Andrew Glyn

Still Underwhelmed: Indicators of Globalization and Their Misinterpretation

Globalization is widely misinterpreted. In particular Its quantitative extent and novelty are exaggerated. This article aims to put the facts in historical and statistical perspective. It criticizes the use of inappropriate statistical measures, conclusions drawn from little data, and the failure to make historical comparisons, or to see counter-globalization tendencies and limits to globalization. The best measures suggest that globalization is neither so new nor so great as is often supposed. The political implications of this argument are briefly explored.

Convergence and Stability in U.S. Employment Rates

Since the seminal work of Blanchard and Katz, it has been widely believed that interstate migration causes state-level employment rates in the United States to revert rapidly to normal following a regional employment shock. This paper identifies two sources of bias in conventional estimates of the dynamics of regional labor markets: small sample bias stemming from the use of short time series, and measurement error in survey based series for employment status at the state level. Estimates that use more reliable series and correct for these biases suggest little or no mean reversion in state-level employment rates. Thus the perception that U.S. regional labor markets are highly flexible appears to be incorrect.

Does Wage Flexibility Really Create Jobs

But does the record of the 1980s and 1990s really bear this out? The evidence clearly demonstrates that this is not the case. This article first reviews the facts in a wide range of Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members. This involves some tricky issues concerning how best to measure the employment disadvantage of the least educated. Then it examines what systematic influences can explain the differing experiences of OECD member countries and particularly

John Harrison, socialist teacher and writer:

John Harrison, socialist economist, has died aged 57. A gifted teacher, he gave bold, lucid talks on political economy for non-economists during the Thatcher years, reaching an audience that would normally shun the dismal science and its dour practitioners.