Globalization and Egalitarian Redistribution

Each of the essays in this volume is a gem. Together, they present a compelling case for the proposition that a more egalitarian domestic policy in the advanced economies is essential to a morally decent form of globalization. While globalization, in the form of greater openness in international trade, offers new opportunities for the world's poor, it also threatens wages for less advantaged workers in the advanced economies. Defending those wages will require new policies of social insurance and redistribution: an egalitarianism suited to a newly global economy. This is a large political challenge. But if the advanced economies continue on their current path and fail to meet this challenge, political opposition to globalization is likely to grow. If it does, we will see renewed trade barriers. And those barriers may have disastrous consequences for the world's poor. What we have is, in short, a powerful and original defense of global solidarity.--Joshua Cohen, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThis stellar volume by a Who's Who list of scholars demolishes the simplistic myths about globalization preventing egalitarian redistribution. It will be required reading for years to come for those who want to understand globalization and redistribution at a deeper level than the standard textbook platitudes.--William Easterly, Professor of Economics, New York UniversityThis timely volume offers a pioneering and comprehensive treatment of an important facet of globalization--its relation to economic redistribution. This is a topic motivating a lot of speculation, discussion, and research these days, so it is very useful to obtain an informed perspective on different viewpointsand what we know about their underpinnings. Each of this book's essays, by eminent scholars, represents a serious attempt to assemble theoretical and empirical arguments, using state-of-the-art methodology.--Dilip Mookherjee, Professor of Economics, Boston University, author o