On the topic of globalization and economic integration, I want to address five subjects: The first is the extent of global integration that has taken place and that lies in prospect. The second is the broad case for economic integration and why domestic and global efforts to promote that case...

What is the greatest single class of distortions in the global economy? One contender for this title is the tightly binding constraints on emigration from poor countries. Vast numbers of people in low-income countries want to emigrate from those countries but cannot. How large are the economic...

This paper seeks to review how globalization might explain the recent trends in real and relative wages in the United States. We begin with an overview of what is new during the last 10-15 years in globalization, productivity, and patterns of U.S. earnings. To preview our results, we then work...

This paper reviews the theoretical functions, history, and policy problems raised by the international capital market. The goal is to offer a perspective on both the considerable advantages the market offers and on the genuine hazards it poses, as well as on avenues through which it constrains...

The European Council's Maastricht Agreement maps out a precise route to monetary union and the eventual introduction of a common currency. My discussion begins with a look at the general arguments for and against monetary union. I shall then discuss the proposed constitution of the European...

The United States has long enjoyed a unique position of economic supremacy. By the early 1990s, however, almost everyone believed that the age of U.S. supremacy was nearing its end. Circa 1992 few people would have dared to suggest that a second "American Century" might be in prospect. At the...

EMU would be an economic liability. A single currency would cause, at most, small trade and investment gains but would raise average cyclical unemployment and possibly raise inflation, perpetuate structural unemployment, and increase the risk of protectionism. EMU is nevertheless being pursued...

The benefits of international economic integration come with strings attached: international markets get greater say about the way national economies are managed and their wealth is distributed. The papers in the symposium that follow address these questions: how much globalization is there; how...

The current account deficit of the United States has been large in recent years, both in absolute size and relative to GDP. In 2006, it reached $811 billion, 6.1 percent of GDP. It has become a dominant feature of the world economy; if you sum up the current account deficits of all nations that...

The goal of the '"1992" program is to complete by January 1, 1993, what the European Community set out to do in 1957: create a common market with a free flow of goods, services, labor, and capital. If the program is completed, the twelve member countries of the Community will form a common...