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Big Pharma's R&D Booster Shot

By Ben Rissing and Peter Engardio
Harvard Trade Union Program

Published in:
BusinessWeek

In their quest to develop new drugs, Western pharmaceutical companies are increasingly teaming up with companies in China and India

 [Full article in BusinessWeek ]

The Globalization of Innovation: Can India and China Cure the Global Pharmaceutical Market?

Vivek Wadhwa, Ben Rissing, Gary Gereffi, John Trumpbour
Harvard Trade Union Program


Published On:
Social Science Research Network

Industries are oft en thought of in terms of the nations that have launched the greatest innovations. Th ere is a perception of a U.S. automotive industry pitted against a Japanese industry, for example, or the U.S. pharmaceutical industry against the European industry. Globalization has, however, rapidly changed the underlying nature of these competitive relationships.

[Download the Paper from SSRN]

Skilled Immigration and Economic Growth

By Vivek Wadhwa, Ben Rissing et al.
Harvard Trade Union Program


Published in:
Applied Research in Economic Development

While debates rage in the US about the plight of millions of workers who have entered the country illegally, a smaller and more important group is often forgotten — highly educated skilled immigrants who entered the country legally. These immigrants have started a disproportionate percentage of engineering and technology companies and contribute significantsly to US economic growth and global competitiveness.

 [Full article in Applied Research in Economic Development ]

Harvard Trade Union Program: Class of 2009

 January 12th - February 20th
***Now Accepting Applications***
Harvard Trade Union Program
We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Harvard Trade Union Program Class of 2009.

 [Harvard Trade Union Program: 2009 Brochure]

 [Apply for the 2009 session]
*New* Education and Tech Entrepreneurship : Study finds universities that graduate the most U.S.-born tech entrepreneurs

Capital Matters, Stock Market, Private Equity, Retirement
A new study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers at Duke and Harvard universities reveals most U.S.-born technology and engineering company founders are middle-aged, well-educated and hold degrees from a wide assortment of universities.

[ Full Paper from SSRN ]
*New* Capital Matters: Vol. 1, No. 3 | April 2008

• Understanding the Turmoil in Financial Markets and What to Do (about it)
• 401(k)s Fall Short of Funding an Adequate Returement
• Can VEBAs Alleviate Retiree Health Care Woes?
• Effective Labor Representation on Pension Boards

[Capital Matters| April, 2008]

[Subscribe to Capital Matters]
Capital Matters: Occasional Papers Series


Can VEBAs alleviate retiree health care problems?

By Aaron Bernstein
Weritheim Fellow

Occasional Papers
The 2007 negotiations between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Detroit automakers have focused national attention on a potentially innovative response to the long-term decline in retiree health insurance in the United States. The union agreed that an independent trust called a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association (VEBA) will assume responsibility for UAW retiree medical care at the three automakers.

Read the full paper.
Universities set the pace in labor relations

By Richard Freeman
LWP Faculty Co-Director and Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Harvard Trade Union Program
Most Americans think of auto, steel and other blue-collar workers negotiating with giant manufacturers when they think of labor relations. These industries set the pace in U.S. collective bargaining from the 1940's to the 1970's.

Read the full article.
***Upcoming Event***

Market Voodoo and Innovation Magic: The Strange Case of Climate Change

Seminar on the Economics of Science & Engineering

Date: March 31, 2008 (Monday) @ 3:30 pm -5pm
Location: Harvard Hall Room 103
Speaker: Daniel Sarewitz, Arizona State Univeristy

Harvard Trade Union Program
Daniel Sarewitz, author of Frontiers of Illusion: Science, Technology, and the Politics of Progress, explores the unfolding responses to global climate change. Please mark your calendars, and join Professors Richard Freeman and Daniel Goroff for a lively seminar on the economics of science & engineering.

For more information about the seminar please call: 617.495.9265
Check out our free salary checker from Paywizard.org and take our salary survey to win a gift certificate from Amazon.com or a free vacation!

Harvard Trade Union Program: Class of 2009

 January 12th - February 20th
***Now Accepting Applications***
Harvard Trade Union Program
We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Harvard Trade Union Program Class of 2009.

 [Harvard Trade Union Program: 2009 Brochure]

 [Apply for the 2009 session]
***New Paper***

From the Two Faces of Unionism to the Facebook Society: Union Voice in a 21st Century Context

Harvard Trade Union Program
Former Wertheim fellow Alex Bryson discusses whether unions should appopriate the techniques of social networking websites like the Facebook to recruit new members.

[Download the Full Paper]

*Feature* Insights Into the Writers Strike: An Interview With
Cornell University Economist and Labor Expert Maria Figueroa

 By Jason Anastasopoulos
Maria Figueroa
November 27th - As the Writers Guild strike brings labor into the living room, impacting shows from Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) to David Letterman, there seems to be a lot of information and attention given to celebrities support of the strike, but little on the substantive issues that the strike will have on the entertainment industry and the writers themselves.

In response to this, we’ve interviewed economist and entertainment labor expert Maria Figueroa at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor to give us the scoop on the most important aspects of the writers strike.

> Continue to the interview

Richard Freeman, LWP Faculty Director, Wins Prestigious IZA Prize for Contributions to Labor Economics
Richard Freeman
Richard Freeman, Labor & Worklife Program Faculty Co-Chair and Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University was awarded Germany's Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Prize for "groundbreaking work on the sustainability of the welfare state and the role of trade unions in the labor market."

The prize was announced on October 10th and the Award ceremony, to be held in Berlin, Germany on November 5th, 2007, will be attended by German President Horst Köhler and Deutsche Post CEO Klaus Zumwinkel.

[More about Richard Freeman and the IZA Prize]

America Works: Critical Thoughts on the Exceptional US Labor Market

By Richard B. Freeman
America Works by Richard Freeman
"...Readable, reasoned, compassionate and enjoyable". - Lawrence Mishel, President, Economic Policy Institute

Economist Richard Freeman, Labor & Worklife Program Faculty Co-Chair and Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University paints a picture with broad brushstrokes of the dynamic American labor market and fares compared to European and industrialized nations.

[Buy the book]
[Read the introduction]

Intellectual Property, the Immigration Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Intellectual Property , Outsourcing
This paper is the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants' contributions to the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Earlier research revealed a dramatic increase in the contributions of foreign nationals to U.S. intellectual property over an eight-year period. In this paper, we offer a more refined measure of this change and seek to explain this increase with an analysis of the immigrant-visa backlog for skilled workers. The key finding from this research is that the number of skilled workers waiting for visas is significantly larger than the number that can be admitted to the United States. This imbalance creates the potential for a sizable reverse brain-drain from the United States to the skilled worker's home countries.

More information about the Global Engineering and Entrepreneurship @ Duke research group can be found here: http://www.globalizationresearch.com/

[Full Paper PDF]
What Workers Say: Employee Voice in the Anglo-american Workplace

Edited By Richard B. Freeman; Peter Boxall and Peter Haynes

What Workers Say, Richard Freema
What Workers Say brings together research in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand to answer a series of key questions: o What opportunities do employees in Anglo-American workplaces have to voice their concerns and what do they seek?

o To what extent, and in what contexts, do workers want greater union representation?

o How do workers feel about employer-initiated channels of influence? What styles of engagement do they want with employers?

o What institutional models are more successful in giving workers the voice they seek at workplaces?

o What can unions, employers, and public policy makers learn from these studies of representation and influence?

> Buy this book from Amazon.com
A Supreme Decision: Collective Bargaining As a Constitutional Right

By Elaine Bernard

It's not often that labour celebrates a decision by the courts, but a June 8th ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, in a case involving health care unions and the British Columbia government, is a notable exception.

> Full article [PDF]
Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal (Vol. 28, No. 2):
The Crisis In Workplace Governance, Special Issue in Honor of Paul C. Weiler

Introduction by John Trumpbour

Paul Weiler Harvard Law School
Over the past three decades, Paul C. Weiler of Harvard University has stood among the foremost scholars not only of labor law in North America, but also of sports law, entertainment law, medical malpractice, and Canadian constitutional law. In addressing labor law and workplace governance in the twenty-first century, this special issue has sought to tackle a key and urgent contribution of Weiler to contemporary legal thought, but it should be conceded from the outset that it is just a modest part of his multi-faceted intellectual legacy.

[Continue reading the introduction (pdf format)]

[Table of contents ]

Nanotechnology & Society: Education

Educating Undergraduate Nanoengineers

Tanwin Chang

Nanotechnology


While flipping through a course catalog, a college freshman majoring in engineering at most American universities would choose from courses in chemical , civil, mechanical and electrical engineering . But Tanwin Chang, Labor & Worklife Program Research Associate, wants to add another

In response to the expanding interest and growth in nanotechnology, many universities around the world have developed PhD's and B.S. programs in Nanotechnology. But most American universities have been reluctant to include "nanoscience" in their curriculum .

[Click Here] to learn more.
US Nanotechnology Programs

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Upcoming Events

***Now Accepting Applications***
Harvard Trade Union Program, 2009

January 12th - February 20th

 [Apply for the 2009 session]

Features...

Labor and Employment News
Wurf Fellow

Teresa Ghilarducci, Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame,
When I'm Sixty Four: The Plot against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them
[Papers by Teresa Ghilarducci]
[More about Teresa Ghilarducci]

***New Books***

Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds

By Peter Evans, Lowell Turner and
Daniel B. Cornfield

Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds
From the Back Cover
"As multinational corporations dominate more aspects of our daily lives, it is critical that we develop global strategies for solving local problems. This important new book does just that. By comparing local union organizing campaigns from around the world, this talented group of labor researchers makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the global labor movement."
- Bruce Raynor, General President, UNITE HERE
>>>Find out More

Statistics

Labor Stats
Percent of Workforce in Unions Since 1948
      

Click on image to increase size

In an effort to understand public sector unions and labor markets, The Labor and Worklife Program, with the help of Unionstats and The Labor Research Association , have compiled a massive amount of data relating to public sector unionization and general labor market trends.

Click Here to get the graphs and statistics.
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Think you're earning less than what you should be? Find out what you should be earning in your city and state.

LWP Publications
Latinos: Remaking America
Latinos: Remaking America
Edited By Maccelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Mariela M. Páez

Latinos: Remaking America is an extensive collection of essays on the community, identity and labor of Latinos living and working in the United States.

Included in this volume is Unions and Latinos: Mutual Transformation , an essay by Elaine Bernard and John Trumpbour of the Labor and Worklife Program that documents a history of Mexican, Central and South American workers and labor leaders and their influence and struggles in the American labor movement.