Ethics and Globalization: The Tradeoffs Underlying Our Policy Choices

January 7, 2013, 12:00 AM EST
Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC
Adam S. Posen (PIIE), Anne O. Krueger (International Monetary Fund), Arvind Subramanian (PIIE), David G. Blanchflower (PIIE), William R. Cline (PIIE), George David (Chairman, United Technologies Corporation), Kimberly Ann Elliott (PIIE) and Howard F. Rosen (PIIE)

Ethics and Globalization: The Tradeoffs Underlying Our Policy Choices eBook

The Peterson Institute held a significant and path-breaking all-day conference on "Ethics and Globalization: The Tradeoffs Underlying Our Policy Choices" on January 7, 2013. The program featured a distinguished group of economists, philosophers, political scientists, and policymakers engaged in an interdisciplinary discussion of fundamental issues underlying economic policy decisions. Participants addressed the challenges of considering duties to domestic versus global welfare, balancing economic goals between generations, expecting ethical duties from private actors, and reconciling global governance and local accountability.

The Honorable Barney Frank (Congressman, D-MA, 1981–2012) delivered the keynote address, drawing insights from facing these choices during his 32-year career in Congress, up through his efforts to respond to the global financial crisis. World-renowned ethicists William Galston and Thomas Pogge discussed their views with current and former policymakers and scholars, including Anne Krueger, Danny Blanchflower, Michael Froman, Neil Howe, and Dani Rodrik, as well as PIIE's own William R. Cline, Howard F. Rosen, and Arvind Subramanian, among others [PDF].

The conference and associated research was made possible by the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and was cosponsored by The New Republic.

Event Materials

Agenda [PDF] | Participant Biographies [PDF]

Opening: The Need for Challenging Choices

Adam S. Posen
President, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Session I: Pursuit of Domestic vs Global Welfare

William Galston
University of Maryland
Anne Krueger
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Thomas Pogge
Yale University
Arvind Subramanian, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Presentation: Global Versus National Welfare [PDF]
Moderator: Steven R. Weisman
Peterson Institute for International Economics

Session II: Balancing Economic Goals

David Blanchflower, Dartmouth College
Handout [PDF]
William R. Cline, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Paper: Intergenerational Discounting and Global Economic Policies [PDF]
Jagadeesh Gokhale
Cato Institute
Neil Howe
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Moderator: Noam Scheiber
The New Republic

Keynote Address

The Honorable Barney Frank
Congressman, D-MA, 1981–2012

Session III: Expecting Ethical Duties from Private Actors

George David
Retired Chairman and CEO, United Technologies Corporation
Kimberly Ann Elliott, Center for Global Development
RealTime Economic Issues Watch: Trade and Worker Rights in Bangladesh: Forget the Twig and Use the Giant Carrot
Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild
E.L. Rothschild
Charles Sabel
Columbia University
Moderator: Stelios Vasilakis
Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Session IV: Reconciling Global Governance and Local Accountability

Michael Froman
The White House
Andrew Moravcsik
Princeton University
Dani Rodrik
Harvard University
Moderator: Steven R. Weisman
Peterson Institute for International Economics

Recommended Further Reading

Blanchflower, David. 2011. "Youth unemployment in Europe and the United States [PDF]", with David Bell, Nordic Economic Policy Review, number 1, 2011, pp. 11-38.

Cline, William R., 2012. Policy Brief 12-15: Restoring Fiscal Equilibrium in the United States, Peterson Institute for International Economics, June 2012

—, 2011. Valuation of Damages from Climate Change [PDF], January 2011.

Elliott, Kimberly Ann, 2003. Can Labor Standards Improve Under Globalization?, with Richard B. Freeman, Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Gokhale, Jagadeesh, 2012. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances and Generational Accounts: A 2012 Update, Working Paper, November 13.

Moravcsik, Andy, 2012. "Europe After the Crisis: How to Sustain a Common Currency [PDF]," Foreign Affairs (May/June 2012).

—, 2009. "Democracy-Enhancing Multilateralism [PDF]," International Organization (Winter 2009) (with Robert Keohane and Stephen Macedo).

—, 2008. "The Myth of Europe's 'Democratic Deficit' [PDF]," Intereconomics: Journal of European Economic Policy (November-December 2008).

—, 2005. "Europe without Illusions [DOC]," Prospect (July 2005) (cover article with commentary by Larry Siedentop, Gisela Stuart, John Kay, Sunder Katwala, Charles Grant, Michael Maclay, Philippe Legrain).

—, 2002. "In Defence of the Democratic Deficit: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union [PDF]," Journal of Common Market Studies (40th Anniversary Edition) 40:4 (November 2002).

Posen, Adam S., and Lynn Forester de Rothschild, 2013. "How Capitalism Can Repair Its Bruised Image," op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, January 1, 2013.

Rodrik, Dani, 2012. After the Fall: The Future of Global Cooperation [PDF], with Jeffrey Frieden, Michael Pettis, and Ernesto Zedillo. Center for Economic Policy Research, July 26.

Sabel, Charles, 2012. Experimentalist Governance [PDF], with Jonathan Zeitlin in The Oxford Handbook of Governance, ed. David Levi-Faur, Oxford University Press, 2012.

—, 2011. Experimentalism in Transnational Governance: Emergent Pathways and Diffusion Mechanism [PDF], with Jonathan Zeitlin, paper presented at the panel on "Global Governance in Transition," annual conference of the International Studies Association, Montreal, March 16-19, 2011.