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Globalization and Poverty

Over the past two decades, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day has been cut in half. How much of that improvement is because of—or in spite of—globalization? While anti-globalization activists mount loud critiques and the media report breathlessly on globalization’s perils and promises, economists have largely remained silent, in part because of an entrenched institutional divide between those who study poverty and those who study trade and finance. 

Globalization and Poverty bridges that gap, bringing together experts on both international trade and poverty to provide a detailed view of the effects of globalization on the poor in developing nations, answering such questions as: Do lower import tariffs improve the lives of the poor? Has increased financial integration led to more or less poverty? How have the poor fared during various currency crises? Does food aid hurt or help the poor?

Poverty, the contributors show here, has been used as a popular and convenient catchphrase by parties on both sides of the globalization debate to further their respective arguments. Globalization and Poverty provides the more nuanced understanding necessary to move that debate beyond the slogans.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
 
Globalization and Poverty: An Introduction
Ann Harrison

I. GLOBAL (CROSS-COUNTRY) ANALYSES

1. Why are the Critics so Convinced That Globalization is Bad for the Poor?
Emma Aisbett
Comment: Xavier Sala-i-Martin

2. Stolper-Samuelson Is Dead: And Other Crimes of Both Theory and Data
Donald R. Davis and Prachi Mishra

3. Globalization, Poverty, and All That: Factor Endowment versus Productivity Views
William Easterly
Comment: Aart Kraay

4. Does Tariff Liberalization Increase Wage Inequality? Some Empirical Evidence
Branko Milanovic and Lyn Squire
Comment: Douglas A. Irwin

5. My Policies or Yours: Does OECD Support for Agriculture Increase Poverty in Developing Countries?
Margaret McMillan, Alix Peterson Zwane, and Nava Ashraf
Comment: Mitali Das

II. COUNTRY CASE STUDIES OF TRADE REFORM AND POVERTY

6. The Effects of the Columbian Trade Liberalization on Urban Poverty
Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg and Nina Pavcnik
Comment: Chang-Tai Hsieh

7. Trade Liberalization, Poverty, and Inequality: Evidence from Indian Districts
Petia Topalova
Comment: Robin Burgess

8. Trade Protection and Industry Wage Structure in Poland
Chor-ching Goh and Beata S. Javorcik
Comment: Irene Brambilla

9. Globalization and Complementary Policies: Poverty Impacts in Rural Zambia
Jorge F. Balat and Guido G. Porto
Comment: Matthew J. Slaughter

10. Globalization, Labor Income, and Poverty in Mexico
Gordon H. Hanson
Comment: Esther Duflo

III. CAPITIAL FLOWS AND POVERTY OUTCOMES

11. Financial Globalization, Growth, and Volatility in Developing Countries
Eswar S. Prasad, Kenneth Rogoff, Shang-Jin Wei, and M. Ayhan Kose
Comment: Susan M. Collins

12. Household Responses to the Financial Crises in Indonesia: Longitudinal Evidence on Poverty, Resources, and Well-Being
Duncan Thomas and Elizabeth Frankenberg

13. Does Food Aid Harm the Poor? Household Evidence from Ethiopia
James Levinsohn and Margaret McMillan
Comment: Rohini Pande

IV. OTHER OUTCOMES ASSOCIATED WITH GLOBALIZATION (RISKS, RETURNS TO SPEAKING ENGLISH)

14. Risk and the Evolution of Inequality in China in an Era of Globalization
Ethan Ligon
Comment: Shang-Jin Wei

15. Globalization and the Returns to Speaking English in South Africa
James Levinshon
Comment: Raquel Fernández

Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index

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