Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

Today, for the first time in history, most people can expect to live into their 60s and beyond ( United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [UNDESA], 2007 ). And those who reach 60 years of age can expect to live longer than ever before. When combined with marked falls in fertility rates, these increases in life expectancy are leading to the rapid ageing of populations around the world. These changes are dramatic, and they have profound implications for each of us as individuals, as well as for society more broadly. Longer lives present many opportunities, and the article by Fried (2016) in this supplement makes a strong case that appropriate social investment can create a “third demographic dividend” for society. Yet, the extent of the opportunities that arise from increased longevity will depend heavily on one key factor: health. If people are experiencing these extra years of life with good physical and mental capacity, and if they live in enabling environments, their ability to do the things they value may have few limits. If these added years are instead dominated by declines in capacity and disabling environments, the implications for older people and for society are much more negative. Staudinger, Finkelstein, Calvo, and Sivaramakrishnan (2016) take up this issue and look specifically at the effects of work on health in later life. Unfortunately, there is only limited information to suggest that older people today are experiencing these extra years in better health than previous generations ( Chatterji, Byles, Cutler, Seeman, & Verdes, 2015 ). Moreover, in many places, neither the policies nor the infrastructure is in place to ensure that the opportunities that arise from population aging can be realized. Public health action on ageing is therefore urgently needed. Yet debate on what this might comprise has been remarkably limited ( Lloyd-Sherlock et al., 2012 ) To progress action in this area, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently released the first World report on ageing and health ( WHO, 2015 ). Nearly 200 people contributed directly to the report, including authors of a series of background articles, many of which have been refined for academic publication in this supplement. Given the great diversity of issues that are relevant to ageing and health, it is not surprising that the scope of these articles is broad. The report outlines a public health framework for action on Healthy Ageing that is built around the concept of functional ability. This is defined by the report as “the health related attributes that enable people to be and to do what they have reason to value”. The report emphasizes that this ability is determined by both the intrinsic capacity of the individual and the influence of the environments they inhabit. This builds on capabilities-based approaches used in other fields ( Anand, 2005 ). The report approaches the changes associated with ageing in the context of the entire life course, yet focuses on the second half of life. It describes some of the important underlying physiologic changes that can occur with age (for example, those outlined in the article by Blume-Peytavi et al. (2016) on skin) but also considers the disorders that become more frequent in older age and that can impact on functioning. These are largely chronic conditions, particularly noncommunicable diseases, hearing loss, and musculoskeletal disorders as discussed by Davis and colleagues (2016) and Briggs and colleagues (2016) , respectively. Many of these can be prevented or delayed by engaging in healthy behaviors across the life course, and the benefits of these behaviors continue into later life ( Hrobonova, Breeze, & Fletcher, 2011 ). The article by Bauman, Merom, Bull, Buchner, and Singh (2016) highlights the importance of these ongoing influences, making a robust case for promoting physical activity among older adults. However, Bauman and colleagues also show how ageing influences the relationship of these behaviors to health and the importance of considering this when developing interventions to foster capacity and ability. Their article highlights how, for physical activity, this may lead to a shift in focus that gives priority to interventions that can help the retention of muscle mass and balance. Subtle shifts in messaging across the life course may also be required if these interventions are to succeed ( Notthoff & Carstensen, 2014 ). Yet, even with effective health promotion strategies, many older people will still experience chronic disease and most likely more than one of them at the same time. Integrated person-centered care can ensure these are effectively managed, particularly if they are detected early enough. And even for people where these result in significant declines in capacity, access to medical and assistive technologies (see article by Garçon et al. (2016) ) and supportive environments can ensure that they can continue to live lives of dignity and continued personal growth. These responses would fulfill the right to health and other related rights and fundamental freedoms of older people that are enshrined in international law, an issue expanded on by Baer, Bhushan, Abou Taleb, Vasquez, and Thomas (2016) . Yet, globally, breaching of these rights is almost the norm, as highlighted by the high prevalence of elder abuse. The article by Pillemer, Burnes, Riffin, and Lachs (2016) considers this issue—a problem that has devastating individual consequences and societal costs for which we are yet to identify evidence-based interventions that work. But few places in the world offer the policies and infrastructure necessary to ensure older people can experience a long and healthy life. One challenge for decision makers is that when it comes to health, every older person is different. The report highlights how physical and mental capacity are only poorly associated with chronological age. Even in low- and middle-income countries, some 80-year-olds have physical and mental capacities similar to many 20-year-olds, whereas others experience significant declines in physical and mental capacities at much younger ages. Furthermore, this diversity of health state in older age is not random. As the article from Foebel and Pedersen (2016) states, genetic inheritance plays some role. But most of the variation is likely to result from personal factors such as our sex, ethnicity, and occupation, as well as the physical and social environments in which we live our lives. Together these influence opportunities and health behavior, and these impacts start from childhood and continue across life( Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008 ; Dannefer, 2003 ). The article by Sadana, Blas, Budhwani, Koller, and Paraje (2016) elaborates in detail the causes of health inequities across contexts and policy and research options for stimulating change. Together the articles in this supplement highlight the complexity in the health and functional states experienced by older adults. They help raise fundamental questions such as what do we mean by health in older age, how do we measure it, and how might we foster it. The reconceptualization of Healthy Ageing provided by the report draws on many years of gerontological and geriatric research and debate to start to answer these challenging queries. In building this public health framework for action, WHO looked to challenge many pervasive misconceptions. In particular, the report seeks to emphasize that action is urgent; to acknowledge the great diversity of health and experience in older age and the need for policy responses to reflect this rather than being built on ageist stereotypes of a “typical” older person; to shift conceptualizations of health in older age from a focus on the absence of disease in an individual to a focus on functioning and an acceptance that both the individual and their environments have a role in determining this; to frame Healthy Ageing as a process that takes place across the life course rather than as a state at a particular point in time, and that both policy makers and researchers should be interested in how we maintain optimum trajectories of functional ability and capacity across life and older age. to understand the cumulative impact of environmental determinants across life and to shape policy that looks to address disadvantage rather than reinforcing it. The policy priorities it proposes are relevant for all older people, regardless of where they sit on their personal trajectory of Healthy Ageing . They emphasize the need to build supportive and enabling environments. These can help people build and maintain capacity (for example, a walkable environment may foster physical activity). But they can also provide a range of resources or barriers that determine whether people with a given level of capacity can do the things they feel are important. Thus, although older people may have limited capacity, they may still be able to get where they want and need to go if they have access to an assistive device (such as a walking stick, wheelchair, or scooter) and live close to affordable and accessible transport. This will require a coordinated response from many sectors and multiple levels of government to create age-friendly environments (housing, employment, transport, and social protection) to facilitate the ability of older people to age in a place that is best for them and to do what they value. The report also recommends a better alignment of health systems to the older populations they increasingly serve. This requires a greater integration of services and shifts from disease-based reactive services to models of health care that prioritize the functioning of the older person as a whole, take account of the physiological trends and health conditions that may influence it, and consider the individual’s circumstances and ambitions. And this integration of services must extend to the support and care needed by those older people with significant loss of capacity. Crucially, the report is very clear that “In the 21st Century, no country can afford not to have an integrated system of long term care.” Population and social trends mean it is no longer feasible, sustainable, or equitable for governments to leave this to families alone. This does not mean that this role should instead fall solely to governments, but if families are to provide adequate care and not be unreasonably burdened, at a minimum they need information that can allow them to fill this role, and have access to support such as respite care. Governments also need to put in place mechanisms to ensure the quality of the care that might be contracted by private care givers or in institutions. Positive responses from WHO’s “Member States” to the Report suggest that this new emphasis on the need to build systems of long-term care, even in the poorest countries, may result in much greater global attention to this neglected issue. Finally, the report emphasizes the extensive knowledge gaps that form a major barrier to evidence-based policy development. There is little global consensus on even widely used terms in the field, and although longitudinal research and population surveys are increasingly common, the instruments they use are often not comparable and may not provide the information needed by decision makers. Most of the treatments offered to older people are derived from clinical research that excludes them and that fails to take account of the influence of the comorbidities most of them will have. These recommendations will not be surprising to gerontologists and geriatricians. However, to date, policy related to older age in many countries has often prioritized cost containment over the investment needed to enable the human and social resource that is inherent in older populations. Moreover, policy can appear disjointed, reflecting a political polarization that portrays older people as either vulnerable and needing support, or robust and needing to contribute. Although each characterization may have legitimacy, they are simply the ends of a continuum of diversity, and broader policy responses are needed to encompass this heterogeneity in a coherent way. We hope that the World Report and the articles in this special issue help progress work to achieve this. Certainly, the framework for action outlined in the report is designed to speak to all people at all stages in life and to look to how society can help them experience more positive Healthy Ageing trajectories. Moreover, rather than tell them what they should do, it looks to build their abilities to navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities of later life. As the report says, enabling these abilities is likely to be a sound investment in a future where older people have the freedom to live lives that previous generations might never have imagined. The World report on ageing and health can be found at http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/186463/1/978 9240694811_eng.pdf?ua=1 . To navigate the report—which features content from the articles in this supplement— Chapters 1 and 2 cover all the main ideas. The analysis of context and rationale for action in Chapter 1 is followed by the development and explanation of a Public Health Framework for Action in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 provides a comprehensive, stand-alone update of current knowledge on health in older age. It includes a review of demographic and epidemiological change; the characteristics of health in older age, including underlying changes as well as the health conditions of older people; changes in intrinsic capacity and functional ability; behaviors that influence Healthy Ageing ; and key environmental risks. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 can be read together. They take the Public Health Framework for Action (Chapter 2) as their starting point and examine in detail the implications for health care systems, long-term care, and age-friendly environments, respectively. Chapter 7—Next steps—sets out a menu of options for action applicable to countries at all levels of development. It is organized in four sections: aligning health systems to the needs of the older populations they now serve; developing long-term care systems; creating age-friendly environments; and measuring monitoring and understanding.

The human imprint on the global environment has now become so large and active that it rivals some of the great forces of Nature in its impact on the functioning of the Earth system. Although global-scale human influence on the environment has been recognized since the 1800s, the term Anthropocene, introduced about a decade ago, has only recently become widely, but informally, used in the global change research community. However, the term has yet to be accepted formally as a new geological epoch or era in Earth history. In this paper, we put forward the case for formally recognizing the Anthropocene as a new epoch in Earth history, arguing that the advent of the Industrial Revolution around 1800 provides a logical start date for the new epoch. We then explore recent trends in the evolution of the Anthropocene as humanity proceeds into the twenty-first century, focusing on the profound changes to our relationship with the rest of the living world and on early attempts and proposals for managing our relationship with the large geophysical cycles that drive the Earth's climate system.

Human activity is leaving a pervasive and persistent signature on Earth. Vigorous debate continues about whether this warrants recognition as a new geologic time unit known as the Anthropocene. We review anthropogenic markers of functional changes in the Earth system through the stratigraphic record. The appearance of manufactured materials in sediments, including aluminum, plastics, and concrete, coincides with global spikes in fallout radionuclides and particulates from fossil fuel combustion. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles have been substantially modified over the past century. Rates of sea-level rise and the extent of human perturbation of the climate system exceed Late Holocene changes. Biotic changes include species invasions worldwide and accelerating rates of extinction. These combined signals render the Anthropocene stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene and earlier epochs.

Customary International Humanitarian Law, Volume I: Rules is a comprehensive analysis of the customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable in international and non-international armed conflicts. In the absence of ratifications of important treaties in this area, this is clearly a publication of major importance, carried out at the express request of the international community. In so doing, this study identifies the common core of international humanitarian law binding on all parties to all armed conflicts.

This paper provides a minimalist derivation of the gravity equation and uses it to identify three common errors in the literature, what we call the gold, silver and bronze medal errors. The paper provides estimates of the size of the biases taking the currency union trade effect as an example. We generalize Anderson-Van Wincoop's multilateral trade resistance factor (which only works with cross section data) to allow for panel data and then show that it can be dealt with using time-varying country dummies with omitted determinants of bilateral trade being dealt with by time-invariant pair dummies.

Research on the spatial aspects of economic activity has flourished over the past decade due to the emergence of new theory, new data, and an intense interest on the part of policymakers, especially in Europe but increasingly in North America and elsewhere as well. However, these efforts--collectively known as the "new economic geography"--have devoted little attention to the policy implications of the new theory. Economic Geography and Public Policy fills the gap by illustrating many new policy insights economic geography models can offer to the realm of theoretical policy analysis. Focusing primarily on trade policy, tax policy, and regional policy, Richard Baldwin and coauthors show how these models can be used to make sense of real-world situations. The book not only provides much fresh analysis but also synthesizes insights from the existing literature. The authors begin by presenting and analyzing the widest range of new economic geography models to date. From there they proceed to examine previously unaddressed welfare and policy issues including, in separate sections, trade policy (unilateral, reciprocal, and preferential), tax policy (agglomeration with taxes and public goods, tax competition and agglomeration), and regional policy (infrastructure policies and the political economy of regional subsidies). A well-organized, engaging narrative that progresses smoothly from fundamentals to more complex material, Economic Geography and Public Policy is essential reading for graduate students, researchers, and policymakers seeking new approaches to spatial policy issues.

This paper is concerned with the fact that the incidence of speculative attacks tends to be temporally correlated; that is, currency crises appear to pass "contagiously" from one country to another. The paper provides a survey of the theoretical literature, and analyzes the contagious nature of currency crises empirically, Using thirty years of panel data from twenty industrialized countries, we find evidence of contagion. Contagion appears to spread more easily to countries which are closely tied by international trade linkages than to countries in similar macroeconomic circumstances.

Abstract The trade associated with international production networks – supply‐chain trade for short – is associated with some of the most momentous global economic changes in the last 100 years. It has transformative implications for the world economy. This paper presents a portrait of the global pattern of supply‐chain trade and how it has evolved since 1995.

This paper critically reviews the outcomes of internationally-funded interventions aimed at climate change adaptation and vulnerability reduction. It highlights how some interventions inadvertently reinforce, redistribute or create new sources of vulnerability. Four mechanisms drive these maladaptive outcomes: (i) shallow understanding of the vulnerability context; (ii) inequitable stakeholder participation in both design and implementation; (iii) a retrofitting of adaptation into existing development agendas; and (iv) a lack of critical engagement with how ‘adaptation success’ is defined. Emerging literature shows potential avenues for overcoming the current failure of adaptation interventions to reduce vulnerability: first, shifting the terms of engagement between adaptation practitioners and the local populations participating in adaptation interventions; and second, expanding the understanding of ‘local’ vulnerability to encompass global contexts and drivers of vulnerability. An important lesson from past adaptation interventions is that within current adaptation cum development paradigms, inequitable terms of engagement with ‘vulnerable’ populations are reproduced and the multi-scalar processes driving vulnerability remain largely ignored. In particular, instead of designing projects to change the practices of marginalised populations, learning processes within organisations and with marginalised populations must be placed at the centre of adaptation objectives. We pose the question of whether scholarship and practice need to take a post-adaptation turn akin to post-development, by seeking a pluralism of ideas about adaptation while critically interrogating how these ideas form part of the politics of adaptation and potentially the processes (re)producing vulnerability. We caution that unless the politics of framing and of scale are explicitly tackled, transformational interventions risk having even more adverse effects on marginalised populations than current adaptation.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has noted that “efforts to prevent non-communicable diseases go against the business interests of powerful economic operators”.1 Selling processed food and drink, alcohol, and tobacco is big business and demand is booming, especially in low-income and middle-income countries.

In this article we examine the emergence and implications of transnational climate-change governance. We argue that although the study of transnational relations has recently been renewed alongside a burgeoning interest in issues of global governance, the nature of transnational governance has to date received less attention. We contend that transnational governance occurs when networks operating in the transnational political sphere authoritatively steer constituents toward public goals. In order to stimulate a more systematic study of the diversity and significance of this phenomenon, the article develops a typology based on the actors involved and their authority—public, private, or hybrid—and the primary governance functions performed in order to steer network constituents—information-sharing, capacity building and implementation, or rule-setting. A comparative discussion of transnational governance networks for climate change illustrates each category and the value of the typology in assessing the multiple mechanisms through which transnational governance occurs. In conclusion, we suggest that our typology provides a useful starting point for future research and reflect on the implications for the study of global affairs.

This article analyzes the heterogeneous reaction of exporters to real exchange rate changes using a very rich French firm-level data set with destination-specific export values and volumes on the period 1995–2005. We find that high–performance firms react to a depreciation by increasing significantly more their markup and by increasing less their export volume. This heterogeneity in pricing-to-market is robust to different measures of performance, samples, and econometric specifications. It is consistent with models where the demand elasticity decreases with firm performance. Since aggregate exports are concentrated on high-productivity firms, precisely those that absorb more exchange rate movements in their markups, heterogeneous pricing-to-market may partly explain the weak impact of exchange rate movements on aggregate exports.

The current crisis saw an unprecedented collapse in international capital flows after years of rising financial globalization. We identify the stylized facts and main drivers of this development. The retrenchment in international capital flows is a highly heterogeneous phenomenon: first, across time, being especially dramatic in the wake of the Lehman Brothers’ failure; secondly, across types of flows, with banking flows being the hardest hit due to their sensitivity of risk perception; and thirdly, across regions, with emerging economies experiencing a shorter-lived retrenchment than developed economies. Our econometric analysis shows that the magnitude of the retrenchment in capital flows across countries is linked to the extent of international financial integration, its specific nature – with countries relying on bank flows being the hardest hit – as well as domestic macroeconomic conditions and their connection to world trade flows. — Gian-Maria Milesi-Ferretti and Cédric Tille

The costs and benefits of eastern enlargement: the impact on the EU and central Europe Get access Richard E. Baldwin, Richard E. Baldwin Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva and CEPR; Erasmus University Rotterdam, WTO and CEPR; London Business School and CEPR Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Joseph F. Francois, Joseph F. Francois Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva and CEPR; Erasmus University Rotterdam, WTO and CEPR; London Business School and CEPR Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Richard Portes Richard Portes Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva and CEPR; Erasmus University Rotterdam, WTO and CEPR; London Business School and CEPR Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Economic Policy, Volume 12, Issue 24, 1 April 1997, Pages 125–176, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0327.00018 Published: 21 November 2014

This paper examines the impact of public infrastructure on industrial location when increasing returns are present. Trade integration implies that firms tend to locate in countries with better domestic infrastructure. High levels of international infrastructure and strong returns to scale magnify industrial relocation due to differentials in domestic infrastructure or capital endowments. Regional policies which finance domestic infrastructure in a poor country lead firms to relocate in this country. Regional policies which finance international infrastructure in a poor country will lead firms to leave this country. We also analyze the incentives for countries to inhibit industrial relocation.

A Chapter which discusses the creation and evolution of the UN High Commissioner's Office, explains the structure of the Office, and looks at some of the priorities of the various High Commissioners.

The world of climate politics is increasingly no longer confined to the activities of national governments and international negotiations. Critical to this transformation of the politics of climate change has been the emergence of new forms of transnational governance that cut across traditional state-based jurisdictions and operate across public and private divides. This book provides the first comprehensive, cutting-edge account of the world of transnational climate change governance. Co-authored by a team of the world's leading experts in the field and based on a survey of sixty case studies, the book traces the emergence, nature and consequences of this phenomenon, and assesses the implications for the field of global environmental politics. It will prove invaluable for researchers, graduate students and policy makers in climate change, political science, international relations, human geography, sociology and ecological economics.

This paper surveys the recent literature on sovereign debt and relates it to the evolution of the legal principles underlying the sovereign debt market and the experience of the most recent debt crises and defaults. It finds limited support for theories that explain the feasibility of sovereign debt based on either external sanctions or exclusion from the international capital market and more support for explanations that emphasize domestic costs of default. The paper concludes that there remains a case for establishing institutions that reduce the cost of default but the design of such institutions is not a trivial task.

ABSTRACT In China, between 2006 and 2013, local public debt crowded out the investment of private firms by tightening their funding constraints while leaving state‐owned firms' investment unaffected. We establish this result using a purpose‐built data set for Chinese local public debt. Private firms invest less in cities with more public debt, with the reduction in investment larger for firms located farther from banks in other cities or more dependent on external funding. Moreover, in cities where public debt is high, private firms' investment is more sensitive to internal cash flow.

This paper addresses the final steps to global free trade – what they might look like, what sort of political economy forces might drive them, and what the WTO might do to help. Two facts form the point of departure: (1) Regionalism is here to stay; world trade is regulated by a motley assortment of unilateral, bilateral and multilateral trade agreements; (2) this motley assortment is not the best way to organise world trade. Moving to global duty‐free trade will require a multilateralisation of regionalism. This paper presents the political economy logic of trade liberalisation and uses it to structure a narrative of world trade liberalisation since 1947. The logic is then used to project the world tariff map in 2010, arguing that the pattern will be marked by fractals – fuzzy, leaky trade blocs made up of fuzzy, leaky sub‐blocs (fuzzy since the proliferation of FTAs makes it impossible to draw sharp lines around the Big‐3 trade blocs, and leaky since some FTAs create free trade ‘canals’ linking the Big‐3 blocs). The paper then presents a novel political economy mechanism – spaghetti bowls as building blocs – whereby offshoring creates a force that encourages the multilateralisation of regionalism. Finally, the paper suggests three things the WTO might do to help multilateralise regionalism.