Reflecting on "Gravity" versus "Weightless" trade models

Chris Grey includes a brief exposition on the fallacy of political actors claiming the emergence of a new “post-geography trading world” (political dogma than a trade model as such) (link to Brexit limps on post of Fri 23 April 21)

"Munchau also regurgitates the idea that modern economies are becoming all about data trade (i.e. the ‘weightless economy’ mantra that’s been around for decades) and makes the claim that gravity models of trade (i.e. that geographical distance matters) only apply to goods trade. The latter has long been a favourite idea amongst Brexiters, such as former International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who talk of a ‘post-geography trading world’, but it is largely incorrect."

Freelancing crowdsourcing

Digital platform companies in the mediated freelancing microwork space include Upwork (rebranded merged entity Elance-oDesk). Uber, MTurk, Deliveroo and others.

So we’re talking about platforms, more formally, 2-sided platforms. These platforms act as mediators between those who want a service, and those who can deliver a service. There are risks to actors on both sides of the platform aren’t there? Risks to both micro-workers and (presumably) the micro-employers

Select a country for your research project - exercise

Open the shared spreadsheet and choose a country for your research project.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1w_q9oBGoAOd7A9RDAavYWgasAAPiTcuC?usp=sharing

Provisions against outsourcing

 The provisions of the proposals for '"Building Momentum": A new public service agreement, 2021-2022' retains protections for public sector workers that act as a counterweight to employer attempts to outsourcing work to 3rd parties. The employer must...

"...present a `business case' if they want to outsource a service or part of a service and... to consult with staff representatives. Crucially, employers are forbidden to include labour costs in any business case."

Source:  Proposals for "Building Momentum": A new public service agreement, 2021-2022, SIPTU

A post from The Reg "Offshoring is kind of over..."

Claims that "offshoring is kind of over, says Wipro, as financials surge thanks to offshoring"

Yet the whole basis for the article is that business is booming with distributed multi-sited multi-national work systems...

https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/14/wipro_q3_2021/

Still current, still true - the problems of outsourcing and how to solve them

An article by InVerita via Medium

https://medium.com/@inverita

#1 Data security risk

#2 Not planning your budget ahead

#3 Time zone difference

#4 Language and cultural barriers

#5 Inability to see the whole scope of the project

#6 Unclear delivery expectations

#7 Quantity, not quality

#8 Buying a pig in a poke

#9 You don’t “get it in writing”

#10 You don’t have any expertise in technology

[inVerita is a software consulting company focusing on outsourcing and staff augmentation services based in Ukraine. https://inveritasoft.com]

Why we get a better cup in Ireland than all the tea in China

This article by Conor Pope (Irish Times) provides an interesting view on the Irish love of tea and its relatively recent history and in particular how the (then) Irish Free State set about substituting its tea supply chain, away from the London tea market, to sourcing tea directly from suppliers in Rwanda.

At the time Rwanda was a French colony, thus making the international logistics (slightly) less complex given the wartime environment and the relative predominance of British colonial control of much of Africa at the time. 

https://www.irishtimes.com/