channeling this passion through sourcing innovative solutions, that address current problems within the African continent and taking these solutions to market.

He is a qualified marketer and attained his BA Degree in Integrated Marketing Communication and a Diploma in Account Management from the AAA School of Advertising. Daniel has worked at various communications agencies, where he worked on various local and international blue chip accounts.

He is passionate about the African continent, its people and the stories behind African communities. He believes that technology can play a large role in getting the world to experience real African Stories. He currently holds the position of CEO of Tour2.0 and Vice-Chairman of the Regional Tourism Association of Southern Africa (RETOSA) youth steering committee.

Usman Ahmed, Director, Global Public Policy, PayPal

Usman Ahmed is the Head of Global Public Policy at PayPal Inc. His work covers a variety of global issues including financial services regulation, innovation, international trade, and entrepreneurship. He has given talks on these subjects at conferences and universities around the world and has published in the World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report, Journal of World Trade, and the Michigan Journal of International Law. Ahmed is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School where he teaches courses on international law and policy issues related to the Internet. Prior to PayPal, Usman worked at a number of policy think tanks in the Washington DC area focusing on good governance issues. Ahmed earned his JD from University of Michigan, his MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and his BA from University of Maryland.

Robert D. Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

As founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Robert D. Atkinson leads a prolific team of policy analysts and fellows that is successfully shaping the debate and setting the agenda on a host of critical issues at the intersection of technological innovation and public policy.

He is an internationally recognized scholar and a widely published author whom The New Republic has named one of the “three most important thinkers about innovation,” Washingtonian Magazine has called a “tech titan,” and Government Technology Magazine has judged to be one of the 25 top “doers, dreamers and drivers of information technology.”

A sought-after speaker and valued adviser to policymakers around the world, Atkinson’s books include Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (link is external) (Yale, 2012), Supply-Side Follies: Why Conservative Economics Fails, Liberal Economics Falters, and Innovation Economics is the Answer (link is external) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), and The Past And Future Of America’s Economy: Long Waves Of Innovation That Power Cycles Of Growth (link is external) (Edward Elgar, 2005). He also has conducted groundbreaking research projects and authored hundreds of articles and reports on technology and innovation-related topics ranging from tax policy to advanced manufacturing, productivity, and global competitiveness.

Abdoul Aziz Sy, Vice President for International Rights and Strategy, Public Knowledge

Abdoul Aziz Sy holds a Master in International Sustainable Development from Brandeis University in the United States. He joined the team Upstart in March 2014 as project manager of the ICT project for Good Governance, coordinated by Upstart in partnership with OSIWA Foundation. Aziz also holds a BA in International Relations and has been for 2 years vice president of SIFE team (Students in Free Enterprise) Suffolk University with the aim to find entrepreneurial solutions to improve the lives of communities. His career includes such courses in structures such as Ernst & Young and the American NGO Ashoka.

Brian Bieron, Director of Public Policy, eBay and Main Street

Brian Bieron is Executive Director of the Public Policy Lab. Bieron has published and spoken on a broad variety of issues at the nexus of technology and commerce including taxation, telecommunications, customs, and intellectual property.

Bieron led eBay’s US Government Relations Team in Washington, DC from 2004 to 2012, overseeing eBay staff, outside lobbying firms, a DC-based PR firm, various trade associations and a federal political action committee. These resources were focused on issues important to eBay and its community of users, including sales tax collection on the Internet, net neutrality, proposals to ISP third-party liability, and cross-border trade policies impacting small businesses.

Prior to joining eBay, Bieron spent three-and-a-half years as a Director at Clark & Weinstock, one of Washington’s leading bipartisan lobbying and consulting firms. He supported a wide range of clients, including leading technology, telecommunications, and financial services companies such as Microsoft, AT&T, PhRMA, NASDAQ, and eBay. He also spent twelve years on Capitol Hill as a congressional staff person, including service as Policy Director for House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, where he played a lead role on key congressional trade and technology issues.

Nicholas Bramble, Public Policy Manager, Google

Nicholas Bramble is a Public Policy Manager at Google, where he focuses on trade policy and international relations. Prior to joining Google he was a Presidential Innovation Fellow, and served as a lecturer and director of the Law and Media Program at Yale Law School. He filed amicus briefs in Golan v. Holder and FCC v. Fox, and has published articles in Hastings Law Journal, Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology.

Mr. Bramble earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Stanford University. He clerked for the Honorable Charles F. Lettow on the US Court of Federal Claims, and was a visiting researcher at the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy.

Ralph Carter, Managing Director, Federal Express

As Managing Director of Legal, Trade & International Affairs, Ralph Carter is responsible for coordinating FedEx’s international regulatory affairs, including trade policy. Mr. Carter joined FedEx in Brussels, Belgium in 2001 and directed FedEx’s government affairs activities with the European Commission, Parliament and Council, as well as with Member State governments. Mr. Carter also served as in-house legal counsel responsible for commercial transactions and regulatory compliance for Central and Eastern Europe.

Before joining FedEx, Mr. Carter worked in the United States Department of State, serving as the Special Assistant to the United States Ambassador to the European Union. He is currently a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.

Mr. Carter has a BS and JD from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Masters of Laws from American University.

Anupam Chander, Professor of Law, UC-Davis, author of “The Electronic Silk Road”

Anupam Chander is Director of the California International Law Center and Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, he has been a visiting professor at Yale, Chicago, Stanford, and Cornell. The author of The Electronic Silk Road (Yale University Press), he has published widely in the nation’s leading law journals, including the Yale Law Journal, the NYU Law Review, and the California Law Review. He practiced law in New York and Hong Kong with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. He served on the executive council of the American Society of International Law and serves as a judge for the Stanford Junior International Faculty Forum. The recipient of Google Research Awards and an Andrew Mellon grant on the topic of surveillance, he is a member of the ICTSD/World Economic Forum E15 expert group on the digital economy and the World Economic Forum expert group on Internet fragmentation.

Krista Cox, Director of Public Policy Initiatives, Association of Research Libraries

Krista Cox is the director of public policy Initiatives at ARL. In this role, she advocates for the policy priorities of the Association and executes strategies to implement these priorities. She monitors legislative trends and participates in ARL’s outreach to the Executive Branch and the US Congress.

Prior to joining ARL, Krista worked as the staff attorney for Knowledge Ecology International, an organization dedicated to searching for better outcomes, including new solutions, to the management of knowledge resources, particularly in the context of social justice. While at KEI, she wrote and filed amicus briefs in various intellectual property cases; attended the WIPO Diplomatic Conference that concluded the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled; and worked extensively on promoting better policies for the intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). She also has prior experience as the staff attorney for Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, an organization that promotes access to medicines, particularly those technologies created through federal funding.

Krista received her JD from the University of Notre Dame and her BA in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is licensed to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the State Bar of California.

Michael Ferrantino, World Bank Lead Economist

Paul Fehlinger, Manager and Co-Founder, Internet & Jurisdiction Project

Paul Fehlinger is the Manager and Co-Founder of the Internet & Jurisdiction Project. He is actively engaged in global Internet fora, including as a speaker at venues such as the UN Internet Governance Forum, OECD, or Council of Europe. Paul was appointed to the Advisory Network of the Global Commission on Internet Governance and to the Working Group on Rule of Law of the Freedom Online Coalition. He is also a participant in the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Cross-border Flow of Internet Traffic and Internet Freedom, and the World Economic Forum’s Future of the Internet Initiative.

He holds a Master in International Relations from Sciences Po Paris, where he specialized in Internet politics and new modes of global governance. He was a scholar of the German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung), a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and holds a BA in European Studies from Maastricht University. Prior to launching the Internet & Jurisdiction Project, Paul wanted to become a journalist and worked for a political news broadcaster in Berlin and an international radio station in Paris.

Sean Flynn, Professional Lecturer, American University School of Law

Sean Flynn teaches courses on the intersection of intellectual property, trade law, and human rights and is the Associate Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP). At PIJIP, Professor Flynn designs and manages a wide variety of research and advocacy projects that promote public interests in intellectual property and information law and coordinates PIJIP’s academic program, including events, student advising and curriculum development. Professor Flynn’s research examines legal frameworks promoting access to essential goods and services. He serves as counsel for advocacy organizations and state legislatures seeking to promote and defend regulations that promote access to essential medicines. (PIJIP).

Prior to joining WCL, Professor Flynn completed clerkships with Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson on the South African Constitutional Court and Judge Raymond Fisher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also represented consumers and local governments as a senior associate with Spiegel & McDiarmid and as senior attorney for the Consumer Project on Technology, served on the policy team advising then Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick, and taught Constitutional Law at the University of Witwaterstrand, South Africa.

Damien Levie, EU Delegation, Trade and Agricultural Affairs

Damien Levie heads the Trade and Agriculture Section of the European Union Delegation in Washington, DC.

Before coming to Washington, he was a member of the Cabinet (personal office) of EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht from 2009 to 2012. He subsequently headed the USA and Canada team of the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission. During that period, he contributed to the pursuit of an ambitious EU trade policy agenda with the Americas, in particular the launch of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the U.S. and the EU, for which he was deputy chief negotiator.

Damien joined the European Commission in 2001, working on issues including merger control policy and REACH, the EU’s basic chemical regulation. From 2005 to 2009, he served in the Cabinet of Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid. During that period, he worked on economic development policy in Africa as well as European economic integration issues.

He has law degrees from KU Leuven and the University of Chicago Law School and an economics degree from UC Louvain. He was a lawyer at a major US law firm in Brussels and New York from 1994 to 2001.

Jeremy Malcolm, Senior Global Policy Analyst, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Jeremy Malcolm joined EFF’s international team in 2014 and works on the international dimensions of issues such as intellectual property, network neutrality, Internet governance, and trade. Prior to that he worked for Consumers International coordinating its global programme Consumers in the Digital Age. Jeremy graduated with degrees in Law (with Honours) and Commerce in 1995 from Murdoch University, and completed his PhD thesis at the same University in 2008 on the topic of Internet governance. Jeremy’s background is as an information technology and intellectual property lawyer and IT consultant. He enjoys acting, writing and coding, and his ambitions include writing an original science fiction novel, learning to juggle and learning Japanese (ideally both at once).

Jeremy is admitted to the bars of the Supreme Court of Western Australia (1995), High Court of Australia (1996) and Appellate Division of New York (2009). He is a former co-coordinator of the Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus, founder of Best Bits, and currently a Steering Committee member of the OECD Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council.

Joshua Meltzer, Senior Fellow, Brookings

Dr. Joshua Meltzer is a senior fellow in Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution and an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. Dr. Meltzer is also a reviewer for the Journal of Politics and Law. His work focuses on international trade law and policy issues relating to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements.

Sandy Reback, Director, Global Public Policy, Akamai

Sanford Reback, Director of Global Public Policy at Akamai Technologies, has more than 25 years of policy, business, and legal experience in the technology sector. He served as Deputy General Counsel for Policy at UUNET Technologies, then the world’s largest Internet service provider (ISP); Senior International Counsel at MCI, then a Fortune 100 company; and a senior executive at two venture-backed technology companies. In the Executive Office of the President at the U.S. Trade Representative, Reback helped negotiate NAFTA, the World Trade Organization agreements, and several international technology agreements. Immediately prior to joining Akamai, he was Senior Technology Analyst and Director of Global Business at Bloomberg Government. Reback holds a B.A. in political science from Stanford University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.P.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and was a Fulbright Fellow in London.

Kevin M. Rosenbaum, Of Counsel, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP; Counsel to the International Intellectual Property Alliance

Kevin Rosenbaum has over sixteen years of experience counseling on intellectual property and international trade matters as well as with legislative and regulatory processes and policy development related to international trade and the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in foreign markets. He currently serves as counsel to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a coalition of five copyright-based industry trade associations (comprised of over 3,200 companies), on international copyright protection and enforcement matters.

Carolina Rossini, Vice President for International Rights and Strategy, Public Knowledge

Carolina Rossini is the Vice President for International Rights and Strategy at Public Knowledge. Previously, Carolina was a Project Director at New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, the International Intellectual Property Director at Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF), and a Fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard University.

Alongside her work at Public Knowledge, she is a Global Partners Digital International Associate, an X-Lab fellow for New America Foundation, and an Advisory Board Member of Open Knowledge Foundation for both the UK and Brazil. She is also an Advisory Board Member for Saylor Foundation, Instituto Educadigital, and InternetLab. Carolina has an LLM in Intellectual Property from Boston University, an MBA from Instituto de Empresas, an MA in International Economic Negotiations from UNICAMP/UNESP, and a JD from University of Sao Paulo – USP.

Matthew Schruers, Vice President, Law & Policy, Computer & Communications Industry Association

Matthew Schruers is Vice President for Law & Policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), where he represents and advises the association on domestic and international policy issues including intellectual property, competition, and trade. He is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Georgetown Graduate School Program on Communication, Culture, and Technology (CCT), where he teaches courses on intellectual property.

Mr. Schruers joined CCIA from Morrison & Foerster LLP in 2005, where he practiced intellectual property, antitrust, and administrative law. Mr. Schruers received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review, and received his B.A. from Duke University.

Shawn Tan, World Bank

Shawn Tan is an Economist in the World Bank’s Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice. He is currently working on trade policy and private sector development issues for countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He was in the core team of the 2016 World Development Report “Digital Dividends”, where he authored the international trade sections. Prior to working at the World Bank, he worked at the Singapore Economic Development Board as a senior officer in the International Policy Division, where he was involved in Singapore’s trade agreement negotiations, ASEAN trade and investment forums and trade facilitation for MNCs in Singapore. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics for the University of Melbourne. His research interests are broadly in international trade and the effects of institution, policy and regulation changes on firms.

Diego Molano Vega, former ICT Minister of Colombia

Mr. Molano is Electronic Engineer, born in Boyacá and Master in Economy. Diego Molano Vega is an outstanding international expert in the telecommunications world, area in which he has been working during twenty years in entities as the Colombian Regulatory Commission of Telecommunications (CRT) and multinationals.

Moderators

Maja Andjelkovic, Mobile Innovation Specialist, World Bank

Victoria Guida, Trade Reporter, POLITICO

Victoria Guida has covered trade for roughly four years, first at Inside U.S. trade and now at POLITICO Pro, the subscriber-only policy side of the Washington publication. Before covering trade, she worked briefly as a business reporter for the Charlotte Observer.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, she is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where she majored in journalism and political science.

Martin Molinuevo, Consultant, World Bank

Martín Molinuevo is a consultant in the World Bank Group Trade and Competitivness Global Practice, where he focuses on international trade in services, trade agreements, and regulation. He has previously worked for a number of international organizations, including the WTO, UNCTAD, and the EU on matters related to trade in services, foreign investment, and dispute settlement. Martin, a lawyer by training, holds a Doctor Iuris magna cum laude from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and has published articles in international journals, contributed chapters to various edited books, and published a book on trade and investment agreements (“Protecting Investing in Services: Investor-State Arbitration vs. WTO Dispute Settlement,” Wolters-Kluwer, 2012).

Hanna Norberg, Tradeeconomista.com

Hanna C. Norberg is an independent Trade Policy Advisor and the founder of TradeEconomista.com. She obtained her Ph.D in International Economics from Lund University, Sweden in 2000. She has substantial experience of both micro and macro economics as well as applied economics from working as advisor, consultant, researcher and university lecturer. Her primary interests are trade, trade policy, economic integration and development. She has extensive experience in policy implication from working numerous trade policy impact assessment projects for the European Commission (FTAs covering the majority of the world e.g. T-TIP, Japan and ASEAN, Korea, various MENA countries, Mercosur) and national governments. In addition, she has done work for ECFIN, OECD, WTO and multiple parts of the Swedish government.

Tracey Samuelson, American Public Media (APM)

Tracey Samuelson is a New-York based reporter for APM’s Marketplace, covering business and economic stories, with a recent focus on international trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In addition to Marketplace, her radio stories have appeared on NPR, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and the Planet Money podcast, as well as in print for The New York Times, New York Magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor, among others.

2:30 – 4:00 PM: Panel 1, The Enabling Environment for Digital Trade as a Tool for Development

Moderator: Martin Molinuevo, World Bank

Panelists: Abdoul Aziz Sy (CTIC Dakar, Senegal), Daniel Adidwa (Tour2.0, South Africa), Diego Molano Vega (former ICT Minister of Colombia), and Michael Ferrantino(World Bank)

4:00 – 4:15 PM: Coffee Break

4:15 – 5:30 PM: Panel 2, A Conversation on Rethinking IPR Online to Support Development

Moderator: Maja Andjelkovic, World Bank

Panelists: Sean Flynn (Professional Lecturer, American University School of Law), Kevin M. Rosenbaum (Of Counsel, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP; Counsel to the International Intellectual Property Alliance), Rob Atkinson (President, Information Technology and Innnovation Foundation), Krista Cox (Director of Public Policy Initiatives, Association of Research Libraries), and Matthew Schruers (Computer & Communications Industry Association)

5:30 – 6:30 PM: First Keynote, Klaus Tilmes (Director, Trade & Competitiveness, World Bank)

9:00 – 10:30 AM: Panel 3, Barriers to Digital Trade as a Tool for Development

Moderator: Victoria Guida, Politico

Panelists: Shawn Tan (principal author of the international trade section of World Development Report 2016, World Bank), Ralph Carter (Managing Director, Federal Express), Anupam Chander (Professor of Law, UC-Davis, author of “The Electronic Silk Road”), and Usman Ahmed (Director, Global Public Policy, PayPal)

10:30 – 11:00 AM: Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:30 PM: Panel 4, Do Provisions Regulating Digital Trade Need a Rethink?

Moderator: Hanna Norberg, Tradeeconomista.com

Panelists: Sandy Reback (Director, Global Public Policy, Akamai), Carolina Rossini (Vice President, International Policy, Public Knowledge), Jeremy Malcolm (Senior Global Policy Analyst, Electronic Frontier Foundation), Damien Levie (EU Delegation, Trade and Agricultural Affairs), and Nicholas Bramble (Public Policy Manager at Google)

12:30 – 2:00 PM: Luncheon Keynote: Susan Lund, Partner, McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Company (author of Digital Globalization—the New Flows)

2:15 – 3:45 PM: Panel 5, Future Barriers to Digital Trade and Digital Trade Agreements

Moderator: Tracey Samuelson, APM

Panelists: Brian Bieron (Director of Public Policy, eBay and Main Street), Joshua Meltzer (Senior Fellow, Brookings), Paul Fehlinger (Internet and Jurisdiction), and Susan Ariel Aaronson (Research Professor and Cross Disciplinary Fellow, GWU).

Susan Aaronson has written extensively on digital trade, raising questions about both the process and the content of digital trade provisions and what they mean for the Open internet, digital rights and digital trade. View her free Course on Digital Trade and Global Internet Governance through ICANN.

Publications

- Aaronson, Susan Ariel. 2016. “The Digital Trade Imbalance and Its Implications for Internet Governance” Global Commission on Internet Governance, February.
- Aaronson, Susan Ariel. 2015. “What does TPP mean for the Open Internet?” Institute for International Economic Policy, November.
- Aaronson, Susan Ariel. 2015. “Why Trade Agreements Are Not Setting Information Free: The Lost History and Reinvigorated Debate over Cross-Border Data Flows, Human Rights and National Security.” World Trade Review, April.
- Aaronson, Susan Ariel and Michael Owen Moore. 2013. “A Trade Policy for the Millennials.” Baltimore Sun, December 13.
- Aaronson, Susan Ariel. with M. Townes. 2012. “Can Trade Policy Set Information Free: Trade Agreements, Internet Governance and Internet Freedom (Policy Brief).”
- Atkinson, Robert and Nigel Cory. “Financial Data Does Not Need or Deserve Special Treatment in Trade Agreements.“April 2016.
- Atkinson, Robert. “Transatlantic Digital Cooperation Will Require Hard Debates.” April 2016.
- Atkinson, Robert, Andrea Renda and Guillaume Xavier-Bender. “Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Why the Digital Single Market Matters for Transatlantic Relations.” January 2016.
- Chander, Anupam. “The Electronic Silk Road.” Yale University Press (2013); Cambridge University Press for South Asian edition with new foreword (Feb. 2014).
- Fehlinger, Paul and B. De La Chapelle. “Jurisdiction on the Internet: From Legal Arms Race to Transnational Cooperation.” April 2016.
- Friedman, Allan and P.W. Singer. “Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know.” 2014.
- Lee-Makiyama, Hosuk with Matthias Bauer. “The Bundes Cloud: Germany on the Edge to Discriminate Against Foreign Suppliers of Digital Services.” September 2015.
- Lee-Makiyama, Hosuk with Erik van der Marel and Matthias Bauer. “Data Localisation in Russia: A Self-imposed Sanction.” June 2015.
- Lee-Makiyama, Hosuk with Erik van der Marel and Matthias Bauer.”A Friendly Fire On Economic Recovery: A Methodology to Estimate the Costs of Data Regulations.” October 2014.
- Sweden National Board of Trade, “Trade Regulation in a 3D Printed World – a Primer,” 2016.
- Tan, Shawn. “World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends“

E15Initiative

- Ahmed, Usman and Grant D. Aldonas. “Addressing Barriers to Digital Trade,” December 2015.
- Ahmed, Usman and Anupam Chander. “Information Goes Global: Protecting Privacy, Security and the New Economy in a World of Cross-border Data Flows,” November 2015.
- Kariyawasam, Rohan. “New WTO Trade Rules for Bits and Bytes?,” November 2015.
- Lund, Susan and James Manyika. “How Digital Trade is Transforming Globalisation,” January 2016.
- Meltzer, Joshua. “Maximizing the Opportunities of the Internet for International Trade,” January 2016.
- Meltzer, Joshua. “A New Digital Trade Agenda.” August 2015.
- Rentzhog, Magnus and Emilie Anér. “The New Services Era – Is GATS up to the Task?” November 2014.

National Foreign Trade Council

For more informatio

6th Annual Washington Area International Trade Symposium (WAITS) Conference

April 29, 2016March 30, 2022International Trade Events, Maggie Chen, Past Events, Research Conference

Friday, April 29, 2016

School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University
Bernstein-Offit Building, Room 500
1717 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington D.C. 20036

The Washington Area International Trade Symposium (WAITS) is a forum that highlights trade research at institutions in the Washington D.C. area. Its primary activity is sponsoring an annual research conference where scholars present their latest academic work. Researchers from George Washington University, American University, the Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve Board, Georgetown University, the Inter-American Development Bank, Johns Hopkins University (SAIS), the U.S. International Trade Commission, the University of Maryland, and the World Bank have all participated in the symposium.

Contact iiep@gwu.edu with any questions.

View the Schedule

8:30 – 9:00 AM: Continental Breakfast and Opening Comments

9:00 – 9:45 AM: JaeBin Ahn (International Monetary Fund):
“Reassessing the Productivity Gains from Trade Liberalization”
Discussant: Jennifer Poole (American University)

9:45 – 10:30 AM: Olga Timoshenko (George Washington University):
“Learning, Prices, and Firm Dynamics”
Discussant: Luca David Opromolla (Banco de Portugal, University of Maryland and CEPR)

10:30 – 10:45 AM: Coffee Break

10:45 – 11:30 AM: Mine Senses (Johns Hopkins University):
“Trade Shocks and the Provision of Local Public Goods”
Discussant: Erhan Artuc (World Bank)

11:30 – 12:15 PM: J. Bradford Jensen (Georgetown University, Peterson Institute and NBER):
“The Tradability of Services: Geographic Concentration and Trade Costs”
Discussant: Jose Signoret (US International Trade Commission)

12:15 – 1:00 PM: Lunch Break

1:00 – 2:00 PM: Kadee Russ (University of California-Davis, Council of Economic Advisers and NBER):
“Trade Policy in Practice: The TPP from an Insider’s Perspective”

2:00 – 2:15 PM: Coffee Break

2:15 – 3:00 PM: Maria Tito (Federal Reserve Board):
“Misallocation, Trade, and Productivity: Evidence from Chinese Data”
Discussant: Maggie Chen (George Washington University)

3:00 – 3:45 PM: Chad P. Bown (Peterson Institute and CEPR):
“Global Supply Chains and Trade Policy”
Discussant: Juan Blyde (Inter-American Development Bank)

3:45 – 4:00 PM: Coffee Break

4:00 – 4:45 PM: Claire Brunel (American University):
“Green Innovation and Green Manufacturing: Links Between Environmental Policies, Innovation and Production”
Discussant: Cristina Tello Trillo (Census Bureau)

4:45 – 5:00 PM: Closing Remarks

George Washington University’s Institute for International Economic Policy, housed at the Elliott School of International Affairs, is dedicated to producing and disseminating high-quality non-partisan academic and policy relevant research on international economic policy. Areas of focus include international trade, international finance, and development economics.

Conference Program

Friday, October 23, 20209:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. (EDT)Via Webex

A Discussion on Prioritizing African Trade: Policies and Practices

Click here to view a recording of the event

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

4:00 to 6:00pm

Elliott School of International Affairs 1957 E Street NW Washington, DC 20052

Dr. Ajay Chhibber

Visiting Scholar, Institute for International Economic Policy, GWU

Monday, April 17, 2017

12:15 to 1:30pm

Elliott School of International Affairs 1957 E Street NW Washington, DC 20052

Friday, February 3, 2017

9:00am to 4:00pm

Elliott School of International Affairs Lindner Commons, 6th floor 1957 E Street NW Washington, DC 20052

View the Schedule

Schedule of Events

November 11, 2016

​8:00 – 8:50AM Coffee and Continental Breakfast

Thursday and Friday, May 5-6, 2016

Elliott School of International Affairs Lindner Commons, 6th floor 1957 E Street NW Washington, DC 20052

Susan Ariel Aaronson, Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs

Maja Andjelkovic, World Bank Mobile Innovation Specialist

Michael Ferrantino, World Bank Lead Economist

Kyle Renner, IIEP Operations Manager

Speakers and Discussants

Keynote Speakers

Susan Lund, Partner, McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Company (author of Digital Globalization—the New Flows)

Klaus Tilmes, Senior Director, World Bank Group Global Practice on Trade and Competitiveness

Panelists

Susan Ariel Aaronson, Research Professor of International Affairs and a Cross-Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs

Daniel Adidwa, Tour2.0, South Africa

Usman Ahmed, Director, Global Public Policy, PayPal

Robert D. Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Abdoul Aziz Sy, Vice President for International Rights and Strategy, Public Knowledge

Brian Bieron, Director of Public Policy, eBay and Main Street

Nicholas Bramble, Public Policy Manager, Google

Ralph Carter, Managing Director, Federal Express

Anupam Chander, Professor of Law, UC-Davis, author of “The Electronic Silk Road”

Krista Cox, Director of Public Policy Initiatives, Association of Research Libraries

Michael Ferrantino, World Bank Lead Economist

Paul Fehlinger, Manager and Co-Founder, Internet & Jurisdiction Project

Sean Flynn, Professional Lecturer, American University School of Law

Damien Levie, EU Delegation, Trade and Agricultural Affairs

Jeremy Malcolm, Senior Global Policy Analyst, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Joshua Meltzer, Senior Fellow, Brookings

Sandy Reback, Director, Global Public Policy, Akamai

Kevin M. Rosenbaum, Of Counsel, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP; Counsel to the International Intellectual Property Alliance

Carolina Rossini, Vice President for International Rights and Strategy, Public Knowledge

Matthew Schruers, Vice President, Law & Policy, Computer & Communications Industry Association

Shawn Tan, World Bank

Diego Molano Vega, former ICT Minister of Colombia

Moderators

Maja Andjelkovic, Mobile Innovation Specialist, World Bank

Victoria Guida, Trade Reporter, POLITICO

Martin Molinuevo, Consultant, World Bank

Hanna Norberg, Tradeeconomista.com

Tracey Samuelson, American Public Media (APM)

Day 1: May 5, 2:30 – 6:30 PM

Day 2: May 6, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Publications

E15Initiative

National Foreign Trade Council

Friday, April 29, 2016

View the Schedule

Friday, October 23, 2020
9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. (EDT)
Via Webex

Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Commons, 6th floor
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

8:00 – 8:50AM Coffee and Continental Breakfast

Elliott School of International Affairs
Lindner Commons, 6th floor
1957 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20052