The world economy has undergone miraculous changes in the last decade, particularly in developing and former communist countries. Privatization and trade liberalization have replaced the protectionist and statist policies that were deeply entrenched in these areas just ten years ago. Today, these dynamic emerging markets offer attractive opportunities. According to Robert Lawrence, liberal international trade and investment should provide significant opportunities for gains in developing and developed nations alike. But will the developed countries be allowed to keep their markets open and absorb exports from developing countries? Many in the U.S. and Europe blame international trade for unemployment and wage inequality. But what is the real relationship? Lawrence contends that while trade has played some role in reducing the wages of poorly educated workers in the U.S. and in raising the unemployment of unskilled workers in Europe, its impact has been small compared with other causes of these changes. Lawrence examines the role of trade in developed and developing countries and its impact on labor markets and wage inequality, and discusses what he considers the more important effects of technological and organizational change. He begins by focusing on U.S. wage behavior, then moves to wage behavior in the OECD countries. Lawrence concludes that the impact of globalization on OECD labor markets has been far less damaging than many have argued and, indeed, that international trade enhances national welfare. He presents considerable evidence that the sources of poor labor market performance are essentially domestic--they reflect ongoing technological and organizational shocks that wouldbe present even if the economy was closed. This evidence suggests that international differences in wage rates and labor standards are not major factors in OECD labor market behavior. He explains that the major challenges to policy are educating the public on the nature of these changes, emphasizing the need for worker training and education to take advantage of new technologies and new organizational structures, and developing measures to reduce earnings inequality while preserving and increasing wage flexibility. Robert Z. Lawrence is professor of international trade and investment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His previous books include A Vision for the World Economy: Openness, Diversity, and Cohesion (Brookings, 1996), the capstone volume to the Integrating National Economies series. Copublished with the OECD Development Centre

"The proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) represents a historic change in relations among Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The effect of the agreement on the three economies has generated controversy and some degree of alarm within each country. In this book, noted trade and development experts review the available literature on the effects of NAFTA on the three member countries and the world trading system. They evaluate how NAFTA will affect areas such as economic growth, employment, income distribution, industry, and agriculture in Canada, Mexico, and the United States; and consider the significance the trade agreement holds for the rest of the world. Drusill K. Brown begins the discussion by providing an overview and comparison of the general results from recent studies. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda and Sherman Robinson explore in greater detail the potential effects of NAFTA on wages and employment in Mexico and the United States. Sidney Wintrab reviews industry-specific effects of NAFTA, in particular, the environment, the social agenda, and human rights and democracy. Finally, Carlos Alberto Primo Braga considers the implications of NAFTA on the rest of the world. Following each of these chapters, international scholars assess the alternatives and provide recommendations for future research. "

American Living Standards contends that the central problem of the U.S. economy has been for some years now, and for the foreseeable future will continue to be, the slowdown in the growth of living standards. This decline began in the early 1970s, was masked by a resort to overseas borrowing in the early 1980s, and now threatens to get worse in the years immediately ahead as the foreign debt bills come due. The editors and contributes to this volume seek to advance our understanding of the causes and consequences of this potential slowdown in the growth of living standards. Equally important, the book examines what policy measure holds out the best hope for presenting, or at the very least, minimizing this slowdown. Various chapters explore the changes in the level and distribution of incomes that have occurred in recent years; changes in the quality and distribution of jobs among industries and regions; what economists do and do not know about recent trends in productivity growth and in the quality of education; and what events could trigger a recession.

Lawrence addresses the critics of the dispute settlement mechanismboth 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.

This capstone volume to the Brookings project on Integrating National Economies--a pathbreaking series of books on the future of economic integration--presents a new vision to guide international policy. This book offers a thought-provoking and positive outlook on how national economies should be further integrated as we prepare to meet the challenge of creating a peaceful yet dynamic future for the global community in the next millennium.