scholarly journals US Manufacturing: Understanding Its Past and Its Potential Future

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Neil Baily ◽  
Barry P. Bosworth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Trade Deficit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Absolute Level ◽  
Total Employment ◽  
Future Evolution ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us

The development of the US manufacturing sector over the last half-century displays two striking and somewhat contradictory features: 1) the growth of real output in the US manufacturing sector, measured by real value added, has equaled or exceeded that of total GDP, keeping the manufacturing share of the economy constant in price-adjusted terms; and 2) there is a long-standing decline in the share of total employment attributable to manufacturing. The persistence of these trends seems inconsistent with stories of a recent or sudden crisis in the US manufacturing sector. After all, as recently as 2010, the United States had the world's largest manufacturing sector measured by its valued-added, and while it has now been surpassed by China, the United States remains a very large manufacturer. On the other hand, there are some potential causes for concern. First, though manufacturing's output share of GDP has remained stable over 50 years, and manufacturing retains a reputation as a sector of rapid productivity improvements, this is largely due to the spectacular performance of one subsector of manufacturing: computers and electronics. Second, recently there has been a large drop in the absolute level of manufacturing employment that many find alarming. Third, the US manufacturing sector runs an enormous trade deficit, equaling $460 billion in 2012, which is also very concentrated in trade with Asia. Finally, we consider the future evolution of the manufacturing sector and its importance for the US economy. Many of the largest US corporations continue to shift their production facilities overseas. It is important to understand why the United States is not perceived to be an attractive base for their production.

Immigration in American Economic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 100-118
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Ferrie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Initial Settlement ◽  
The Impact

Immigration has been a powerful force is the US economy right from the period of initial settlement in the early seventeenth century. It has been instrumental in building the nation’s infrastructure, transforming its manufacturing sector, and growing its labor force, as it transferred human capital from where it was initially generated (abroad) to where it was productively employed (the United States). This chapter surveys the impact on the economy, on the immigrants themselves, and on the Americans they joined in four eras: (1) settlement (1600s–1700s); (2) the first “Great Wave” (1800–1890); (3) the second “Great Wave” (1890–1920s); and (4) the post-1965 period.

US financial flows are as important to growth as trade

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Current Account ◽  
Trade Deficit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Economic Policy ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Transactions

Subject Exploring the US current account beyond goods trade. Significance The US administration is focusing on the goods trade deficit to measure how well the country is doing in international transactions and to determine foreign economic policy. However, this ignores the many other transactions that cross the nation’s borders. For example, the United States is the world’s largest exporter of services. Moreover, trade is just one part of the current account, which also includes investment income and labour compensation. Financial flows are also important, dominating advanced countries international transactions since the 1980s and driving US exchange rates, trade balances and national savings. Impacts A permanently higher dollar due to the desire of investors to buy US assets will keep the US goods balance in deficit despite trade policy. The US economy is services-driven -- trade in services will grow as a share of US international transactions. An undue focus on manufacturing and goods trade places the US economy at risk of higher costs and slower productivity gains and GDP growth. To meet and diversify demand to invest in the United States, new safe assets including infrastructure bonds may emerge to fund projects.

Rethinking U.S. National Security after Covid19

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda J. Bilmes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Defense Spending ◽  
Federal Spending ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military

AbstractThe United States has traditionally defined national security in the context of military threats and addressed them through military spending. This article considers whether the United States will rethink this mindset following the disruption of the Covid19 pandemic, during which a non-military actor has inflicted widespread harm. The author argues that the US will not redefine national security explicitly due to the importance of the military in the US economy and the bipartisan trend toward growing the military budget since 2001. However, the pandemic has opened the floodgates with respect to federal spending. This shift will enable the next administration to allocate greater resources to non-military threats such as climate change and emerging diseases, even as it continues to increase defense spending to address traditionally defined military threats such as hypersonics and cyberterrorism.

scholarly journals Bad Biocitizens?: Latinos and the US "Obesity Epidemic"

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Greenhalgh ◽  
Megan Carney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Normal Weight ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Let's Move

For years now, the United States has faced an "obesity epidemic" that, according to the dominant narrative, is harming the nation by worsening the health burden, raising health costs, and undermining productivity. Much of the responsibility is laid at the foot of Blacks and Latinos, who have higher levels of obesity. Latinos have provoked particular concern because of their rising numbers. Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Campaign is now targeting Latinos. Like the national anti-obesity campaign, it locates the problem in ignorance and calls on the Latino community to "own" the issue and take personal responsibility by embracing healthier beliefs and behaviors. In this article, we argue that this dominant approach to obesity is misguided and damaging because it ignores the political-economic sources of Latino obesity and the political-moral dynamics of biocitizenship in which the issue is playing out. Drawing on two sets of ethnographic data on Latino immigrants and United States-born Latinos in southern California, we show that Latinos already "own" the obesity issue; far from being "ignorant," they are fully aware of the importance of a healthy diet, exercise, and normal weight. What prevents them from becoming properly thin, fit biocitizens are structural barriers associated with migration and assimilation into the low-wage sector of the US economy. Failure to attain the normative body has led them to internalize the identity of bad citizens, assume personal responsibility for their failure, naturalize the conditions for this failure, and feel that they deserve this fate. We argue that the blaming of minorities for the obesity epidemic constitutes a form of symbolic violence that furthers what Berlant calls the "slow death" of structurally vulnerable populations, even as it deepens their health risks by failing to address the fundamental sources of their higher weights.

How Prevalent is Performance-Related Pay in the United States? Current Incidence and Recent Trends

2013 ◽  
Vol 226 ◽  
pp. R4-R16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maury Gittleman ◽  
Brooks Pierce
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Wage ◽  
Potential Explanation ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Current Incidence

We address basic questions about performance-related pay in the US. How widespread is it? What characteristics of employers and jobs are associated with it? What are recent trends in its incidence? What factors are responsible for these trends? Nearly two-fifths of hours worked in the US economy in 2013 were in jobs with performance-related pay, but this share has been declining. We consider several possible causes for this trend and find that they do not have much explanatory power. We do establish, however, that any potential explanation must also account for a long-term shift in the relative incidence of performance-related pay away from low-wage and toward high-wage jobs.

scholarly journals The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995–2015

ILR Review ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 382-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence F. Katz ◽  
Alan B. Krueger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Alternative Work Arrangements ◽  
Independent Contractors ◽  
Contract Workers ◽  
Work Arrangements ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
Contingent Worker ◽  
The Us ◽  
Alternative Work

To monitor trends in alternative work arrangements, the authors conducted a version of the Contingent Worker Survey as part of the RAND American Life Panel in late 2015. Their findings point to a rise in the incidence of alternative work arrangements in the US economy from 1995 to 2015. The percentage of workers engaged in alternative work arrangements—defined as temporary help agency workers, on-call workers, contract workers, and independent contractors or freelancers—rose from 10.7% in February 2005 to possibly as high as 15.8% in late 2015. Workers who provide services through online intermediaries, such as Uber or TaskRabbit, accounted for 0.5% of all workers in 2015. Of the workers selling goods or services directly to customers, approximately twice as many reported finding customers through off-line intermediaries than through online intermediaries.

US protectionism would raise trade costs worldwide

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Trade Deficit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Final Demand ◽  
Services Trade ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Commerce Department ◽  
Firing Line

Subject Exposure to US final demand. Significance The Commerce Department reported on March 7 that the US goods trade deficit widened to 69.7 billion dollars in January after a five-year high of 4% of GDP last year. The new administration has threatened to build a wall along the Mexican border, impose punitive tariffs on countries it runs a goods deficit with and label China a currency manipulator. Other countries also rely on US demand -- through goods and services trade, investment and remittances. Impacts In the unlikely event that Trump follows through on all his most extreme trade threats, the world could plunge into recession. Evidence does not support the new administration's view that free trade has damaged the US economy and the fortunes of its workforce. The WTO is reviewing several cases the previous US administration began against China -- extreme escalation could trigger US WTO withdrawal. Germany is the only G7 country that the United States runs both a goods and services trade deficit with, placing it in the firing line.

scholarly journals FOREIGN TRADE SPATIAL DYNAMICS AND PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (196) ◽  
pp. 17-25
Author(s):  
V.N. Minat ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Agricultural Exports ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World

As part of the study of agricultural production, as one of the leading export-oriented sectors of the US economy, the dynamics of foreign trade in American agricultural products, which is objectively recognizable in the categorical and economic evolution of spatial patterns, is considered. The latter are considered in the context of the global regional structure of agricultural exports and imports of the United States in 1946–2019 and the features of stimulating the export of American agricultural products in the context of the main regions and countries of the world for the same period of time. Based on the synthesis of historical/evolutionary and spatial approaches, methodologically filled with methods of abstract-logical and statistical-economic analysis of official American statistics, the provisions on geo-economic conjuncture, expansionism and protectionism of US foreign trade in the world/global agricultural market are empirically proved.

scholarly journals Statistical Analysis of the Performance of a Big and Open Economy: The Case of the U.S.

2018 ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
O. V. Zhuravliov ◽  
О. М. Simachova
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Macroeconomic Indicators ◽  
The Impact

The US economy is one of the richest and most diversified economies in the world and keeps its leadership in the global economy for the past 100 years. The United States is a global leader in computer technology, pharmaceuticals and the manufacture of medical, aerospace and military equipment. And although services make up about 80% of GDP, the US remains the second largest producer of industrial goods in the world and is a leader in research and development. President Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, promising a big gap with his predecessor’s regulatory, tax and trade policies. Therefore, the current socio-economic status of the USA and the possible ways of its development in the future are interesting for studying the impact on other economies, in particular, on the Ukrainian economy and the search for new and optimal ways of developing relations between the United States and Ukraine. Key macroeconomic indicators of the US economy in 2011–2018 are analyzed, demonstrating the influence of Donald Tramp’s new policy on changes in the indicators of the economy, the labor market, trade, etc., as well as possible ways of development in the coming years. The review of key macroeconomic indicators gives grounds for classifying the American economy as healthy one. Rates of GDP growth will remain in the range of 2 to 3%. These rates of growth in the world’s largest economy are callable to ensure a substantial increase in the global activity. But uncertainties in the politics may hinder global growth and have clearly negative impact on the investment growth in developed and developing economies.

scholarly journals Migration Research and Policy in the United States

2019 ◽  
pp. 146-166
Author(s):  
Philip Martin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Policy Maker ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Economic Output ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
Migration Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
Research And Policy

US researchers have reached more consensus on the number and characteristics of migrants than on their socio-economic impacts, especially with regard to unauthorized migrants. When there is consensus among social scientists on some aspect of migration, such as the additional economic output due to the presence of migrants, this consensus result suggests very different policies for advocates. For example, the finding that the US economy may have been up to $10 billion larger in the 1990s due to migrants was touted by advocates of more migrants as proof of their benefits, and criticized by those favouring less migration as the equivalent of two weeks economic growth. President Trump is an example of a policy-maker selectively using migration research to justify restrictionist policies.

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