Is Globalization Helping Or Hurting The World’s Most Poor? (2024)

A coffee farmer inspects his crop in Colombia's southwestern Cauca department. | Flickr: Neil Palmer/ CIAT

There’s no doubt about it- we are living in an increasingly globalized world.

I’m not sure when this happened, historians can’t even agree. 2,000 years ago? 20 years ago? I guess it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we recognize how the world is changing, and the implications behind it.

So what exactly is globalization? Internet go-to Wikipedia defines it as “the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture.” In other words, globalization means we’re all connected.

Today this manifests itself in many ways. The voting patterns of one country will directly affect people living in another. The choices that American consumers make will directly affect the quality of lives of factory workers in South East Asia. The environmental policies created in India will directly affect climate patterns experienced in Africa. And most importantly, those of us living in metropolitan cities can enjoy Ethiopian, Japanese, and Italian food all in the same day...yum.

The implications of globalization are HUGE.

So what does this mean for people living in extreme poverty? Is globalization helping or hurting the world’s poorest communities?

I looked to the National Bureau of Economic Research, who recently published Globalization and Poverty. The book is edited by Ann Harrison, with contributions from 15 economists. Here’s what I found out:

Globalization produces both winners and losers among the poor.

Some studies show that globalization has been associated with rising inequality, because the poor do not always share in the gains from trade. An example of this is the coffee trade. Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, yet most of its growers only make 10% of what it eventually sells for. However, when farmers have access to credit, technical know-how, and social safety nets such as income support, trade can benefit the world’s poor.

The book argues that export growth and incoming foreign investment have proven to reduce poverty. But, at the same time, trade and foreign investment alone are not enough to alleviate poverty. Increasing access to education and credit, as well as improved infrastructure, are necessary in order to see real progress. Echoing that idea, Harrison concludes that globalization can benefit people living in extreme poverty, but only if the appropriate complementary policies and institutions are in place.

Global citizens, that’s where we come in.

I personally will never get involved in foreign investment or trade- I’m not particularly interested in business. But you know what I can do? I can use my voice to help ensure that everyone has access to quality education. I can do a little research and use my power as a consumer to support companies that treat their employees well. And I can stand up against policies that promote inequality. We all can!

In today’s globalized world, we no longer have the luxury of saying “well that’s not our problem.” We’re all responsible, and we’re all culpable. And we’re naive if we think that problems experienced far away from us won’t reach us.

Collectively, all of our actions and inactions, have real consequences that can be felt worldwide. It’s our responsibility as global citizens to hold ourselves and our leaders accountable to make thoughtful choices in consideration of others.

Is Globalization Helping Or Hurting The World’s Most Poor? (2024)

FAQs

Is Globalization Helping Or Hurting The World’s Most Poor? ›

Finally, the collected evidence suggests that globalization produces both winners and losers among the poor. The fact that some poor individuals are made worse off by trade or financial integration suggests the need for carefully targeted safety nets.

Does Globalisation help or hurt the world's poor? ›

In general while globalization inevitably creates winners and losers, opening the economy to trade and long-term capital flows need not make the poor worse off, if appropriate domestic policies and institutions (particularly for support infrastructure to help production reorganization, labor market adjustment and ...

Is globalization good or bad for the world economy? ›

Globalization is economically facilitated by free trade agreements, which permit barrier-free imports and exports across borders. While globalization brings many advantages—including lower prices and higher standards of living—it also has drawbacks, including wealth concentration and cultural hom*ogenization.

Has globalization been more positive or negative for the world and why? ›

On the positive side, it has increased global trade, increased economic growth, increased employment opportunities, and increased the flow of capital and technology. On the negative side, it has increased inequality, caused environmental damage, and led to the exploitation of labor in many developing countries.

Do you agree that globalization can be a powerful force for poverty reduction? ›

Globalization can be a powerful force for poverty reduction. Many countries have seen improvements in their welfare and educational systems as a consequence of globalization.

Why does globalization help the poor? ›

This will, in turn, lead to higher employment and real wage benefits to unskilled labor, resulting in higher earnings for the poor and a reduction in wage inequality. Economic liberalization, theoretically, also lowers the price of imported goods, increasing the real incomes of the poor.

How is globalization helping the world? ›

Globalization allows companies to find lower-cost ways to produce their products. It also increases global competition, which drives prices down and creates a larger variety of choices for consumers. Lowered costs help people in both developing and already-developed countries live better on less money.

How has globalization hurt the economy? ›

Some examples of potential negative effects of globalization on the economy include the displacement of workers due to the outsourcing of jobs, increased competition from imports, and the decline of certain industries.

Does globalization help the economy? ›

Benefits of Globalization

Globalization gives large companies an advantage. Companies can go to developing countries and get raw materials, like oil, for less money. They can pay lower wages to workers in those countries. At the same time, companies use expertise and experience from workers in developed countries.

Does globalization affect the world? ›

Globalization means the speedup of movements and exchanges (of human beings, goods, and services, capital, technologies or cultural practices) all over the planet. One of the effects of globalization is that it promotes and increases interactions between different regions and populations around the globe.

What are the bad effects of globalization? ›

On the other hand, there have been negative impacts of globalisation, such as increased global inequality, increased corruption, loss of jobs and environmental degradation, to name a few.

What are the 7 disadvantages of globalization? ›

Potential disadvantages of globalization for world economies include possible monopolization, structural unemployment, inter-dependence and tax avoidance. 5. Potential disadvantages of globalization for individual businesses include compliance, control and inadequate market knowledge.

What is the most negative effect of globalization? ›

Some adverse consequences of globalization include terrorism, job insecurity, currency fluctuation, and price instability.

Has globalization increased the rich poor divide? ›

It is not a perception, but a reality: globalisation has made the rich richer and the poor poorer. Since the mid-1990s, the richest 10% of the world's population has accumulated more than three quarters of all wealth generated, while the poorest half got only 2%.

How does globalisation affect poverty and equality? ›

Globalisation leads to poverty reduction and it reduces income inequality. The relationship between globalisation and poverty remains significant when controlled for regional heterogeneity. A non-linear analysis shows that poverty has diminishing returns to benefits from globalisation.

What are the positive and negative effects of globalisation? ›

Positive effects of globalization include increased international trade and investment flow. Negative effects include economic inequality and loss of local cultural identity.

Is globalization making the world richer or poorer? ›

Globalization and free exchange, although unpopular among those who think they benefit only the rich, are in fact responsible for plummeting poverty and shrinking inequality across the world.

What are the pros and cons of globalization? ›

The Pros and Cons of Globalization
  • Access to New Markets. ...
  • Spread of Knowledge and Technology. ...
  • Enhanced Global Cooperation and Tolerance. ...
  • Promotes Economic Growth. ...
  • Increased Competition. ...
  • Exploitation of Labor and Resources. ...
  • Imbalanced Trade. ...
  • Domestic Job Loss.
Jul 25, 2022

Why may globalization not reduce inequality in poor countries? ›

The Maskin-Kremer theory also explains why the very poorest countries have been excluded from globalization: if the skills levels in a rich country are sufficiently different from those in a poor country, then international production efforts that employ workers from both countries will be rendered too inefficient to ...

How does globalization make the gap between rich and poor more threatening? ›

Globalization can increase the gap between rich and poor by creating more opportunities for the already wealthy to accumulate more wealth, while leaving behind those who do not have the same access or resources.

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