The Best of GED – 2017

2017 has been another exiting year for the Global Economic Dynamics Project. With populism on the rise and growing protectionist tendencies being felt in many western nations, the GED team aimed to deliver to you the necessary facts and insights concerning all things trade and economics this year. Our studies, focus papers, blogposts and videos covered everything from large geopolitical events such as the triggering of Article 50 – making Brexit official – to less mainstream stories such as the ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) – the largest trade agreement you never heard off.

As is tradition, we want to celebrate this completion of yet another year of GED economic expertise with you, our faithful audience. For that we have selected our two favorite blopogst for each month this year, which we present to you here in chronological order:

January

The Crossroads Turkey

The GED year started off with the launch of our most watched video series till that point – a thorough investigation of Turkey’s political  situation, its economy and its people.

In the Era of Trump, Will China Take the Lead on Free Trade?

January also saw the first speech of a Chinese president at the World Economic Forum in Davos, promting speculations whether it might be China that would in the future lead the world in economic cooperation.

Februrary

Video: The Future of Brexit

In an attemt to answer all questions Brexit, the Financial Times and the Global Economic Dynamics Team of the Bertelsmann Stiftung held a high level panel discussion. For those who couldn’t attend the event personally, we have the video here.

GED Under the Radar -February Edition

Our newly launched blogpost series “under the radar” was designed to bring you those stories that fell through the cracks of mainstream media interest. In this very first installment we looked at Danish labor problems, India’s poor, an angry Belarusian and French cows.

March

TFA: The Trillion Dollar Trade Deal That just Came into Force

…And which hardly anyone noticed.

Brexit Has Just Been Triggered – What Happens Next?

On March 29th the UK made it official, the kingdom is leaving the European Union. We looked at the economic facts beind the decision and at what the journey down the road from here might look like.

April

Electing Europe’s Future

In April, the highly uncertain upcoming French Elections had Europe in suspense. Our Focus Paper looked at the proposed policies of then-candidate and now president Emmanuel Macron and at the opposition he would have to face.

GED Explains: Border Adjustment Tax

When Donald Trump voiced plans to protect US businesses through higher import taxes and export subsidies, many people were unsure what that would mean. The “GED Explains” format took topics like this and others, examining the economic facts behind the concept and making them understandable.

May

Video: Who Benefits Most From Globalization?

Building on the findings of our last year Globalization Index 2016, this video analysed 42 countries over a timespan of 24 years to measure the world wide impact of globalization and its consequences.

EU-India FTA: Two Unequal Partners?

2017 was another great year for GED Study releases. This particular study, in cooperation with the Ifo Institute, calculated the expected benefits from a potential EU-India free trade agreement.

June

GED Explains: The German Export Surplus

Yet another entry in our popular GED Explains series looked at the potentially problematic persistence of high German export surpluses. Rather than actively decreasing exports, however, Germany should do everything to increase its imports.

Populist Economic Policy – What Does it Mean for the Global Economy?

With a year dominated by Trumpist protectionist talk and European Brexit fears, a deeper analysis of how populist policy would affect the global economy was a given for the GED project.

July

The Mixed Blessings of Globalization in Africa

Globalization does not affect all countries equally. Some benefit more than others and for certain places Globalization can be a real burden. Nowhere does this become more apparant than in Africa.

July’s G20 Summit in Hamburg Ended With Mixed Results

The promotion of more inclusive globalization and the fight against protectionism was also the topic of Julys G20 Summit held this year in Germany. The results of this most powerful international get-together, however, were mixed.

August

Learning From China’s Success? Europe in the 21st Century Global Economy

Not all posts on our blog are written by the GED experts themselves. One of our many great guest authors in 2017 was Gerhard Stahl, from Peking University, who wrote about European-Chinese relations in the era of Donald Trump.

What are the Drivers Behind Economic Globalization?

The perception and effects of globalization have been one of the main focus points of GED research in 2017. But to understand any of those effects, one must first understand what drives globalization to begin with.

September

GED Video: The Crossroads India

Septembers newest installment of our Crossroads Countries series became the most watched GED video production to-date with over 130.000 clicks from you on YouTube.

Downgrading or Upgrading NAFTA?

The renegotiation and fate of the North America Free Trade Agreement remains one of the large uncertainties of the Trump presidency. We tell you the economic pros and cons of NAFTA in a nutshell.

October

India’s Path of Economic Liberalization and Digital Transformation

What has been achieved so far and what challenges remain for India on it’s road of economic reform?

GED Presents: The All New, All Powerful FTA VIS

With the newest update of our award winning data visualization tool, GED provides even more visual data content for you to explore and play around with.

November

Factory Europe: How Does Europe Tie in With Global Value Chains?

In the 21st century global economy, goods are rarely produced in one country alone anymore. This GED Focus Paper examines the various ways in which the “factory” Europe is tied in into global production processes.

Separatism in Europe: A Lose-Lose Situation?

The number of separatist movements is increasing throughout Europe, with the controversial referendum in Catalonia representing only the tip of the iceberg. From an economic point of view, however, secession would be a loss-making business for all of Europe, above all for the regions that secede.

December

How Hidden Protectionism Impacts International Trade

Our most recent GED study shows that non-tariff barriers (NTBs) implemented worldwide between 2010 and 2015 have been responsible for roughly 16% of the decline in global trade.

The Effects of Digitization and Automation on Global Trade

The large degree of automation enabled by digitisation changes many ways of our lives. Most importantly it changes how things are being produced – ultimately, this also impacts global trade flows. This blogpost tries to anticipate how the geography of trade will change in the future.