Data, New Technologies, and Global Imbalances

Data, New Technologies, and Global Imbalances

Author: Georges Kotrotsios

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2021-03-03

Total Pages: 123

ISBN-13: 1527566919

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We are familiar with the idea that technology is neutral, and that its impact depends only on how it is used. This traditional view has, however, become untenable. Because of its nature and its complex interplay with industry, the economy, and society, technology is no longer neutral. This change is being driven by the pervasiveness of data, which today are generated everywhere at an unpreceded pace because several technologies are currently reaching maturity. Data shape the world around us, in a trend that is commonly referred to as “digitalization”. This trend is apparent in every aspect of our lives, ranging from our personal environment and health to transportation, energy generation and management, and industry. Digitalization itself generates value, enabling the creation of new products and services. It also fosters technological and business innovation in other fields, including the manufacturing industry, and acts as a lever with which to promote growth. Digitalization, however, also creates imbalances, and this happens due to its very nature. Such imbalances appear between different parts of the globe and within individual geographical spaces. This book explores the multiplicity of mechanisms associated with the growing role that technology and data are playing in the creation of imbalances, and goes on to identify certain paths that lead toward mitigation. Should we make data publicly accessible, and in a transparent way? How can policymakers empower governments to address global and local imbalances, particularly those generated by technology and data? Do we need a global data-governance structure that—like the World Trade Organization for commerce—regulates data use and access?


Social Classes and Political Order in the Age of Data

Social Classes and Political Order in the Age of Data

Author: Georges Kotrotsios

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2022-09-28

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1527589056

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Our lives are changing today, but what is the single most important factor driving these changes? This question is crucial, because attempting to answer it can guide us to an understanding of the processes that are impacting our societies. The answer will, of course, come from the historians of the future, but there is already no doubt that the advent of data is behind a radical shake-up of our way of living. Monetary assets, infrastructure, equipment, and human labor all allow wealth to be created. Data does too, and it is reasonable to consider a new production factor in this regard: data capital. This book argues that this new production factor generates innumerable economic opportunities of a nature unthought of a mere twenty years ago. These opportunities have led to the creation of a new social class composed of two subclasses: data workers and data owners. The emergence of this new class repositions existing classes, including the traditional working class and the capitalist class, creating strong divergences that threaten social cohesion. What can we do to ensure cohesion and the proper functioning of society? The book argues for the establishment of a regulatory framework and the institutions necessary if we are to open data up and, where appropriate, exchange and trade it, all on a global scale. In this regard, the state—today still playing its traditional role of framework setter, and savior when crises loom—can become an active economic player, thus creating wealth for communities.


Global Trends 2040

Global Trends 2040

Author: National Intelligence Council

Publisher: Cosimo Reports

Published: 2021-03

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9781646794973

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"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.


Globalization of Technology

Globalization of Technology

Author: Proceedings of the Sixth Convocation of The Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1988-02-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780309038423

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The technological revolution has reached around the world, with important consequences for business, government, and the labor market. Computer-aided design, telecommunications, and other developments are allowing small players to compete with traditional giants in manufacturing and other fields. In this volume, 16 engineering and industrial experts representing eight countries discuss the growth of technological advances and their impact on specific industries and regions of the world. From various perspectives, these distinguished commentators describe the practical aspects of technology's reach into business and trade.


Imbalance and Rebalance

Imbalance and Rebalance

Author: Yang Li

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-10-05

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9811061505

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This book focuses on global financial systems. After summarising historical financial institutions, it subsequently uses economic and econometrical models to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of these institutions and their role in the history. Readers, especially international readers, will be introduced to prominent Chinese scholars’ ideas and views on these issues. The perspective of this book is, of course, a Chinese one. As such, readers will learn how Chinese people view global financial systems, even those dominated by the West, what they think about future global finance, etc. As such, the book offers intriguing and revealing insights for researchers and a broader readership alike.


The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

Author: Erik Brynjolfsson

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2014-01-20

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0393239357

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The big stories -- The skills of the new machines : technology races ahead -- Moore's law and the second half of the chessboard -- The digitization of just about everything -- Innovation : declining or recombining? -- Artificial and human intelligence in the second machine age -- Computing bounty -- Beyond GDP -- The spread -- The biggest winners : stars and superstars -- Implications of the bounty and the spread -- Learning to race with machines : recommendations for individuals -- Policy recommendations -- Long-term recommendations -- Technology and the future (which is very different from "technology is the future").


Business and the Sustainability Challenge

Business and the Sustainability Challenge

Author: Peter N. Nemetz

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-08-29

Total Pages: 724

ISBN-13: 1136262180

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It is vitally important for businesses to have a holistic understanding of the many issues surrounding and shaping sustainability, from competitors to government and political factors, to economics and ecological science. This integrated textbook for MBA and senior-level undergraduates offers a comprehensive overview of the issues of sustainability as they relate to business and influence corporate strategy. It also features a wide range of cases and an extensive discussion of tools to incorporate sustainability issues into strategic decision making, helping instructors and students to build and then apply a solid understanding of sustainability in business.


External Adjustment

External Adjustment

Author: Maurice Obstfeld

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13:

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"Gross stocks of foreign assets have increased rapidly relative to national outputs since 1990, and the short-run capital gains and losses on those assets can amount to significant fractions of GDP. These fluctuations in asset values render the national income and product account measure of the current account balance increasingly inadequate as a summary of the change in a country's net foreign assets. Nonetheless, unusually large current account imbalances, especially deficits, should remain high on policymakers' list of concerns, even for the richer and less credit-constrained countries. Extreme imbalances signal the need for large and perhaps abrupt real exchange rate changes in the future, changes that might have undesired political and financial consequences given the incompleteness of domestic and international asset markets. Furthermore, of the two sources of the change in net foreign assets -- the current account and the capital gain on the net foreign asset position -- the former is better understood and more amenable to policy influence. Systematic government attempts to manipulate international asset values in order to change the net foreign asset position could have a destabilizing effect on market expectations"--NBER website


Technology and Global Change

Technology and Global Change

Author: Arnulf Grübler

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-10-16

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 9780521543323

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This is the first book to comprehensibly describe how technology has shaped society and the environment over the last 200 years. It will be useful for researchers, as a textbook for graduate students, for people engaged in long-term policy planning in industry and government, for environmental activists, and for the wider public interested in history, technology, or environmental issues.


Global Imbalances and the Financial Crisis

Global Imbalances and the Financial Crisis

Author: Steven Vincent Dunaway

Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 0876094280

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Crafting stimulus packages and financial bailouts to address immediate problems has for many reasons been a priority for policymakers. In this Council Special Report, however, Steven Dunaway argues that policymakers must go beyond these steps and tackle one of the root causes of today's crisis: imbalances between savings and investment in major countries. The report analyzes the nature of these imbalances, which occur when some countries, such as the United States, run large current account (essentially trade) deficits while others, such as China, maintain large surpluses. Dunaway identifies three features of the international financial system that have allowed the imbalances to persist, features that involve both floating and managed exchange rates as well as the issuance of reserve assets. In particular, he notes that the United States' status as an issuer of such assets has enabled it to finance a current account deficit. The report then prescribes a variety of steps to address global imbalances. Beyond stimulus packages around the world, it urges measures to raise savings (principally government savings) in the United States, reform labor and product markets in Europe and Japan to increase competition and flexibility, and boost domestic consumption in China. Finally, the report advocates improving International Monetary Fund (IMF) surveillance of member states' economic policies by reducing the role of the Fund's executive board and depoliticizing the selection of its senior management.