Globalization And The Race To The Bottom In Developing Countries

Challenges conventional wisdoms surrounding globalisation's effects on developing countries, suggesting that the real losers are the middle classes.

Challenges conventional wisdoms surrounding globalisation's effects on developing countries, suggesting that the real losers are the middle classes.

This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. When it was first published, this national bestseller quickly became a touchstone in the globalization debate. Renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz had a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the last decade, including stints as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank. Particularly concerned with the plight of the developing nations, he became increasingly disillusioned as he saw the International Monetary Fund and other major institutions put the interests of Wall Street and the financial community ahead of the poorer nations. Those seeking to understand why globalization has engendered the hostility of protesters in Seattle and Genoa will find the reasons here. While this book includes no simple formula on how to make globalization work, Stiglitz provides a reform agenda that will provoke debate for years to come. Rarely do we get such an insider's analysis of the major institutions of globalization as in this penetrating book. With a new foreword for this paperback edition.

The impact of globalization on the world's developing economies is not conclusive: studies show conflicting conclusions to the same problems in the context of globalization in developing countries. It is this analytical inconclusiveness that is at the heart of this collection, which makes a fresh attempt to study the real impact of globalization.

In the passionate debate that currently rages over globalization, critics have been heard blaming it for a host of ills afflicting poorer nations, everything from child labor to environmental degradation and cultural homogenization. Now Jagdish Bhagwati, the internationally renowned economist, takes on the critics, revealing that globalization, when properly governed, is in fact the most powerful force for social good in the world today. Drawing on his unparalleled knowledge of international and development economics, Bhagwati explains why the "gotcha" examples of the critics are often not as compelling as they seem. With the wit and wisdom for which he is renowned, Bhagwati convincingly shows that globalization is part of the solution, not part of the problem. This edition features a new afterword by the author, in which he counters recent writings by prominent journalist Thomas Friedman and the Nobel Laureate economist Paul Samuelson and argues that current anxieties about the economic implications of globalization are just as unfounded as were the concerns about its social effects.

Globalization - the growing integration of economies and societies around the world, is a complex process. The focus of this research is the impact of economic integration on developing countries and especially the poor people living in these countries. Whether economic integration supports poverty reduction and how it can do so more effectively are key questions asked. The research yields 3 main findings with bearings on current policy debates about globalization. Firstly, poor countries with some 3 billion people have broken into the global market for manufactures and services, and this successful integration has generally supported poverty reduction. Secondly, inclusion both across countries and within them is important as a number of countries (pop. 2 billion) are failing as states, trading less and less, and becoming marginal to the world economy. Thirdly, standardization or homogenization is a concern - will economic integration lead to cultural or institutional homogenization?

As people all over the world become more culturally and economically connected, a backlash towards globalization is developing. From Seattle to Genoa, protesters travel to every meeting of international economic institutions to denounce global markets. What's the real story of globalization? Is it a "race to the bottom," as the critics of capitalism insist? Or a race to the top, as Tomas Larsson suggests? Instead of debates among theoreticians and activists, it's time for some on-the-ground reporting about the effects of globalization. Larsson, a Swedish journalist, spent ten years reporting from Bangkok. In this book he takes us to the slums of Rio, a bicycle factory in Korea, a brothel in a back corner of Thailand, and more. In all the places, he finds that the changes of the past ten years have given people tremendous opportunities. His perspective on globalization differs from those of Pat Buchanan, William Greider, or the Seattle protesters. And it's more vivid than econometric articles because it's on-the-spot reporting from all over the developing world. Tomas Larsson looks past the dry statistics and arid debates to examine real people around the world. He finds that, thanks to the spread of global markets, hundreds of millions of previously poor people have left poverty and misery behind them and taken their place among the global middle class. This is a book full of good news, more relevant than ever as the world's finance ministers cower behind chainlink fences, afraid to defend the economic system that is spreading wealth more broadly than ever.