COVID-19 and the Demand for Labor and Skills in Europe: Early Evidence and Implications for Migration Policy

COVID-19 and the Demand for Labor and Skills in Europe: Early Evidence and Implications for Migration Policy. Migration Policy Institute. Terence Hogarth. February 2021.

While the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on European labor markets have focused attention on weathering this crisis, Europe also faces longer-term challenges linked to technological and demographic changes. This issue brief examines how the pandemic is reshaping demand for workers and skills in Europe, what this means for migration policy, and strategies for tackling both short- and long-term labor market challenges. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 22 pages].

Will Industrial and Agricultural Subsidies Ever Be Reformed?

Will Industrial and Agricultural Subsidies Ever Be Reformed? Peterson Institute for International Economics. Policy Brief 21-5. Gary Clyde Hufbauer (PIIE). March 2021

One economic argument for government subsidies is that they are necessary to compensate firms and industries for benefits they provide to society at large but cannot capture in the prices they charge for goods or services. For example, subsidies to renewable energy are defended because renewable energy limits carbon emissions. When a major economy subsidizes extensively, however, its trading partners are drawn into the game, with losses all around. As the prisoner’s dilemma suggests, a better outcome would entail mutual restraint. But the goal of mutual restraint is no less difficult in international trade than it is in international arms control. Both the European Union and the US federal system try, in different ways, to regulate industrial subsidies. Hufbauer examines efforts to contain unjustifiable subsidies and proposes modest improvements, bearing in mind that as countries struggle to overcome the global economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is little appetite for restoring a free market economy—one in which firms compete with minimum government assistance or regulation. Selective upgrading of the rulebook may nevertheless be possible. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 33 pages].

First Things First: How Social Security Reform Can Eliminate Elderly Poverty

First Things First: How Social Security Reform Can Eliminate Elderly Poverty. Urban Institute.  C. Eugene Steuerle, Karen E. Smith. March 4, 2021

In this brief, we examine how Social Security proposals could eliminate poverty and relative poverty (defined as having low income relative to average wages in the economy) for older adults and people who receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. We add a basic minimum benefit to three prominent Social Security proposals that as currently designed would increase or maintain relative poverty over time.  The additional cost is moderate enough that any of these proposals could be adjusted to virtually eliminate poverty and still provide significantly higher real benefits across the board for future generations of retirees and disabled workers. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 28 pages].

Manufacturing USA: Advanced Manufacturing Institutes and Network

Manufacturing USA: Advanced Manufacturing Institutes and Network. Congressional Research Service.  John F. Sargent Jr. March 3, 2021.

Congress maintains a strong interest in the health of U.S. manufacturing due to its central role in the U.S. economy and national defense. Manufacturing USA is a network of institutes focused on facilitating the development and commercialization of emerging manufacturing technologies. The existing network consists of 16 institutes sponsored by the Departments of Commerce (DOC), Defense (DOD), and Energy (DOE) and co-funded with private sector partners.

The program traces its roots to President Obama’s FY2013 budget proposal to create a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) to help accelerate innovation by investing in industrially relevant manufacturing technologies with broad applications, and to support manufacturing technology commercialization by bridging the gap between the laboratory and the market. The proposal sought $1 billion in mandatory funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the DOC to establish up to 15 NNMI institutes. Congress did not act on the proposal in the 112th Congress.

[PDF format, 32 pages].

The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals Supply Chains

The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals Supply Chains. Center for Strategic & International Studies. Jane Nakano. March 11, 2021

As clean energy technology becomes the latest frontier for geoeconomic rivalry, the security of supply chains for rare earths and critical minerals—essential materials for clean energy—has become a global strategic issue.

The fragility of global supply chains revealed by Covid-19 and rising competition from China have only heightened the importance of supply chain security for critical minerals.

This report compares strategies and actions taken by the United States, European Union, and Japan, illuminating key economic, security, and geopolitical factors behind these evolving approaches to enhance the security of critical minerals supply chains. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 38 pages].

Addressing Education Inequality With A Next Generation Of Community Schools: A Blueprint For Mayors, States, And The Federal Government

Addressing Education Inequality With A Next Generation Of Community Schools: A Blueprint For Mayors, States, And The Federal Government. Brookings Institution’s Task Force on Next Generation Community Schools.  February 24, 2021 

We recommend the transformation of U.S. schools into community schools—centering initial efforts on the 4 percent of school districts that educate approximately 40 percent of the country’s children, include urban and rural communities across the nation, and have the greatest concentration of unmet student needs. Community schools integrate, rather than silo, the services that children and families need, thus ensuring that funding for health, mental health, expanded learning time, and social services is well spent and effective. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 54 pages].

Responsible Use of Technology: The Microsoft Case Study

Responsible Use of Technology: The Microsoft Case Study. World Economic Forum. 25 February 2021.

In collaboration with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, USA

The World Economic Forum Responsible Use of Technology project aims to provide practical resources for organizations to operationalize ethics in technology. This White Paper, with its focus on Microsoft Corporation, highlights tools and processes that facilitate responsible technology product design and development. The document is the first in a series that seeks to investigate how companies have begun to incorporate ethical thinking into the development of technology. Its lessons can help organizations advance their own responsible innovation practices, and may even inspire others that have created new methods in pursuit of ethical technology to share their work, either in this series or elsewhere. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 23 pages].

The Shifting Roles of Monetary and Fiscal Policy in Light of Covid-19

The Shifting Roles of Monetary and Fiscal Policy in Light of Covid-19. Center for Strategic & International Studies. Jack Caporal, Victoria Meyer. February 23, 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically affected both the U.S. and the global economy. In February 2020, the U.S. unemployment rate was at near lows of 3.8 percent. By April, it reached 14.7 percent—nearly five percentage points higher than the peak of the Great Recession. While many of these unemployment claims were temporary, the economy is still in distress. In October 2020, 40 U.S. states either added fewer jobs than in August or lost jobs. The U.S. national rate of job growth in September and October was less than half its August rate. By January 2021, the economy had over 9 million fewer jobs than prior to the pandemic. Permanent job losses remained elevated in January at 3.5 million, 2.2 million more than the previous February. The labor force participation level was 1.9 percent lower than February 2020, indicating that individuals who left the workforce have not rejoined it. In terms of the global economy, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) October 2020 World Economic Outlook predicted that the world real GDP would fall by 4.4 percent from 2019. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 15 pages].

How Americans Navigated the News in 2020: A Tumultuous Year in Review

How Americans Navigated the News in 2020: A Tumultuous Year in Review. Pew Research Center. Amy Mitchell et al. February 22, 2021

Americans inhabited different information environments, with wide gaps in how they viewed the election and COVID-19

Americans are divided – that much is obvious after a contentious presidential election and transition, and in the midst of a politicized pandemic that has prompted a wide range of reactions.

But in addition to the familiar fault line of political partisanship, a look back at Pew Research Center’s American News Pathways project finds there have consistently been dramatic divides between different groups of Americans based on where people get their information about what is going on in the world. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 54 pages].

Digital Capital and Superstar Firms

Digital Capital and Superstar Firms. Brookings Institution. Prasanna Tambe et al. March 4, 2021

Superstar firms, unique in their capabilities to scale up innovations, have become increasingly important in the US economy. Investments related to digital technologies are likely to play a particularly important role, reflecting, among other things, economies of scale and network effects. Much of the rise in the concentration of power in these firms has been attributed to intangible investments. For digitally-focused firms, investments in the intangible assets needed to realize value from new technologies – like cumulative investment in skills training, new decision-making structures within the firm, management practices, and software customization – often account for significantly greater total costs than the technologies themselves. As the economy becomes increasingly digitized, these assets can be expected to grow even further in importance. For instance, there has been a wave of interest in the potential of data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to become the next important general purpose technology that drives economic growth and business value. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 57 pages].