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January 31
Does Global Business Have a Responsibility to Promote Democracy?
How should large-scale multinational enterprises (MNEs), especially those based in liberal democracies, approach operating in countries where citizens lack rights of political participation and representation? In this seminar, Prof. Hsieh argued there are conditions under which MNEs have a responsibility to promote democratic political institutions in host countries that lack them. This account was offered as a contribution to broader debates about corporate social responsibility and the appropriate role of business in society.
PRESENTATION
Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
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February 14, 2008
High Performance and High Integrity
Ben Heineman discussed his new book on global ethics in transnational companies.
Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs
Harvard Kennedy School
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February 15, 2008
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative: Emission Leakage and the Effectiveness of Interstate Border Adjustments
Prof. Sue Wing presented results from his study of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Emission Initiative (RGGI), an innovative cap and trade scheme to limit carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generators in ten Northeastern states. He found that RGGI's economic impacts are small, but induce substantial increases in power exports from unconstrained states and result in rates of emission leakage of more than 50%. Small (2-7%) harmonized taxes on electricity within RGGI states can neutralize leakage and increase aggregate abatement without significant adverse effects on income. These results suggest that setting electricity tariffs in conjunction with the emission cap might improve RGGI's environmental performance.
PAPER
PRESENTATION
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography & Environment
Boston University
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February 21, 2008
Trade Imbalance: The Struggle to Weigh Human Rights Concerns in Trade Policymaking
Many people believe that trade agreements, even trade per se, undermine particular human rights such as labor rights or access to affordable medicine. But trade and trade agreements can also advance human rights, directly or indirectly. In fact, some countries use trade policies and agreements to advance specific human rights such as labor rights or property rights. Dr. Aaronson discussed how the U.S. and the EU, and to a lesser extent countries such as South Africa and Brazil, attempt to coordinate trade and human rights objectives, and resolve conflicts. She also discussed how human rights issues are seeping into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and provide suggestions to policymakers to right the trade/human rights imbalance.
Associate Research Professor
Elliott School of International Affairs,George Washington University
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February 28, 2008
Consumer Demand for Labor Standards: Experiments with Ethical Labeling of Imported Products
A majority of surveyed consumers say they would be willing to pay extra for products made under good working conditions rather than in sweatshops. But as yet there is no clear evidence that enough consumers would actually behave in this fashion, and pay a high enough premium, to make social product labeling profitable for firms. Professor Hiscox provided new evidence on consumer behavior from experiments conducted in a major retail store and on eBay. The results suggest there is a strong latent consumer demand for labor standards that more retailers and producers could satisfy profitably by switching to certified and labeled goods.
PAPER
FEATURED IN THE HARVARD GAZETTE
Professor of Government
Harvard University
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March 6, 2008
The Market for Virtue Revisited: The Current and Future State of CSR
Prof. Vogel's 2005 book, The Market for Virtue, concluded that the potential of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to bring about significant change was limited. In this session, Prof. Vogel explored whether developments in private sector self-regulation in the past three years support or challenge that conclusion.
FEATURED IN THE HARVARD GAZETTE
Professor
Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
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March 10, 2008
Does Foreign Direct Investment Lead to More Rigorous Environmental Management?
Competition to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) creates opportunities for multinational enterprises (MNEs) to diffuse corporate management practices from their countries-of-origin (home countries) to countries hosting their foreign operations. In this seminar, Prof. Prakash examined conditions under which MNEs transfer corporate environmental practices from home countries to host countries. His focus was on ISO 14001, the most widely adopted voluntary environmental program in the world. He examined inward FDI stocks and ISO 14001 adoption levels for a panel of 98 countries, and a subset of 74 developing countries, for the period 1996-2002. He found support for the country-of-origin argument in that inward FDI stocks are associated with higher levels of ISO 14001 adoption in host countries only when FDI originates from home countries that themselves have high levels of ISO 14001 adoption. Countries' ISO adoption levels are associated not with how much FDI host countries receive overall but from whom they receive it. Three implications emerged from this study: (1) FDI can become an instrument to perpetuate divergence in corporate practices across the world; (2) economic integration via FDI can create incentives for firms to ratchet up their environmental practices beyond the legal requirements of their host countries; (3) instead of racing down to match the less stringent corporate practices prevalent in developing countries, developed countries can employ FDI outflows to ratchet up corporate practices abroad given that developing countries are net recipients of developed countries' FDI outflows.
PRESENTATION
Professor of Political Science
University of Washington, Seattle
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March 11, 2008
Lessons Learned From 12 Years of Financial Reform in Ethiopia
Is it possible to introduce fundamental change in one of the poorest countries in the world? M-RCBG’s Decentralization Support Activity (DSA) project, under the direction of HKS faculty member Steve Peterson, has done it in Ethiopia. Twice the size of Texas, the second most populous country in Africa (84 million people), per capita annual income of less than $100, Ethiopia confronts the ‘four horsemen of the apocalypse’—war, famine pestilence and death. Despite these formidable constraints, the DSA project successfully transformed public financial management in Ethiopia. Over the past twelve years, the project has moved the country from single to double-entry bookkeeping, cash to modified cash accounting, line item to cost center budgeting, performance based fiscal transfers, and spreadsheets to a web-based custom integrated financial information system that can operate from stand-alone computers to a country-wide satellite system. Over 75,000 government staff have been trained to use these systems. These reforms have had a significant impact. The six year backlog of accounts has been eliminated, budgets are submitted to parliament a month ahead of the fiscal year (rather than a day), and automation provides numerous accurate and timely reports for management and oversight. These new systems have assured foreign aid agencies to continue and expand their assistance which provides 35% of public expenditure. Ethiopia is currently the largest recipient of foreign aid in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite these increasing resource flows, Ethiopia has an appalling fiscal gap (the difference between needs and resources). Its education budget provides $5 per annum per student and its health budget has only $6 per annum per capita. Peterson’s talk provided an opportunity to learn more about this fascinating project and the lessons it offers for similar activities throughout the world.
PRESENTATION
Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Director, Ethiopia DSA Project
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March 11, 2008
Demand for Fuel Efficiency and the Effects of Tighter Automotive Fuel Economy Standards
The 2007 Energy Bill established the first increase in fuel-efficiency standards for passenger vehicles since 1975. But how will the auto industry respond? Prof. Erich Muehlegger and Ph.D. student Hunt Allcott estimate a discrete choice model of automobile demand, using the exogenous changes of fuel prices over time to consistently identify the marginal demand for fuel economy. They simulate a two stage product placement game to forecast how firms will respond to the new regulation subject to the demand system in Nash equilibrium. To address multiple equilibria, they employ a new equilibrium refinement called Reinforcement Learning, which is a reasonable stylized representation of new product development in the auto industry and potentially generalizable to other settings.
, Faculty Chair, Regulatory Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School
Ph.D. candidate, Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
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March 20, 2008
Global Climate and Global Trade
Contrary to common belief, globalization need not be the enemy of environmental protection. International institutions are needed to tackle global externalities. A critical example is global climate change, which can only be addressed by international agreement. The Kyoto Protocol is a good first step, but its omissions need to be corrected, particularly the lack of full country participation. Fears regarding competitiveness and leakage will increasingly drive participants to adopt trade penalties against non-participants. Professor Frankel's seminar addressed the issue of border taxes against carbon-intensive imports and whether they would conflict with the WTO, the possibility of other conflicts between the climate regime and the trade regime, and more generally the effect of trade on the environment.
POWERPOINT
James W. Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth
Harvard Kennedy School
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April 2, 2008
3:00 pm, Malkin Penthouse
The Three Trillion Dollar War
Apart from its tragic human toll, the Iraq War will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms. This sobering study by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda J. Bilmes casts a spotlight on expense items that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer, including not only big-ticket items like replacing military equipment (being used up at six times the peacetime rate) but also the cost of caring for thousands of wounded veterans—for the rest of their lives. Shifting to a global focus, the authors investigate the cost in lives and economic damage within Iraq and the region. Finally, with the chilling precision of an actuary, the authors measure what the U.S. taxpayer's money would have produced if instead it had been invested in the further growth of the U.S. economy. Written in language as simple as the details are disturbing, this book will forever change the way we think about the war. Available for purchase at The Harvard Coop, The Harvard Bookstore, and Amazon.com
FEATURED IN THE HARVARD GAZETTE
Lecturer in Public Policy
Harvard Kennedy School
Columbia University
Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans for America (IAVA)
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April 8, 2008
Let's Get Serious about Climate Change Policy: What's Really Achievable at What Cost?
William Pizer's research seeks to quantify how the design of environmental policy affects costs and effectiveness. He applies much of this work to the question of how to design and implement policies to reduce the threat of climate change caused by manmade emissions of greenhouse gases. Currently, he is working on projects that look at the effectiveness of voluntary programs, the role of technology programs in pollution control efforts, and the effect of regulation on competitiveness.
PRESENTATION
Fellow, Harvard University Center for the Environment
Director, Energy & Natural Resources - Resources for the Future
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April 17, 2008
Carbon Tax: The Best Way to Address Global Warming?
A number of bills for carbon cap-and-trade and tax systems have been put forward in Congress. Using MIT's Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model, Prof. Metcalf provided an analysis of some of these bills.
Gilbert E. Metcalf
Professor of Economics
Tufts University
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April 18, 2008
Noon, Bell Hall
The Credit Crunch: Why It Happened and What Are the Lessons
Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy
Harvard Kennedy School
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April 22, 2008
9:00 am, Fainsod Room (Littauer 324)
Energy Policy Seminar Series
Optimal Environmental Policy Under Economic Fluctuations
Fellow, Harvard University Center for the Environment
How should environmental policy respond to economic fluctuations? This paper answers that question by presenting and solving a real business cycle model that includes pollution. During economic expansions, it is optimal to allow emissions to increase. An emissions tax can adapt to business cycles by varying less than an emissions quota.
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April 22, 2008
The Emerging Congruence of Corporate Fiduciary Duty, Ethical Culture, and Human Rights
Corporate boards have long owed a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to ensure that their companies are run ethically. In response to the string of corporate flameouts starting with Enron, the US Congress sharpened this obligation in 2004 by requiring corporate boards to ensure that their companies had "ethical cultures", without defining the term. Human rights have a powerful claim to prominence in the panoply of values embraced by an ethical culture, due to their universality, their widespread acceptance, and their focus on the most vulnerable. What are the hallmarks of such a culture? What are the practical challenges to such a culture, and how can they be addressed? How have different companies dealt with the subject? John Sherman, Deputy General Counsel at National Grid, discussed how the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), a group of thirteen multinational corporations devoted to mainstreaming human rights into the business agenda, is trying to answer these questions.
SPEECH
PRESENTATION
Deputy General Counsel
National Grid
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April 29, 2008
Worker Protection in Global Value Chains: The Role of Government, Business, and Civil Society
Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, 1990-1997
Richard Freeman, Faculty Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School and Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics, Harvard University
John Ruggie, Kirkpatrick Professor of International Affairs, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Chris Stone, Faculty Director, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations and Guggenheim Professor of the Practice of Criminal Justice, Harvard Kennedy School
Marty Chen, Lecturer in Public Policy, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Harvard Kennedy School
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May 8-10
AGENDA
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