Economic Development

Article

Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index: Country Scores and Rankings

Authors: Susan Randolph, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, and Terra Lawson-Remer
Journal of Human Rights

Susan Randolph, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, and Terra Lawson-Remer, building on a previously proposed methodology for an index of economic and social rights fulfillment, present country scores and rankings based on the Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index (ESRF Index).

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Article

Don't Cry for Free Trade

Author: Jagdish N. Bhagwati
Council on Foreign Relations

Newspaper and magazine stories refer to a "loss of nerve", even a "loss of faith" in free trade by economists. When presidential candidates are challenged by free trade proponents, they typically say: "Ah, but economists no longer have a consensus on free trade." But the truth of the matter is that free trade is alive. The analytical arguments in favor of trade have hardly been dented by its critics, such as Alan Blinder, arrayed against it.

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Where do you see Brazil in 2020? As a country with the lowest growth rates among the BRICS, is the dream over for Brazil?

Asked by Fagner Dantas, from Universidade Federal da Bahia

The Brazilian government faces a number of challenges and opportunities concerning its economic forecast in the coming years. After peaking at 7.5 percent growth in 2010, Brazil's recent economic slowdown has caused worry that the dream of a new high-growth economy had slipped out of reach.

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Is China still “rising” or has it already “risen”?

Asked by Lauren Billi, from New York University

Both are accurate. China certainly "has risen" to become a global economic power: in only three decades, it has transformed itself into the world's second largest economy, largest exporter, and largest provider of loans to the developing world. At the same time, China is rising: its economic and political system, as well as its foreign policy, is still developing. To state categorically that China "has risen" is to accept that the China of today will be substantially the same as the China of five to ten years from now, and few people in or outside China would accept such a conclusion.

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