Accelerating the Globalization of America
The Next Wave of Information Technology

Information technology (IT) was the key to the superior overall macro-economic performance of the United States in the 1990s. This book traces the globalization of the IT industry, its diffusion into the US economy, and the prospects and implications of more extensive technology-enabled globalization of products and services.

Information technology (IT) was key to the superior overall macro-economic performance of the United States in the 1990s - high productivity, high growth, low inflation, and low unemployment. But IT also played a role in increasing earnings dispersion in the labor market - greatly rewarding workers with high education and skills. This US performance did not happen in a global vacuum. Globalization of US IT firms promoted deeper integration of IT throughout the US economy, which in turn promoted more extensive globalization in other sectors of the US economy and labor market. How will the increasingly globalized IT industry affect US long-term growth, intermediate macro performance, and disparities in the US labor market? What policies are needed to ensure that the United States remains first in innovation, business transformation, and education and skills, which are prerequisites for US economic leadership in the 21st century? This book traces the globalization of the IT industry, its diffusion into the US economy, and the prospects and implications of more extensive technology-enabled globalization of products and services.

Section I: Origin
1. The Root Problem: Political Imbalances
2. The 1934 System: Protection for Congress
Section II: Erosion and Adaptation
3. A Tougher World: Changes in the Context of Trade Policy
4. A Less Protected Congress
5. An Embattled Executive
6. Changing the Rules: The Rise of Administrative Trade Remedies
7. The National Arena
8. Triumph! NAFTA and the WTO
Section III: Polarization
9. The Decline of Traditional Protectionism
10. "New" Issues: Labor and the Environment
11. The Hyper-Polarized Congress
Section IV: Conclusion
12. Today's Challenge
Appendix: Trade Promotion Authority 2001: The Bargain that Wasn't.