UNRWA

On Monday, despite US threats to withhold military aid over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Israeli Knesset passed two bills that together would, within ninety days, ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) from operating within Israel’s sovereign territory and prevent state authorities from having any contact with the UN humanitarian aid organization. 

Months before Oct.7, 2023, UNRWA already faced the possibility of closure due to donor fatigue and funding gaps. A September 2023 report from the International Crisis Group examines UNRWA’s budget crisis and warns of consequential instability in the region: 

“Even if UNRWA is bailed out at the last moment, as has happened before and could indeed happen again in 2023, the perpetual state of crisis is untenable. It undermines staff morale, prompts salary strikes and reduces an international agency with a proud record of aiding Palestinian refugees to a miserable beggar for alms. It is also inefficient to run what amounts to a welfare state for three million people on a shoestring, as it militates against investing in infrastructure, digitisation, and other updating of outlay, eroding the quality of services. Worse, Palestinians fearing—rightly or not—an end to their status as refugees as a result of UNRWA’s collapse, or even a drastic cut in services, could foment new turmoil in the Israeli-occupied territories and destabilise Jordan and Lebanon.”

+  See Jalal Al Husseini on how UNRWA has, since its establishment in 1949 as a temporary agency, navigated the conflicting expectations of donor states to emerge as a main stakeholder in the Palestinian refugee crisis. Link. And see the 2024 independent review of UNRWA’s adherence to the humanitarian principle of neutrality. Link.

+  “The urgency to resolve underlying questions of justice and peace for Palestinians is somehow divorced from the challenge of providing for their human needs.” See Sari Hanafi on UNRWA’s faux-governance in Lebanon’s refugee camps. Link, link. And see UN Special Rapporteur Michael Fakhri’s report on the Palestinian people’s right to food sovereignty. Link.

+  “The share of aid flow from private operators in Gaza has increased from 5 percent in April to about 60 percent in August and September, according to Israeli military data.” By Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper. Link. And see reporting on the new restrictions faced by Haaretz after the newspaper’s publisher, Amos Schocken, called for sanctions on Israel at a conference in London. Link, link, link.

NEW RESEARCHERS

Offshoring

JIN LIU is a IES Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University. In a 2023 working paper, she examines the choices of multinational firms regarding offshoring, and finds that the impact of US trade policies adversely affect multinationals offshoring to China, with significant third-country effects.

From the paper:

“Multinational firms account for a large share of global production and innovation. These firms produce and innovate in various countries, choosing the optimal locations for each activity. Whether a firm should produce and innovate in the same host country or region turns on the size of their colocation benefits relative to the force separating them. This separating force arises from the fact that countries with low production costs are usually not countries with high returns to innovation (Arkolakis et al., 2018; Antras et al., 2017). In the data, the former force dominates, and firms tend to colocate production and innovation. As shown in Figure 1, large destinations of offshore production are often also large destinations of offshore innovation for U.S. firms. The colocation benefits are twofold. First, there is synergy between production and innovation as direct interactions reduce communication and coordination costs, spur new ideas, and increase innovation efficiencies. Second, having local production can reduce innovation costs.”

+++

+  “Ever since the disputed US Presidential election of 2000, when the Supreme Court halted an electoral recount in Florida and delivered victory to the Republican nominee George W. Bush, Florida has been on the trajectory toward one-party domination.” New on PW, Aida Hozić on Florida’s FIRE economy and the rise of the “anti-woke” American right. Link.

+  “Home health care, long-term care, childcare, and even education are sectors characterized by huge labor costs, low wages, and poor working conditions. This manifests in unreliable and low-quality service.” Also new on PW, Andrew Elrod interviews Gabriel Winant on the care economy and the 2024 US elections. Link.

+  “Recent shifts inflect globalization away from a growth promoting process in the global South towards a growth inhibiting process.” By Anastasia Nesvetailova and Herman Mark Schwartz. Link.

+  Ben Casselman looks into whether wage increases have kept up with the cost of living post-pandemic, and constrasts cost of living to pre-pandemic trends. Link.

+  Zachary Parolin, Rafael Pintro-Schmitt, Gøsta Esping-Andersen, and Peter Fallesen investigate differences in intergenerational poverty in the US, Australia, Denmark, Germany, and the UK using administrative- and survey-based panel datasets. Link.

+  For Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway talk to Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Gerard DiPippo about the “Made in China 2025” plan, and how China has emerged as a leader in EVs and solar despite an impedimental US. Link.

+  “Whereas in 2014 roughly half of households bothered to respond to Britain’s labour force survey, these days the share is closer to one in five. This collapse has exposed figures to volatility and potential bias.” By Soumaya Keynes. Link.

+  “The nature of ancient economies has been a topic of debate for decades. Disagreement and controversy have been encouraged by the scarcity of ancient economic data. Therefore, it was startling when Slotsky (1997) reported the existence of what appeared to be the longest extant series of ancient prices. This article analyzes these putative price series using time-series methods designed for the study of prices to divine their nature and reveal what they indicate about the economy of ancient Babylonia. The primary issue in the study of the ancient economy has been the extent of markets. Polanyi (1944) argued that ancient markets were limited in scope and peripheral to most economic activity. Others, following Rostovtzeff (1957), have argued that markets were important or even central to ancient economies. This debate has been known as the primitivist/modernist debate or as the Finley debate, following his famous Sather lectures (Finley, 1973). This debate takes place mostly in ancient history journals, but it also has appeared in economic history journals in articles by Silver (1983) and Greene (2000).” By Peter Temin. Link.

Each week we highlight research from a graduate student, postdoc, or early-career professor. Send us recommendations: editorial@jainfamilyinstitute.org