GDAE on the Move
On November 9-11, 2006 GDAE sponsored a conference on "Growth vs. Sustainability? Economic Responses to Ecological Challenges" at the Pocantico Conference Center in Tarrytown, NYconference. This conference brought together scientists, economists and civil society activists from the global South and North for a discussion of alternatives to current theories of economic growth. It started from the assumption that we all share the goal of changing human behavior to reduce ongoing damage to the ecosystem, but that our understanding of the interactions between human economic behavior and the natural world lacks a credible and adequate picture of the appropriate macroeconomic goals and macroeconomic changes required for movement toward a socially and environmentally just and sustainable macroeconomy. The economists present were individuals who have each been pushing against a theoretic frontier: the limits of what macroeconomics as now conceived can offer to help in meeting the environmental challenges of the 21st century. These limits were vividly described by the scientists and activists, especially with reference to the problems felt in the global South. The economists accepted a new definition for their task – to create a climate-centered macroeconomic narrative – and emerged feeling that real progress had been made towards delineating such a narrative. This will inform the macroeconomics textbook and other educational materials being written by GDAE researchers, as well as the work and thinking of other participants at the conference. Learn more about the conference on the conference web page: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Conference2006.html
Frank Ackerman, Director of the Research and Policy Program at GDAE and GDAE researcher Liz Stanton, authored a new report, “Climate Change: The Costs of Inaction,” which was released in the UK on October 13, 2006 by Friends of the Earth. The report details the high and mounting costs of allowing climate change to continue, reviewing the full range of recent literature on climate damages and making the case for immediate action. The GDAE report, together with a companion piece from British researchers on policy options, forms the basis for a Friends of the Earth campaign calling for immediate, large-scale mitigation measures. The report received considerable press coverage around the world. The report and press coverage can be viewed on the GDAE web site at: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/CostsofInaction.html
Kevin Gallagher, Senior Researcher at GDAE, traveled to Geneva, Switzerland on October 19-20, 2006 to conduct a workshop on the developmental impacts of global trade rules for lead WTO negotiators from the world's poorest countries. The event was sponsored by new GDAE research and policy partner, The South Centre.
Neva R. Goodwin, Co-Director of GDAE presented the 2006 Leontief Prize to Dr. Juliet Schor and Dr. Samuel Bowles, who spoke on the topic “Economics for an Imperfect World: Building on the Galbraith Legacy." The event, held in Ballou Hall on October 5, featured introductory remarks by President Bacow and was attended by Kitty Galbraith, Richard Parker, Dean Lynne Pepall, and others. More about the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought can be found on the GDAE web site at: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/about_us/leontief.html. On October 15 Dr. Goodwin spoke at a plenary session, “Toward Good Societies: The Policy Agenda,” as part of a conference at Harvard’s Kennedy School on “John Kenneth Galbraith and the Future of Liberalism.” The conference was concluded with a dinner at which Robert Solow spoke inspiringly about what he and John Kenneth Galbraith have in common. The nine speakers on two panels included Leontief Prize winners Robert Frank, Juliet Schor, and Amartya Sen.
Julie Nelson, Senior Research Associate at GDAE, recently published a new book, Economics for Humans, in which she refutes the theories that teach us that our economic lives are somehow separate from our moral values and our human relationships. Dr. Nelson will be speaking on her bookat The Harvard Bookstore's Friday Forum on November 3, 2006.
Timothy A. Wise, Deputy Director of GDAE, presented his new paper, "State of Emergency for Mexican Maize: Protecting Agro-biodiversity by Promoting Rural Livelihoods," at a conference hosted by El Colegio de Michoacan in Michoacan, Mexico, October 25-27, 2006. The conference, "All Colors of Maize: An Agenda for the Mexican Countryside," brought together experts from across Mexico to assess the policy options at Mexico's disposal to address the NAFTA-induced crisis for its three million maize farmers.
Timothy A. Wise presented on Mexico's experience under NAFTA in a Washington consultation held by the EcoFair Trade Dialogue, a multi-year international effort to develop new approaches to international agricultural trade rules on September 12, 2006. The Heinrich Boell Foundation-funded workshop discussed a new set of draft proposals developed by its expert panel.
Neva R. Goodwin spoke at the Americans for Informed Democracy conference
organized by the Harvard Global Educators Conference
on Saturday, March 11, 2006. Note was taken of the fact that
Tufts provided the expertise for the morning panel,
“Current Issues in the U.S. Role in the World,”
where the speakers included Dr. Goodwin as well as:
The Honorable Antonia Handler Chayes, Visiting Professor
of International Politics and Law at the Fletcher School
of Law and Diplomacy (formerly a Dean at Tufts, among
her many distinguished posts); and Dr. Carsten Kowalczyk,
Associate Professor of International Economics at the
Fletcher School. The purpose of the conference was to
encourage the next generation of teachers to see global
issues as an essential part of educating students, and
to suggest how they can integrate global tools into
their classrooms. The session, attended by about 75
educators (K-12, but mostly high-school), took place
at the Askwith Forum in Longfellow Hall at Harvard.
Timothy A.Wise presented at the annual meetings of UCEA Global
Associates, a group of about 35 universities among the
425 member institutions of UCEA that are heavily involved
in international education, in Washington D.C. from
February 9-10, 2006. This year's annual meeting had ‘Revisiting
Globalization’ as one of the two areas of focus
for the group. Mr. Wise joined Jeffrey Schott of the
Institute for International Economics as a guest speaker
for the morning session on February 10. Mr. Wise also participated in a Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO) workshop in Rome on February
2-3. During the workshop on "WTO Rules for Agriculture
Compatible with Development," Mr. Wise served as
a discussant for a session on "General Issues on
Agricultural Trade and Development."
Frank Ackerman led a panel on Economics for Health and the
Environment at the Allied Social Sciences Association's
annual conference in Boston on January 6, 2006. The
panel included Dr. Ackerman’s talk on “The
Unbearable Lightness of Regulatory Costs: Interpreting
the Economic Impacts of REACH,” as well as presentations
by Marilyn Power of Sarah Lawrence College, GDAE’s
Kevin P. Gallagher and Timothy A. Wise, and James K.
Boyce of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Jonathan Harris presented at a
panel on Rethinking Economic Theory at the Allied Social
Sciences Association’s annual conference in Boston
on January 6, 2006. Dr. Harris’s paper on “Reconciling
Radical and Ecological Perspectives on Macroeconomic
Policy” was accompanies by presentations by Dr.
Frederic Lee of the University of Missouri-Kansas City,
Dr. James G. Devine of Loyola Marymount University,
and Dr. Frank Thompson of the University of Michigan.
Dr. Harris also attended a spin-off conference on economics
pedagogy at which two of the featured speakers, Dr.
Julie Matthaei and Dr. Shyamala Raman, recommended GDAE’s
textbook Microeconomics in Context.
Kevin P. Gallagher and Timothy A. Wise attended the WTO meetings in Hong
Kong December 13-18, 2005 to present GDAE’s research
on the social, economic, and environmental impacts of
trade liberalization. They presented to negotiators
during the meetings themselves and in parallel NGO forums
taking place in Hong Kong. They released several new
GDAE new publications relevant to the negotiations,
including "The Doha Round's Development Impacts:
Shrinking Gains and Real Costs," by Dr. Gallagher
and Mr. Wise which has been published as a RIS Policy
Brief. Read more
about their WTO articles and reports.
Julie Nelson gave a presentation on "Feminist Economics
and Caring Labor," based on her joint work with
Dr. Nancy Folbre at the Economics Department at Williams
College on Tuesday, December 13, 2005.
Jonathan Harris participated in a
panel December 7, 2005 on "Globalization and Our
Children's Future" sponsored by the Massachusetts
Council on Economic Education and Primary Source, a
professional development program for primary and high
school teachers. The other presenters included Prof.
Thomas Gottschang of Holy Cross and Prof. Gary Jefferson
of Brandeis University. Jonathan was invited to discuss
resource and environmental issues. Teachers were also
interested in GDAE's educational materials, and the
organizers of the program are working on plans for more
programs on environmental issues.
On June 27, Frank Ackerman testified
before the Massachusetts Legislature's Joint Committee
on Energy and Natural Resources, in support of the Act
for a Healthy Massachusetts. The committee members seemed
sympathetic to the numerous supporters of the act, organized
by the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow (AHT).
On June 24-25, 2005, Neva
R. Goodwin attended the conference of the Russian
Society for Ecological Economics in St. Petersburg.
The location was the faculty of economics at Saint Petersburg
State University. Dr. Goodwin gave a talk called
“What Economics
Courses Don’t Teach – But Should,”
summarizing some topics that are dealt with in the Russian
edition of Microeconomics in Context that are
not adequately covered in standard texts. To
read Dr. Goodwin's presentation in English or Russian,
click here.
Julie A. Nelson presented a paper entitled
“The Globalization Disconnect: Feminist
Discussions of Economic Systems Across the Disciplines”
at the annual conference of the International Association
for Feminist Economics, Washington DC, June 17-19th
2005.
On Tuesday May 3, 2005, Julie A. Nelson
presented her work on "Freedom, Reason
and More: Feminist Economics and Human Development"
at the Political Economy seminar at
the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Julie A. Nelson traveled to Stanford
University April 27-30 2005 to present a paper
at a conference on “Rational Choice Theory
and the Humanities.” Her presentation
was entitled “Rationality and Humanity: A View
from Feminist Economics.” Other speakers at this
small conference included Kenneth Arrow, Jon Elster,
and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
GDAE Co-Director, Neva Goodwin, Research
Associate Rachel Massey, and Program
Coordinator, Minona
Heaviland, attended the April
2005 Ceres Conference, "Building Equity,
Reducing Risk" on environmentally responsible
business practices. Over 400 participants, representing
businesses, investors, labor unions, government, media,
universities, environmental, religious and other public
interest groups, also attended
the meeting which offered an opportunity for multi-sector
dialogue on sustainable business practices. Neva
also attended the Ceres board meeting before the conference.
Research Associate Rachel Massey participated
in a national strategy conference on pesticide problems,
sponsored by the National Coalition Against
the Misuse of Pesticides in April 2005.
Senior Research Associate Kevin Gallagher
was in The Hague in January 2005,
participating in a workshop sponsored by the International
Institute for Sustainable Development, that focused on creating a model international
investment agreement for sustainable development.
Neva Goodwin and Julie Nelson
attended the American Economics Association
(AEA) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia
in January 2005. Neva
was a discussant at one ASE session, and presented her
paper on Wal-Mart at another. Three publishers have
asked for a book on the subject. Neva
also tended the booth for ICAPE
(International Confederation Of Associations For Pluralism
In Economics), attended the members' meeting
for ICAPE, and voted in a new president of the organization.
Julie attended editorial board meetings for the Journal
of Economic Methodology, Review of Social Economy, and
Feminist Economics. The people
at the Houghton Mifflin booth reported considerable
interest in Microeconomics
in Context textbook, now making its first
national meeting debut! Julie will also be cooperating
on a book for high school economics teachers during
the coming year, and used the meetings to talk with
the likely publisher (M.E. Sharpe).
Timpthy A. Wise spoke on
December 11, 2004 at a
Boston commemoration of International Human
Rights Day. The conference, titled "Workers'
Rights are Human Rights," was at Boston
Public Library. Tim will speak on "Globalization
and Human Rights in Agriculture" as part
of the morning panel on "Globalizing Production,
Globalizing Human Rights."
Kevin Gallagher was the featured speaker
at a workshop titled "WTO and the Environment"
at the Danish Institute for International Development
in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 6 and 7, 2004.
In November 2004, Frank Ackerman spoke
on recycling at a conference in Japan organized by the
Science Council of Japan, on the problems
of Asian cities in the 21st-century.
Kevin Gallagher and Tim A. Wise, Research
Assistant Muriel Calo, and Research
Assistant Melissa Birch each presented
papers at the New England Council of Latin American
Studies conference on November 6, 2004. Kevin,
Tim and Muriel were on a panel on globalization and
the environment, with Kevin presenting his book findings,
Tim offering his analysis of corn and coffee in
Mexico
based on his book, and Muriel presenting new work on
sustainable coffee in Mexico, which incorporated some of the work she
did in Mexico
last summer. Kevin and Melissa then presented on a panel
chaired by Eva Paus on foreign investment. Kevin unveiled
some of his Guadalajara research, while Melissa presented
their joint work on the determinants of FDI and the
extent to which investment treaties actually bring foreign
investment.
GDAE Co-Director Neva Goodwin spoke
at the 15th Annual Social Investment Forum -
SRI in the Rockies in Keystone, Colorado, October, 2004. Read a transcript of her talk "What
You Didn’t Learn in Ec 101".
Research Associate Brian Roach taught
"Environmental Economics and Policy" (EC30) at the
Tufts campus in Talloires, France,
June-July 2004
. The class took a field trip
to Geneva
to visit various environmental organizations including
the United Nations Environment Programme and the International
Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. The Tufts
in Talloires program extends well beyond the classroom
- numerous organized activities create an informal and
congenial atmosphere where students and faculty interact
on both a professional and personal level.
Theory and Education Program Director Jonathan
Harris taught a module on Economics of Sustainable
Development at the University of
the Middle East Sustainable Development Institute,
held in Toledo,
Spain in July, 2004. The Institute
enrolled 26 students from 9 Middle Eastern countries.
The program participants are actively involved in environmental
policy issues in their home countries either under government
or NGO auspices. Topics covered included population
policy, sustainable agriculture, water and park management,
and applying "green GDP" analysis to Middle Eastern
countries.
Also
during July, 2004 Julie Nelson
taught a short course on "Feminism and Economics"
at the University of the Republic, Montevideo,
Uruguay.
Attended by about 15 students and researchers, the six-day
course covered feminist critiques of economic models
and methods as well as issues in the economics of households,
labor markets, and care. Support for the course was
provided by the University of the Republic, the Fulbright
Senior Specialists program, and the U.S. Embassy in
Montevideo.
GDAE researchers presented several papers at the 2004
International Society for Ecological Economics
conference in Montréal in July. Tim Wise
and Kevin Gallagher, together with
Brazilian colleagues Luciana Togeiro de Almeida and
Carlos Eduardo Frickmann Young, presented a symposium
on Globalization and Environment in the Americas (see
report).
Jonathan Harris gave a paper on Reorienting
Macroeconomics towards Environmental Sustainability,
drawing on the recent book New
Thinking in Macroeconomics: Social, Institutional, and
Environmental Perspectives
(Harris and Goodwin eds., Edward Elgar Publishing,
2004).
Julie Nelson organized a session on
"Feminism, Economics and Religion"
at the 2004 International Association for Feminist
Economics conference in Oxford, UK
in August. At the session, she presented her paper "Beyond
Small-Is-Beautiful: A Buddhist
and Feminist Analysis of Ethics and Business."
"Globalization and the Environment: Lessons
from the Americas," a new report from
the GDAE-sponsored Working
Group on Development and Environment in the Americas, was launched at "Globalization
and the Environment: Implications for CAFTA and Beyond",
July 15, Brookings Institute, Washington,
DC. This
event was co-sponsored by the Boell Foundation with
the Sustainable Development Unit of the Organization
of American States, . GDAE's
Kevin Gallagher and Timothy
Wise joined Working Group members Luciana Togeiro
from Brazil and Carlos Murillo from Costa Rica in presenting
their comprehensive
study of the environmental impacts of trade liberalization
in the Western Hemisphere. For more on the Working Group,
or to download the report, go to: http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/WorkingGroup.htm
|
