Randall Soderquist chides Fred Bergsten for urging trade liberalization without a complete package of social policies:
A viable vision for the future would recognize that the programs currently in place in the United States were created for another set of international circumstances and are badly outdated. Innovative policies that mitigate the uncertainty and insecurity that come with constant change and create the foundation for economic growth must be pursued. This includes funding and implementing policies that protect workers from the process of “creative destruction” that is now an inevitable component of our lives.
How much of this greater uncertainty has been induced by globalisation? Can someone point me to empirical literature on the relationship between exposure to international competition and labor market churn? Google Scholar isn’t turning up immediately obvious results.
Take a look at this paper from Columbia’s development seminar last Thursday: http://www.columbia.edu/~msu2101/Menezes.pdf
Table 4 is interesting, though it’s not clear how much of this churning is due to Brazil’s liberalization.