Globalization Initiative

NDN's Globalization Initiative was established to promote economic growth and restore broad-based prosperity in our globalized economy. Chaired by Dr. Robert Shapiro, Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs under President Bill Clinton, the program works to address the structural changes affecting the American and global economies. NDN argues that a "lost decade," marked by declining household incomes, remains the most important factor in the American economy and politics.

Our agenda for addressing the structural changes inherent in the era of globalization includes three key components: modernizing our healthcare and energy policies, investing in 21st century skills and infrastructure, and accelerating innovation across the economy. NDN also continues to play a major role in the debate over how to best manage the Great Recession and fosters dialogue around renewing the national consensus on global economic liberalization.


Papers and Memos

A New, Progressive Economic Strategy for America released 5/11: By Robert J. Shapiro
Written over a series of weeks in April 2010, this collection of four pieces lays out a new economic strategy for America that creates broad-based prosperity and addresses the America's great economic challenges in the era of globalization.
 
Building on recent struggles in Congress to do more for the economy than pass the extension of unemployment insurance, NDN outlines a political and policy framework to take steps in 2010 that promote near-term job creation and economic growth.
 
In this white paper, Globalization Initiative Deputy Policy Director Jake Berliner describes the rise of new economic powers and the challenges and opportunities they are presenting the American and global economies.
 
Keeping the Focus on the Struggle of Everyday People: 2010 Edition 1/26/10: By Simon Rosenberg
This memo argues that the nation would benefit from a shift to economic rhetoric and policy geared towards the struggle of everyday Americans. 

Crafting an American Response to the Rise of the Rest 1/21/10: By Simon Rosenberg  Cross posted on NDN.org and Salon.com
Simon argues that the second generation Obama narrative must be a strategic response to the most significant transformation taking place in the world today, what Fareed Zakaria has called the “rise of the rest.” While the true scope of this transformation is only really becoming apparent now, it leaves our new President with the historic opportunity, and tremendous responsibility, to craft a comprehensive strategic response to this global “new politics” of the 21st century.
 
A Lost Decade for Everyday Americans 12/17/09:  By Jake Berliner
In this paper, Jake Berliner, Deputy Policy Director of NDN's Globalization Initiative, argues that everyday Americans are at the end of a “lost decade” and explains the still misunderstood causes of the virulence of the recession.
 
The Key to the Fall Debate: Staying Focused on the Economy 9/03/09: By Simon Rosenberg
The last few months have not been good ones for Democrats, but there is a road map for how they can get back on track, and it revolves around staying relentlessly focused on the economy and the struggle of every day people.
 
A Stimulus for the Long Run 11/14/08: By Simon Rosenberg and Robert J. Shapiro
Congress and President-elect Obama can use the stimulus not only to create more jobs, but to do so in ways that will drive the development of a 21st century economic infrastructure.
 
This narrative setting essay argues that leaders must do more to staunch the foreclosure crisis, which was at the heart of the financial meltdown.
 
The Idea-Based Economy and Globalization 1/23/08: By Robert J. Shapiro
U.S. companies and workers lead the world in developing and applying new intellectual property, a critical advantage in innovation that policymakers should seek to advance in the age of globalization.
 
Investing in Our Common Future: U.S. Infrastructure 11/13/07: By Michael Moynihan
Michael Moynihan looks at the current state of public investment in infrastructure and proposes a set of measures to restore our national political will and improve funding mechanisms to rebuild and advance U.S. infrastructure.
 
This presentation details the results of extensive polling conducted by NDN and Benenson Strategy Group in October of 2007 on the American public's opinions about globalization and the changing economy.
 
NDN Poll: Americans’ Views of the Present and Future Economy - Anxiety and Opportunity 11/6/07: By Pete Brodnitz
NDN, a progressive think tank and advocacy organization, completed a national survey on the economy and globalization on October 15th. This memo is the second of two memos outlining key findings and analysis from the poll.
 
NDN Poll: Clamoring for Change, Persistent Pessimism, Democrats Dominating on Economic Issues
11/2/07: By Pete Brodnitz
NDN, a progressive think tank and advocacy organization, completed a national survey on the economy and globalization on October 15th. This is the first of two memos outlining key findings and analysis from the poll.

Tapping the Resources of America’s Community Colleges: 7/26/07: By Robert J. Shapiro

Young Americans are increasingly adept at working with computers, but many American workers still lack those skills. Here, we propose a direct new approach to giving U.S. workers the opportunity to develop those skills.

We can address the challenges of the 21st century economy without sacrificing the benefits of globalization and technological advance, principally by expanding public investments in critical areas and reforming health care and energy policies.
 
A Laptop in Every Backpack 5/1/07: By Simon Rosenberg
We believe that America needs to put a laptop in every backpack of every child. We need to commit to a date and grade certain: we suggest 2010 for every sixth grader.
 
Voters Deliver a Mandate for a New Economic Strategy 11/10/06: By Simon Rosenberg
The American people want the new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate to focus and pursue an aggressive strategy to help them and their families get ahead.
 
Crafting a Better CAFTA 6/9/05: By Simon Rosenberg
We believe that an agreement with Central America is so important to how Americans approach the 21st century that we must commit ourselves to help negotiate and pass a better CAFTA.

Major Events

Growing the Next Economy 12/7/11
On Wednesday, December 7th, NDN hosted the Director of Multi-State Initiatives in the Office of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and Karl Agne, a partner at GBA Strategies, for a lunchtime discussion about bottom up economic growth, accelerating the ideas that work, and creating the Next Economy. Joining us were 

A Look at Current Global & Domestic Economic Challenges 7/26/11
On Tuesday, July 26th NDN hosted a morning conversation about the economic challenges facing America and the world featuring views from the United States Senate, House and the British House of Commons.

Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco J Sanchez at NDN 4/26/11
On Tuesday, April 26, NDN hosted Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco J Sanchez. Sanchez was joined by NDN Globalization Initiative Chair and former Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs Dr. Robert Shapiro.

National Economic Council Deputy Director Jason Furman on Winning the Future 2/22/11
Following the release of the President's budget, Jason Furman, the Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council joined NDN for a discussion of the budget, the economy, and the President's strategy to make America competitive in the global economy of the 21st century.

Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Robert Hormats on Global Economic Challenges 11/15/10
On November 15, NDN hosted Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs Robert Hormats for an important address on global economic challenges.

US Ambassador to the OECD Karen Kornbluh on Jobs for the Future 7/27/10
On July 27, NDN hosted the United States' Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Karen Kornbluh. Ambassador Kornbluh, who previously served as Senator Barack Obama's Policy Director and as Deputy Chief of Staff at the Treasury Department, discussed a wide range of issues in creating "Growth and Jobs for the Future," from youth unemployment, to innovation, to U.S. engagement at the OECD.
 
On Wednesday, June 16, NDN hosted a speech by Congressman Ron Kind (WI-3), Vice-Chair of the New Democrat Coalition and Co-Chair of the NDC Task Force on Innovation and Competitiveness. Kind spoke about the value of innovation to the American economy and the recently released New Dem Agenda for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Kind was joined by NDN President Simon Rosenberg.
 
Fred Hochberg, Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Speaks at NDN. 6/10/10
On June 10 NDN hosted a speech from the Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank, Fred Hochberg, on the National Export Initiative and the work of the Export-Import Bank. NDN Globalization Initiative Chair Dr. Robert Shapiro moderated a discussion and Q&A following the Chairman's remarks.
 
Senator Mark Warner on Economic Competitiveness and Innovation 3/18/10
On Thursday, March 18, Senator Mark Warner joined NDN to address America's economic competitiveness in a rapidly changing global economy. He discussed the role of innovation in creating prosperity and offered his perspective on the Senate's work to craft a new economic strategy for America, which includes reforming the nation's health care and financial sectors.
 
FCIC Chairman Phil Angelides on “Examining Our Financial Past to Secure Our Economic Future” 2/2/10
On Tuesday, February 2, NDN hosted an address from Phil Angelides, Chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Formerly the Treasurer of the State of California, Mr. Angelides has been charged by Congress to lead the effort examining the causes of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. He discussed the commission's work, which began in earnest in February with much anticipated hearings. NDN Globalization Initiative Chair Dr. Robert Shapiro introduced Mr. Angelides and opened the event with contextual remarks.

Blogs

Visit the Globalization Initiative blog for more of our ongoing work.

Visit Globalization Initiative Chair Robert Shapiro's blog.

Visit Globalization Initiative Deputy Policy Director Jake Berliner's blog.

Invite Reminder: Mon, March 14th - Colombian Ambassador Gabriel Silva

On Monday, March 14th, at 12:30pm ET, NDN and the New Policy Institute will host a speech by the Colombian Ambassador to the United States, Gabriel Silva.  Mr. Silva, who first served as Ambassador to the United States from 1993-94, will discuss U.S.-Colombia relations and how Colombia is changing under President Santos.

Under the administration of President Santos, Colombia is forging a new path to prosperity, with policies promoting economic growth, national unity and social development. President Santos has also enacted reforms to protect human rights and provide relief to victims of violence.  Ambassador Silva will address topics such as the importance the importance of the extension of The Andean Trade Preferences, the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, Colombia’s role in sharing lessons in security, and new areas of cooperation such as energy and the environment.

 

The Latin America Policy Initiative (LAPI) is excited about this event and we hope that you will be able to join us.  Please be sure to RSVP now.  

 

Arizona's Hispanic Population Has Grown 46% Over The Last Ten Years

The Arizona Daily Star has an article up on new Census data which shows a huge growth in the Hispanic Population in Arizona over the last ten years. The full post can be seen here:

Census figures show Arizona's Hispanic population grew by more than 46 percent between 2000 and 2010.

Hispanics now make up nearly 30 percent of the state's residents, up from slightly more than 25 percent during the 2000 census. That's slightly below earlier estimates.

The state's white population fell to less than 60 percent, down from 65 percent in 2000.

The U.S. Census Bureau counted 6.39 million Arizonans last year, up from 5.13 million in 2000.

Hispanics made up 1.89 million of the population, up from 1.29 million a decade earlier. The state's white population grew from 3.38 million to 3.75 million, but its 14 percent growth rate failed to keep up with the

The census does not tally citizenship.

Invite Reminder: Mon, March 14th - Colombian Ambassador Gabriel Silva

On Monday, March 14th, at 12:30pm ET, NDN and the New Policy Institute will host a speech by the Colombian Ambassador to the United States, Gabriel Silva.  Mr. Silva, who first served as Ambassador to the United States from 1993-94, will discuss U.S.-Colombia relations and how Colombia is changing under President Santos.

Under the administration of President Santos, Colombia is forging a new path to prosperity, with policies promoting economic growth, national unity and social development. President Santos has also enacted reforms to protect human rights and provide relief to victims of violence.  Ambassador Silva will address topics such as the importance the importance of the extension of The Andean Trade Preferences, the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, Colombia’s role in sharing lessons in security, and new areas of cooperation such as energy and the environment.

The Latin America Policy Initiative (LAPI) is excited about this event and we hope that you will be able to join us.  Please be sure to RSVP now.  

While Obama Promotes US Interests Abroad, His Opponents Deny Reality At Home

Most of Washington is stuck "in what we call the reality-based community … people who believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That's not the way the world really works anymore. … When we act, we create our own reality.”  Karl Rove, 2004.

Rove’s famous comments came to mind this week as President Obama and his political rivals launched new policy offensives.  Hop-scotching across Asia, the President nudged the center of U.S. foreign policy towards international economic interests and concerns.   From Delhi and Jakarta to Seoul and Tokyo, he has focused on the predominant economic realities that inform the decision-making of our major allies and competitors.  In the process, he has begun to recast our critical relationships around issues that allow the United States to draw on its greatest advantages, a market four times larger than China’s, and our capacity to develop the advanced technologies and business methods driving modernization across the world. 

Back in Washington, congressional Republicans launched their own offensive, trumpeting their plans to use their majority in the House of Representatives and expanded numbers in the Senate.  But their agenda seems to draw less on the hard realities that drove most of those who went to the polls two weeks ago -- jobs and incomes – than on the full-throated ranting of the more extreme elements in their political base.  As if saying so will make it so, they are uniting around non-negotiable demands to repeal health care reform, cut taxes for high-income people, and slash domestic spending in unspecified ways.

These dueling offensives recall the 1990s even more than the Bush era.   Bill Clinton came to office on the heels of the collapse of global communism, and so happily refocused American foreign policy on international economic matters.  Barack Obama was less fortunate, with two wars and worldwide economic turmoil dominating his early foreign policies.  But less than two years later, the Iraq conflict is winding down, the Afghan war has a new course, and global markets are more stable.  So for now, he can concentrate on the economic concerns -- currency values, trade barriers, debt, and worldwide demand – that once again are central factors in our real relations with other nations.  And as in the 1990s, real movement on these international issues can help build a foundation for the progress on jobs and incomes at home that dominates the President’s domestic agenda.  

Appropriately, the President chose the world’s most economically-consequential region, Asia, to quietly launch his new foreign-policy offensive.  His agenda began with new commercial openings and investment arrangements with India and with Indonesia, two of the world’s fastest-growing and most protected large markets.  Next, he turned to the G-20 summit in Seoul, where he fended off Chinese criticism of our monetary stimulus and called for measures to address the global imbalances that set the stage for the 2008 global meltdown.   He will wind it up in Japan, the world’s third largest economy, where he will lead discussions on currency, trade and economic growth at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.   Whatever the outcomes of all of these meetings and agreements, the President is subtly shifting the focus of American influence to the real matters that drive our relationships with most other countries. 

Back home, economic reality for many of the President’s opponents – John Boehner is a lonely exception – is being redefined by the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.   Somehow, hundreds of billions of dollars will be cut from the budget without touching the defense programs and entitlement benefits which account for most spending.  Next, all of the Bush tax cuts must be extended forever, even in the face of the GOP’s sky-is-falling rhetoric on the deficits.   And any compromise on the tax cuts in the lame duck session, before they expire on December 31st, is off-the-table – despite GOP attacks on the President for allegedly fostering “economic uncertainty.”  Prominent Republicans this week also attacked the Federal Reserve’s “quantitative easing” program to support growth, as if the prescription for jobs and incomes in a weak economy is to end monetary as well as fiscal stimulus.   Ironically, this last offensive echoes China’s position that the new Fed policy will make U.S. exports “unfairly competitive.” 

These implacable opponents’ latest gambit involves the debt ceiling, which will come up in the early months of next year.  Some Republicans in both the House and Senate now threaten to block this normal procedure on the principal that’s already too high for their comfort, while others propose to let it go through only if the President agrees to $300 billion in budget savings – again without specifying any real cuts they would support.  This one is dangerous even as just a threat, since any serious suggestion that the United States might find itself legally unable to pay the interest on its’ Treasury notes and bonds would sharply drive up interest rates.  In the real world, that would cut off the fragile recovery and possibly send the entire world economy into a tailspin. 

Politics always involves a good deal of posturing and shenanigans.  But these escapades, at this moment, have real consequences, not least of all for millions of struggling Americans who apparently hope that divided government will restore their jobs.  By definition, divided government can produce the results that voters want only through reasonable compromise.  And much as when Newt Gingrich and his fantasy-fueled followers took power, if the radicals leading the offensive this time continue to deny that fact, they too will find themselves bested by a reality-based president. 

Time for a Mid-Course Correction in Economic Policy

The economic proposals unveiled this week by the Administration suggest that the President’s determination to target his policies for the long-term has led the White House to misread the economy today. Allowing firms to deduct their capital investments in the year they occur instead of slowly depreciating those costs, and expanding the R&D tax credit and making it permanent are measures that can help sustain growth once it returns, but they won’t lift the economy’s current faltering pace. To do that, they need a midcourse correction aimed directly at the economic distortions which brought down the economy and produced today’s abnormally slow and halting recovery. It’s time for presidential leadership and big initiatives, starting with the housing market.

Since 2009, when the White House famously forecast that strong growth would return this year and unemployment would top out at 8 percent, their program has relied on models and analyses that see the current period as part of a normal business cycle. If only that were so, because then the massive fiscal and monetary stimulus of the last 18 months would, indeed, have produced the robust V-shaped recovery they expected. But that isn’t the economic hand we’ve been dealt. Much like the sorry story of post-bubble Japan in the 1990s, the structural distortions in housing and finance which brought on our crisis remain largely unaffected by stimulus. While all that stimulus stopped our slide towards a depression, it was neither sufficiently large nor long-lasting to offset the structural problems.   

So, the banking system, still saddled with hundreds of billions of dollars in shaky mortgage-backed assets and fighting additional drag from falling values in commercial real estate and European debt, remains too weak and wary to resume normal lending to most businesses. The problems with housing have even more far-reaching effects for the recovery. With high unemployment dragging on – as it typically does following a financial crisis – housing foreclosures are stuck at three times normal levels, pulling down the value of most Americans’ homes. This continuing decline in housing values not only has left 23 percent of households with mortgages under water. It also continues to eat away at the net wealth of everyone who owns their own homes, producing a “negative wealth effect” that leaves most Americans, much like the banks, too financially weak and wary to resume normal spending.

Even if a second round of stimulus were possible politically, it wouldn’t cure these structural problems with any greater success than the first round. Until the administration and Congress tackle the forces holding down consumption spending and business lending – or wait another half-decade for this dismal cycle to run its course – the American economy will remain weak and unemployment high.  

A real opportunity here lies in a new approach to keep Americans in their homes and so help stabilize housing values. Subsidies for banks to rewrite troubled mortgages haven’t worked, because the approach glosses over the weakness of the banks and the way they conduct business. Even if these institutions were in better shape, very few bankers are willing to extend new credit to people who couldn’t keep up with their mortgages. Only a government can assume such risks.    

The best approach for this would be a new two part program aimed at housing and unemployment. The first part is a loan program, modeled on student loans, to help Americans with troubled mortgages. Those families could apply for five-to-ten year government loans to stave off foreclosures, with the repayment schedules linked to people’s incomes recovering. With many fewer foreclosures, housing values could stabilize and staunch the negative wealth effect now holding down consumption. The second part of the new program would reduce the cost to businesses of creating new jobs, by expanding and extending the administration’s modest cuts in an employer’s payroll taxes for new hires, the approach that CBO calls the most effective way to jumpstart job creation. Every new job will enable another family to earn the income needed to help keep up with their mortgage, further stabilizing housing values and so ultimately supporting consumption.

If the economy were poised to take off, the Administration’s proposals for another $50 billion in infrastructure spending and $200 billion in tax breaks for small businesses might help. Unhappily, that’s not the case. But the President has time to seize the opportunity to make a mid-course correction, and put in place the foundation for a strong recovery in, say, 2012.

Why the Value of Your House Moved Global Markets This Week

This week’s housing news was a primer on globalization. U.S. existing home sales fell 27 percent in July, twice as sharp a drop as Wall Street analysts said to expect. (Of course, they’re the same geniuses who didn’t see their own meltdown coming, didn’t expect the long, deep recession that followed, and couldn’t figure out that the recovery would be slow and halting.) Right away, our stock markets sank by one to two percent – no surprise there – but we weren’t alone. On Wednesday morning, the financial news led with “European Stocks Drop on Dismal U.S. Home Sales Data” and “Most (Asian) Stocks Fall Amid Speculation on U.S. Home Sales Report.”

Why does a bad report on American home sales rattle investors a half-world away? To be sure, housing is an important piece of every U.S. recovery. And the world pays close attention to ours, since we remain by far both the world’s largest market for imports and the place where most foreign multinationals maintain their subsidiaries. This time, however, there’s more at stake. Housing is both a lynchpin for a full recovery from the financial crisis that pushed most of the world to the brink of depression; and the key to something better than our current stumbling expansion.

The link to finance is straightforward. Everybody remembers how Wall Street’s largest institutions swooned or crashed when the end of the housing bubble brought down hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities and the credit default swaps that backed them up. But when Washington stepped in to rescue most of them, it took out its own risky bet that a housing recovery would quickly stop the bleeding. So we never seriously considered what Sweden did so successfully in the early 1990s – and what we did ourselves to resolve the S&L crisis: Take over an insolvent Bear Stearns, AIG or Merrill Lynch, pull out the weak and failed assets, and sell the still-healthy stuff to new investors who would promptly reopen the institution under a new name. And the bailouts didn’t even require that these institutions put their books back in order by getting rid of the most risky housing-based assets which they still held. 

The catch is that if the housing market continued to deteriorate – as it did – more of those assets would decline in value or fail outright. Those losses, current and prospective, leave finance much less willing to lend to most other companies. And that means that strong business investment, which is a critical part of all healthy expansions, this time will follow a housing recovery, not lead it.

There’s more at stake in the current housing market than the pace of business investment. Some 70 percent of U.S. households are homeowners, which makes housing values the most important piece, by far, of most Americans’ wealth and economic security. So, the sharp drop in those values has made most of Americans poorer than they had been, and, unsurprisingly, people who feel poorer tend to spend much less. The health of the housing market, in short, now directly affects both business investment and consumer spending, and with them the outlook for the entire U.S. recovery. 

It is little wonder that world markets reacted badly to this week’s dismal U.S. housing report.  Beyond the 27 percent drop in existing home sales – and one day later, sales of new homes also fell sharply – nearly one-third of the houses that did sell were “distressed” properties. That means they were either in foreclosure or sold for less than their outstanding mortgages. Average home prices did inch up a little bit, but the only reason was that the end of the temporary tax credit for first-time homebuyers led to a particularly sharp fall in their purchases, which normally involve lower-priced homes. 

Nor are there signs of a real housing recovery anytime soon.  Foreclosures are still running at four times their normal levels – and nothing drives down a neighborhood’s housing prices and slows down sales more than nearby homes in foreclosure. On top of that, supply continues to way outpace demand: At current rates of home sales, it would take over a year to clear all of the homes already on the market today.

If we don’t take serious steps to finally turn around these conditions, the United States and much of the rest of the world will be looking at a weak expansion, or worse, for several more years.  One measure that could have a powerful effect would be steps to bring foreclosure rates down to normal levels. For example, congressional Democrats could advance a new program modeled on student loans for homeowners with mortgages in trouble. Homeowners who qualify could borrow the funds they need to stay in their homes, at a low interest rate, with no interest due the first year so long as they stay in the homes for at least two more years.  

Most Republicans will denounce it as just another “big government program.” Yet, without a housing recovery, the alternative is not only smaller government but also a smaller economy, because businesses can’t find loans, people can’t find jobs, and most consumers  can’t spend like they used to.

Rob Shapiro on Fox News: What Would Reagan Do?

On Friday, Rob went on Fox News to discuss Reaganomics as a solution to our weak economy. Rob reminds us that we went through a period of tax cuts and deregulation without modification during the Bush administration, which resulted in the Great Recession and 92% of the job losses seen in this cycle. What we could do, however, is make cuts in the payroll tax for employers who expand their workforce.

Wednesday: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the American Economy with Rep. Ron Kind

The American economy has long been touted as the most innovative in the world, and American innovations have contributed broadly to domestic and global prosperity. The Great Recession and an increasingly competitive global economy make it imperative that the United States does more than ever to foster innovation and the creation and growth of new companies. Investing in innovation and the success of the American people must be a cornerstone of our strategy to create prosperity in the 21st century, idea-based economy.

In its recently released Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agenda, the New Democrat Coalition discusses innovation's central role in creating American prosperity. The agenda lays out a set of principles, mated with specific policies, for fostering innovation. 

On Wednesday, June 16, NDN will host a speech by Congressman Ron Kind (WI-3), Vice-Chair of the New Democrat Coalition and Co-Chair of the NDC Task Force on Innovation and Competitiveness. Kind will speak about the value of innovation to the American economy and the recently released New Dem Agenda for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Kind will be joined by NDN President Simon Rosenberg.

June 16 @ 12pm
NDN - 729 15th St NW, First Floor
Washington, DC 
Click here to RSVP 
A live webcast will begin at 12:15

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the American Economy with Rep. Ron Kind

The American economy has long been touted as the most innovative in the world, and American innovations have contributed broadly to domestic and global prosperity. The Great Recession and an increasingly competitive global economy make it imperative that the United States does more than ever to foster innovation and the creation and growth of new companies. Investing in innovation and the success of the American people must be a cornerstone of our strategy to create prosperity in the 21st century, idea-based economy.

In its recently released Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agenda, the New Democrat Coalition discusses innovation's central role in creating American prosperity. The agenda lays out a set of principles, mated with specific policies, for fostering innovation. 

On Wednesday, June 16, NDN hosted a speech by Congressman Ron Kind (WI-3), Vice-Chair of the New Democrat Coalition and Co-Chair of the NDC Task Force on Innovation and Competitiveness. Kind spoke about the value of innovation to the American economy and the recently released New Dem Agenda for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Kind was joined by NDN President Simon Rosenberg.

Location

NDN Event Space
729 15th St. NW
Washington, DC 20005
United States

The Impact of Immigration and Immigration Reform On the Wages of American Workers

Publish Date: 
5/26/10

Today, the New Politics Institute (NPI) is proud to release an economic report on the impact of immigration and comprehensive immigration reform on the wages of the American worker. The report written by NPI Fellow and Former Under Secretary of Commerce Dr. Robert J. Shapiro, presents an accurate portrait of America's immigrant population, dispels certain misconceptions about American Immigration and offers economic analysis regarding the impact of immigration, and proposed immigration reforms on wages and the economy. This report offers a much needed look at the intersection of America's economy and immigration system.

Below is a link to to the paper, after the executive summary there is an appendix which highlights some of the more pertinent information from the paper and Rob has blogged on the paper here.

Paper: The Impact of Immigration and Immigration Reform on the Wages of American Workers

Executive Summary

As the debate on comprehensive immigration reform has been rejoined, alarming amounts of misinformation are being presented as facts.  This report corrects some of this misinformation by reviewing the empirical evidence and evaluating the real economic effects of the recent waves of immigrants into the United States by analyzing the role of immigrants in our labor markets and economy.

This report presents an accurate portrait of our immigrant population, dispels misconceptions about undocumented immigrants, and reviews the evidence and analysis regarding the wage and other economic effects of both immigration and reforms to provide undocumented immigrants a path to legal status.

  • Immigration Population Demographics: More than one-third of recent immigrants come from Asia and Europe, while less than 57 percent come from Mexico and Latin America. A substantially larger share of immigrants than native-born Americans lack a high school diploma; but roughly equal shares of both groups -- between 28 percent and 30 percent - hold college or graduate degrees, and more than half of immigrants from Asia are college-educated or better.
  • Misconceptions about Undocumented Immigrants: Two-thirds of immigrants are naturalized citizens or legal permanent resident aliens, 4 percent have legal status as temporary migrants, and 30 percent are undocumented. While undocumented male immigrants are generally low-skilled, they also have the highest labor participation rates in the nation: Among men age 18 to 64 years, 94 percent of undocumented immigrants work or actively seek work, compared to 83 percent of native-born Americans, and 85 percent of immigrants with legal status.
  • Economic Analysis on the Impact of Immigration on Wages: A careful review shows that high levels of immigration have not slowed overall wage gains by average, native-born American workers. Most studies suggest that recent waves of new immigrants are associated with increases in the average wage of native-born Americans in the short-run and with even larger increases in the long term as capital investment rises to take account of the larger number of workers.
  • The Wage Impact of Reforms to Provide a Path to Legal Status for Undocumented Immigrants: The largest effects of such reforms would be felt by immigrants themselves: After the 1986 immigration reforms, wages rose by 6 percent to 15 percent for previously-undocumented male immigrants and by 21 percent for previously-undocumented female immigrants. Those reforms also increased wages of previously legal immigrants. Research also suggests that those reforms led to modest wage gains by native-born Americans.
  • Other Economic Effects of Immigration: Studies have found that immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start new businesses than native-born Americans; and even immigrants without high school diplomas, who account for 31 percent of all immigrants, comprise 27 percent of immigrant business owners. Various analyses of the fiscal effects of immigration have produced mixed results on the state and local levels; but studies show that immigrants have a net positive effect on the federal budget. Moreover, immigration reform would enhance these positive fiscal effects by indirectly raising the taxable incomes of immigrants and others.
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