Globalization

The term "globalization" is used variously to refer to the rise of international markets for capital, labor, and goods (i.e., economic globalization), the emergence of international forms of governance (e.g., the European Union), and the diffusion of a world culture (e.g., the spread of democratic, egalitarian commitments). For a scholar of such processes, the main objectives are to understand how they affect the amount of income inequality within and between countries, how they disrupt careers and displace workers, and how social policies of various kinds (e.g., trade agreements) may reduce, control, or otherwise change the effects of globalization.

Income inequality

Is globalization a main "smoking gun" that accounts for the dramatic rise in income inequality in many advanced industrial countries? Has globalization also increased inter-country differences in income?

Job displacement

Are advanced industrial countries losing many manufacturing jobs to globalization? Will the manufacturing sectors of these countries effectively disappear over the next quarter-century or so? Can professional and service jobs in advanced industrial economies also be readily exported?

Policy

What effects do globalizing policies (e.g., NAFTA) have on wage and employment rates in less developed and more developed countries? How might dislocated workers be assisted? Have the policies of the World Bank and the World Trade Organization increased the income gap between rich and poor countries?