Category: POWER – Working Papers, Journal Articles & Reports

The Impact of Trade and Investment Treaties on Mobilization of Taxation in Developing Countries

Developing countries need more fiscal revenue to build their infrastructure, achieve energy security and environmental sustainability, and provide social services necessary for human development. While trade and investment treaties have typically been assumed to be revenue-neutral, economic studies demonstrate that such is not the case. The legal literature has not given much consideration to this […]

Global Development Policy Center – Annual Report 2019

The Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center is a university-wide research center in partnership with the Frederick S. Pardee School for Global Studies and the Office of Research at Boston University. In its second year of operation, the GDP Center is proud to present the 2019 Annual Report. The report provides an overview of […]

Reforming US Trade Policy for Shared Prosperity and the Planet

Trade has not always been such a controversial topic, and it worked well for the US and many other countries for most of the post-war era. However, in the last few decades, trade has become a key pivot point in politics and elections in the US. This is partly because of the transformation of the […]

Rethinking Trade Treaties & Access to Medicines: Toward a Policy-Oriented Research Agenda

Since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994 that brought intellectual property rules into the global trading regime via the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), there has been a concern that the trading regime would globalize the monopolies created by patent rights and therefore make it more difficult […]

Unity in Diversity? How Intergroup Contact Can Foster Nation Building

Uniting people from diverse cultures is a founding principle of many nation states. Throughout history, leaders have introduced policies to foster a national identity in which citizens remain connected by shared history and values, despite never meeting one another. However, rising geographic mobility and increasing diversity within states may complicate the process of creating a […]

Can Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies Make a Difference in Promoting Equitable Access to Affordable Medicines? From Diagnosis to Sustainable Impact

The 2015 Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information (PPRI) Conference presented major challenges in achieving equitable access to affordable medicines not just in low- and middle-income countries but also in high-income countries. This included innovative medicines such as sofosbuvir, used to treat Hepatitis C, whose planned market entry hit public payers of high-income countries unprepared. As […]

The Co-Benefits of Stakeholder Engagement: Environmental and Social Safeguards, Infrastructure Investment, and Deforestation in the Andean Amazon, 2000-2015

Over the last 15 years, South America’s Western Andean nations have adopted some of the world’s most ambitious environmental and social protections surrounding infrastructure investment, most notably the right to prior consultation for affected indigenous communities. These reforms have been matched by the adoption of equally ambitious environmental and social safeguards (ESS) by the international […]