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Public Affairs Discussion Group
"Strategies for American Workers Within
the Current Global Competition"
March 2, 2007
Crawford Hall, Room 9 - The Inamori Center
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
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Susan Helper, Ph.D. - SBC Professor
of Regional Economic Development at Case Western Reserve University
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Dear Colleagues:
Perhaps the most basic fear about the future of our
region's economy is that it was built on
manufacturing and manufacturing in the United States
(never mind Ohio) is pretty much doomed. The current
wave of shutdowns in the auto industry only
exacerbates those fears. It is commonly argued that
the U.S. must move to a different kind of economy.
Among the claims are that:
* We just can't compete with Chinese labor costs.
* Manufacturing is inherently a low skill activity.
* Innovation is only done by a few geniuses.
* Geography doesn't matter anymore in the age of the
Internet.
All of which would suggest that there is no future
in manufacturing or in particular the auto industry.
But is it true? Susan Helper is much less
pessimistic. Dr. Helper is SBC Professor of Regional
Economic Development at Case Western Reserve
University. She is also a Research Associate of the
National Bureau of Economic Research and the MIT
International Motor Vehicle Program. Her research
focuses on the impacts of collaborative
relationships, between suppliers and customers and
management and labor. Currently she is looking at
the impact of globalization of supply chains on
regional development and innovation in the US,
Mexico, and India. She has published in journals
such as American Economic Review, Sloan Management
Review, and Journal of Economics and Management
Strategy. She has a Ph.D. from Harvard University
and a BA from Oberlin College. In 2005-6 she was a
visiting scholar at the University of California,
Berkeley, and the University of Oxford. Recently she
has been working on a project on "shared prosperity"
with the Economic Policy Institute. She argues that,
while the world is becoming more "flat", in that
goods and money flow ever more quickly around the
globe, local "clusters" of production in places such
as Silicon Valley (and Northeast Ohio) remain
important. Promoting networks within and between
firms can lead to a highly productive economy, while
maintaining community.
Please join us on Friday, March 2, from 12:30
― 1:30 p.m. in Crawford
Hall Room 9 as Professor Helper leads a
discussion of these issues. Room 9 is on the lowest
level of Crawford Hall, across from Access Services,
within the Inamori Center. Hot beverages are
provided by the Office of University Communications
and cookies by generous donors to the Center for
Policy Studies.
If you'd like an update on the auto industry in
Ohio, by the way, you might check out:
http://www.clevelandfed.org/Research/Trends/2007/0207/01regact_013107.cfm
Best regards,
Joe White
More About Our
Guest
Susan Helper is SBC Professor of
Regional Economic Development at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is also a
Research Associate of the National Bureau of
Economic Research (NBER) and the MIT International
Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP). Her research focuses
on the impacts of collaborative relationships,
between suppliers and customers and management and
labor. Currently she is studying how globalization
of supply chains affects development and innovation
in the US, Mexico, and India. She has published in
journals such as American
Economic Review, Sloan
Management Review, and
Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.
She has a Ph.D. from Harvard University and a BA
from Oberlin College. In 2005-06 she was a visiting
scholar at the University of California, Berkeley,
and the University of Oxford.
Spring Semester
Schedule
Beginning on February 2, the Friday Lunch will
move back to Crawford Hall, in ROOM 9. Room 9 is within
the Inamori Center, on the basement level of Crawford.
It is very kind of Bill Deal, Director of the Inamori
Center, to make this room available on a regular basis.
Thank you, Bill!
Room 9 seats 35, with a central table and also chairs
along the wall. It should be a better setup than
Guilford. If we expect a large crowd, we may be able to
open a partition and join up with Room 11.
There will, however, be a class in the room until 12:20.
Therefore it will not be possible to get there much
before the lunch begins. On the other hand, people who
are a bit early should be able to hang out in the
Tomlinson food court. I believe the underground passage
from Tomlinson to Crawford will be restored when
construction is finished.
Coffee will be provided from the SAGES Cafe'. Which
should mean very good coffee.
The tentative schedule of speakers, so far:
January 26: Phil (Perkins Professor of
Physics-Case Western Reserve University) and Sarah
Taylor, Wind Power and All of It's Aspects -
Environmental, Energy, Economic, Aesthetic, and
Maybe More.
February 2: Ken Grundy, Marcus Hanna Professor
Emeritus of Political Science, on subject to be
determined
February 9: Paul Schroeder, Visiting Lecturer in
Political Science and from Families of the Fallen for
Change, on what to do in Iraq
February 16: Mark Turner, Professor of Cognitive
Science, on cognition and politics
February 23: Mel Goldstein, Professor of
Anthropology, on why the Chinese are winning in Tibet
March 2: Susan Helper, Professor of Economics, on
strategies for American workers within the current
global competition.
March 9: Baiju Shah, President, Bioenterprise
Corporation, on the new economic prospects in Cleveland.
March 16: Break
March 23: Mike Aronoff of Cuyahoga County on the
evaluation of sexual predators for the courts―are they
really dangerous, and can we predict if they will reoffend?
March 30: Barbara Morrison, Assistant Professor
of Nursing, on how current patterns of care for Moms and
newborns deny them the peace and quiet and bonding they
need.
April 6:
Horst von Recum, Assistant Professor of Biomedical
Engineering; Insoo Hyun, Assistant Professor of
Bioethics; and Greg Eastwood, Interim President of Case
Western Reserve University on Stem Cell Research.
April 13: Marixa Lasso, Assistant Professor of
History: Drugs, War, and Coffee in Colombia
April 20: Mark Joseph, Assistant Professor,
Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences: Mixed-Income
Development as an Approach to Addressing Urban Poverty
April 27: Christine Cano, Associate Professor of
French, on the French elections (this date falls between
the first round and the runoff election)
Parking: For
those people who seek to make special arrangements about
parking, the contact person now will be Fay Alexander.
Her phone number is 368-4440, and her e-mail is
fabrienne.alexander@case.edu.
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