Spatial transaction costs -- the cost of undertaking business and economic activities over geographic space -- have been declining since the beginning of the industrial revolution mainly through technological advances. The ocean-going sailing ship, railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, and fax machines all caused spatial transactions costs to fall. However, with the advent of the internet about 1990, these declines have become exponential.
MNE strategies have leveraged these technologies to create increasing wealth, so the average levels of wealth around the globe have risen. Yet, these MNE global strategies also feature a dark side
Key Takeaways:
• In the 20th-century, birth geography determined income and welfare. In the 21st-century connected knowledge economy, human capital determines income and welfare. Low human capital workers in rich countries have seen catastrophic declines in income and welfare.
• Global connectedness often generates local disconnectedness which is the basis for rising inequality that fuels populism.
• Global connectedness is often strongly driven by ethnic ties.
Thursday April 27th, 2023
11:00 - 12:00 PM EST
Speaker:
Ram Mudambi
Ram Mudambi is the Frank M. Speakman Professor of Strategy at the Fox
School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, and Research Director of
Temple CIBER. Previously he served on the faculties of Case Western Reserve
University, the University of Reading (England), and the University of North Carolina –
Chapel Hill. He earned his M.Sc.(Econ) from the London School of Economics and his
Ph.D. from Cornell University. His current research focuses on the geography of
innovation, particularly in the contexts of migration, digitalization, and emerging
economies. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB) and of the
European International Business Academy (EIBA). He is an Area Editor at the Journal of
International Business Policy and a consulting editor at the Journal of International
Business Studies, as well as at the Journal of World Business. He formerly served as coeditor
of the Global Strategy Journal and Area Editor at the Journal of International
Business Studies.
His work has appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, Management Science,
the Journal of Economic Geography, the Strategic Management Journal, and the Journal
of International Business Studies among many others. His practitioner pieces have
appeared in the Harvard Business Review, the Sloan Management Review, and the
California Management Review. His media appearances include the New York Times, The
Atlantic magazine, National Public Radio, and numerous local radio and TV programs.
He writes fiction under the pen name R.M. Burgess and has published eight
novels, the latest in 2021. He writes in the fantasy/science fiction and adventure/romance
genres and is currently working on his ninth and tenth novels.