If you were first introduced to globalization via Tom Friedman‘s The World Is Flat, you may be interested to learn more about this wave of economics. Many point to the recent book by Joseph Stiglitz called Making Globalization Work. This is a follow-up to his 2003 book Globalization and Its Discontents.
Stiglitz is professor of economics at Columbia. He served as Chairman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1995-97. He followed that appointment by serving as Chief Economist and Senior VP of the World Bank from 1997-2000. Stiglitz was one of three to receive the 2001 Noble Prize in economics.
He accurately addresses areas of economic globalization that continue to fail across the globe in shaping market opportunities of underdeveloped nations. Needless to say the real golden rule applies: He who has the Gold makes the rules.
His third chapter Making Trade Fair presents detailed problems between established and underdeveloped nations. This chapter provides an overview to NAFTA and Fear of Job Loss by established countries, which led Stiglitz to call for developing countries to be treated differently regarding trade ensuring successful access to new markets for those underdeveloped countries. Stiglitz also addressed barriers to fair trade: Safeguards, Dumping Duties, Technical barriers and Rules of Origin, which provides an interesting example of how the U.S. restricts the import of cheap cotton by forcing countries to use American cotton to produce shirts. Those countries using our more expensive cotton can guarantee access to American consumers.
Overall Stiglitz has provided detail to the promise of globalization and how policies must change to ensure its effectiveness world wide. But he also warns that failure to adapt to those underdeveloped nations will not only derail the promise the globalization, but keep long established control of economic growth in the hands of the few powerful countries (like the U.S.) that want to use globalization as a hammer.
Stiglitz has recently presented work (Tokyo 2007) that globalization makes the world less flat due to the growing inequality between countries. Many predicted standard economic theory would bring convergence, instead there was divergence.