Globalization

In this chapter, I'll lay out the principal facts and controversies surrounding international flows of capital and their attendant risks. I'll review the perspectives of economic historians and economists on the implications of capital mobility, both during the first wave of globalization (prior to World War I) and during the recent wave (since 1980). I'll emphasize changes over time - especially political changes - that have weakened the case for unfettered capital mobility and have made capital flows more controversial among economists today than in the past.

Globalization has been sold as bringing unprecedented prosperity to the billions of people who have remained mired in poverty for centuries. Yet, globalization faces enormous resistance especially in the Third World. Why so? I argue that globalization today has been oversold.

Importation of drugs into the U.S. may soon become legal. Since prices of drugs are lower in most other countries than they are in the U.S., importation would result in a decline in U.S. drug prices. The purpose of this paper is to assess the consequences of importation for new drug development.

Outside the United States and the United Kingdom, large corporations usually have controlling owners, who are usually very wealthy families. Pyramidal control structures, cross shareholding, and super-voting rights let such families control corporations without making a commensurate capital investment. In many countries, a few such families end up controlling considerable proportions of their countries' economies. Three points emerge.

Does country transparency affect international portfolio investment? We examine this question by constructing new measures of transparency and by making use of a unique microdata set on portfolio holdings of emerging market funds around the world. We distinguish between government and corporate transparency. There is clear evidence that funds systematically invest less in less transparent countries. Moreover, funds have a greater propensity to exit nontransparent countries during crises.

In Europe, Procter & Gamble and Henkel appear to follow significantly different brand positioning strategies for laundry detergents. Procter & Gamble tends to use pan-European brand positions while Henkel tends to use brand positions that vary by country. Why would Procter & Gamble and Henkel pursue different brand positioning strategies and both be correct? The answer is that their competitive situations differ and they would answer the questions posed in this article differently.

One of the most controversial aspects of globalization is capital-market liberalization - not so much the liberalization of rules governing foreign direct inveestment, but those affecting short-term capital flows, speculative hot capital that can come into and out of the country. In the 1980s and 1990s, the IMF and the U.S.

The development focus of the Doha Round emerged from a renewed spirit of responsibility for the challenges faced by poor countries and the perceived inequities generated by previous rounds of trade negotiations. This study presents an alternative way forward for the Doha Round based on principles of social justice and economic analysis.