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home > the think tank > cgs > projects
Below you will find a chronological list of current Center research projects. You can search by issue or region by selecting the appropriate category. In addition to this sorting control, you can search for specific subjects within the alphabetical, regional, and issue categories by choosing from the selections in the drop-down menu below.
Each project page contains the name of the project director, a description of the project, a list of meetings it has held, and any related publications, transcripts, or videos.
Annual Corporate Conference—New York, NY
| Staff: | Nancy Yao Maasbach, Managing Director |
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The annual two-day Corporate Conference, held at the Council’s New York headquarters, addresses the most pressing international business concerns. The 2008 Corporate Conference featured keynote speakers Timothy F. Geithner, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank. Panels of experts spoke on timely topics such as global corporate citizenship, geopolitical risks, the economic view from abroad, and the shifting political landscape of America in 2008, while smaller breakout sessions examined variables for growth in the BRICs and "frontier economies."
The Council's 2009 Corporate Conference will be held on Thursday, March 5 and Friday, March 6.
January 2007—Present
| Staff: | Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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This roundtable series brings together policymakers, scholars, and journalists to explore current policy challenges that have both economic and national security dimensions.
June 2007—October 2007
| Staff: | Michael A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment |
|---|---|
| Author: | Joshua W. Busby |
Connections between climate change and national security are receiving unprecedented attention from policymakers and analysts. In March 2007, Senators Richard Durbin and Chuck Hagel introduced a bill requesting that the National Intelligence Council draft a National Intelligence Estimate to assess the security implications of climate change. In April 2007, the CNA Corporation released a report overseen by retired generals that documents the links between climate and national security. The British government initiated a similar discussion in the United Nations Security Council in the same month.
This Council Special Report (CSR) will move the discussion from broad assessments of the links between climate and security to a plan for action. It will examine whether climate change poses a direct security threat to the United States, and will identify the security assets that will be affected by climate change. Finally, it will outline the policies that the United States should adopt to protect critical infrastructure, and military bases from these effects.
April 2007—October 2007
| Director: | Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow |
|---|---|
| Author: | David M. Marchick Matthew J. Slaughter, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Globalization |
In the past three years, many countries have adopted or expanded regimes to review inward foreign direct investment (FDI) for either “national” or “economic” security purposes. The U.S. Congress recently passed legislation reforming the Committee on Foreign Direct Investment with the United States, which is charged with reviewing the security risk posed by inbound investments. France has adopted a new regulation requiring reviews of foreign investments (excluding EU investments) in nineteen sectors of their economy. Russia is close to adopting a law, modeled largely on the CFIUS process, requiring reviews in thirty-nine sectors. China has adopted a regulation allowing the government to block investments that harm “economic security,” and Korea and Canada are debating new restrictions.
State-owned multinationals are increasingly prominent, especially in developing countries. In 2005, twenty-four of the top 100 multinationals headquartered in developing countries were majority state-owned. Of particular note is the rising number and size of developed-country firms being acquired by developing-country sovereign funds of central banks and/or fiscal authorities. The recent Chinese investment in the U.S. private-equity firm Blackstone is one notable example.
This CSR will examine the scope, nature, causes, and consequences of rising restrictions to inward FDI around the world. It will discuss what best practices and principles should guide governments in formulating and implementing policies to govern national security reviews of FDI inflows, including how to prevent legitimate national security reviews from becoming tools for economic protectionism. It will also consider what should be the policy responses from advanced countries and important leadership groups, such as the G-8, APEC, and the OECD, to the emergence of new FDI restrictions. The recommendations will also cover ways to avoid actions in the United States being used as justification for other countries to restrict foreign investment.
January 2006—January 2007
| Director: | Douglas Holtz-Eakin |
|---|
This roundtable series brings together policymakers, scholars, and journalists to explore current policy challenges that have both economic and national security dimensions.
January 2006—April 2007
| Staff: | Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics |
|---|---|
| Author: | Gordon H. Hanson, Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego |
Immigration is a toxic political issue in the United States. This report by University of California, San Diego Professor Gordon Hanson indicates that the economic costs of illegal immigration roughly match the economic benefits. That is, the net economic impact of illegal immigration is close to zero. Thus, the political debate must revolve around other sources of costs, or efforts to curb illegal immigration, such as increased border enforcement, would result in a net loss to the U.S.economy. He also finds that illegal immigration provides a labor supply that more closely tracks shifts in the need for labor across time and geography, while legal immigration—even when temporary—cannot keep up with these cyclical shifts. Any policy aimed at addressing the demand for low-skilled labor must also address the need for flexibility.
June 2006—May 2007
| Author: | Peter B. Kenen, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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In April 2006, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund made a set of proposals aimed at enhancing the legitimacy and efficiency of the Fund and involving it more directly in the resolution of large imbalances involving the major economies. Some of his proposals were endorsed at the 2006 Annual Meetings of the Fund, and others are being implemented by the Fund's Executive Board. The most important reforms involve a redistribution of IMF quotas, which determine, among other things, voting power in the Fund. This Council Special Report provides a brief history of the Fund, stressing the changes that have occurred as a great many developing countries, large and small, have joined the Fund. It strongly endorses most of the Managing Director's proposals, although it criticizes others, including the way that the Managing Director would have the Fund involve itself in resolving major international financial imbalances. It argues that the United States should strongly support measures to enhance the legitimacy of the IMF, because the United States cannot readily accomplish unilaterally what the Fund can accomplish multilaterally.
May 2006—September 2007
| Staff: | Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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| Author: | Robert J. LaLonde, Professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago |
Professor Robert J. Lalonde, professor of economics at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, is writing a Council Special Report on job displacement and the experienced worker. In this report, Professor LaLonde examines evidence on the causes of job loss, both through trade, technological change, and other factors, and suggests policies for aiding workers most harmed by job displacement—long-tenured, displaced workers. The report outlines the merits of a wage insurance program that would supplement the earnings of long-tenured workers displaced by international trade and other factors. The report contends that without policies to aid the workers most adversely affected by job loss, public support for further economic liberalization will likely diminish.
March 2006—November 2006
| Director: | Douglas Holtz-Eakin |
|---|---|
| Author: | Keith E. Maskus, Stanford Calderwood Professor of Economics, University of Colorado |
This report evaluates the effectiveness of the U.S. intellectual property regime in encouraging innovation and discusses the U.S. push to harmonize intellectual property standards with its trading partners. Professor Maskus argues that the intellectual property system is so skewed toward patent holders that it actually discourages innovation, and that the aggressive drive toward harmonization with other countries should be replaced by an emphasis on the enforcement of existing standards.
May 2006—March 2007
| Staff: | Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics |
|---|---|
| Author: | Robert Z. Lawrence, Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University |
The Doha negotiations have stalled since last summer, and, as the November elections in the United States highlighted, American advocates of economic nationalism are growing in strength. Nevertheless, Robert Lawrence makes a case for the effectiveness of the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly its dispute settlement system, and the benefits that would accrue to the United States and others from improving its effectiveness. These benefits include expanding world trade and increasing support for an often beleaguered organization that is central to the conduct of world trade.
In this Council Special Report, Professor Lawrence addresses the critics of the dispute settlement mechanism—both those who think it should be tougher on countries that violate trade rules and those who think it is already so tough as to violate sovereignty. He points out the successes of the WTO since its creation in 1995 and argues that radical changes to the system are ill-advised. Lawrence nonetheless suggests several areas for reform, from steps that require multilateral negotiations, such as improving opportunities for nonstate actor participation in and enhancing transparency of the process, to changes the United States could make in its own behavior.
Part of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Series on American Competitiveness.
September 7, 2006—September 7, 2006
Cosponsored with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Macroeconomic Advisers
Georgetown University Conference Center
April 1, 2006—Present
| Director: | Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow |
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Made possible by the generosity of Bernard L. Schwartz, this roundtable series explores issues that affect the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Meetings have addressed issues such as the sustainability of the U.S. current account deficit, the effectiveness of the WTO dispute settlement process, and intellectual property rights.
January 1, 2005—Present
| Staff: | Elliot Schrage, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Foreign Policy |
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This study will test the hypothesis that an incentive-based policy is more effective in promoting market economies and democratic politics than an approach in which Washington relies on the ostensibly transformative effects of civil society, regime change in Iraq, regional peace, or the willingness of Arab leaders to pursue reform.
March 1, 2005—April 1, 2006
| Staff: | Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics |
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Made possible by the generosity of Bernard L. Schwartz, this roundtable series explores issues that affect the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Meetings have addressed issues such as the sustainability of the U.S. current account deficit, the effectiveness of the WTO dispute settlement process, and intellectual property rights.
January 2005—Present
| Author: | Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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This project will result in a pamphlet examining current immigration reform attempts in the context of past immigration law reform.
January 2005—Present
| Author: | Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Senior Fellow for International Economics |
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This project will result in a book analyzing how the U.S. ought to manage immigration, taking into account policies, sociology, economics, and international relations. He calls for a benign attitude toward illegal immigration, even in the wake of September 11.
May 1, 2005—Present
| Director: | Adam Segal, Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies |
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This series assesses innovation and technological entrepreneurship in Asia, evaluates the impact of emerging technological capabilities on American economic, political, and military power, and recommends policies designed to ensure continued U.S. technological superiority.
March 4, 2005—March 5, 2005
| Staff: | Gordon H. Hanson, Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego |
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January 1, 2005—Present
| Chair: | Timothy F. Geithner |
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| Author: | Peter B. Kenen, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International Economics Ellen E. Meade, Associate Professor of Economics, American University |
This project will result in a book considering the prospects for the regionalization of the international monetary system. The authors will begin by comparing the various exisiting and soon-to-exist forms of currency consolidation and then examine the prospects for future monetary unions, particularly among NAFTA, MERCOSUR, and East Asian nations.
February 8, 2005—Study Group Meeting
| Director: | Manuel Hinds, Former Salvadoran Finance Minister |
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| Chair: | Sergio J. Galvis |
This project examined the desirability of dollarization in developing countries as well as its role in promoting international financial stability.
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In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?
In contrast to conventional wisdom, the growth in government spending and heightened regulation during the Great Depression may have done much to slow economic recovery.
This book explores the currency problems that developing countries face and offers sound, practical advice for policymakers on how to deal with them.
Over the past two decades, another form of economic exchange besides imports and exports has risen to a level of vastly greater significance and political concern: the purchase and sale of financial assets across borders.
Climate change poses threats to national security in a number of ways. In this report, sponsored by the Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Joshua W. Busby offers specific recommendations for confronting this important issue, including a list of "no-regrets" policies.
Existing government programs, which emphasize retraining and insurance for short-term job loss, don't assuage workers' fears about globalization, argues Robert LaLonde in this Council Report.
With IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato resigning in October, a new report analyzes the reform measures that will be bequeathed to Mr. de Rato's successor, and argues that the reform measures deserve the support of the United States, including the U.S. Congress when it is asked to implement some of the key measures.
Gordon Hanson examines the economic logic of low skilled immigration and warns that a rigid temporary worker program will not discourage illegal entrants.
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