Kris James Mitchener of Santa Clara University and NBER reviews “Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind” by Jeffrey G. Williamson. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins: Explores the great divergence between the third world and the postindustrial West in terms of long-standing differences in trade, commodity specialization, and poverty. Discusses when the third world fell behind; the first global century up to 1913; the biggest third world terms of trade boom ever; the economics of third world growth engines and Dutch diseases; measuring third world deindustrialization and Dutch disease; an Asian deindustrialization illustration--an Indian paradox; a Middle East deindustrialization illustration--Ottoman problems; a Latin American deindustrialization illustration--Mexican exceptionalism; whether rising third world inequality during the trade boom mattered; export price volatility--another drag on third world growth; the globalization and great divergence connection; better late than never--the spread of industrialization to the poor periphery; policy response--what they did and what they should have done; and morals of the story. Williamson is Laird Bell Professor of Economics Emeritus at Harvard University and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Index.
Krasner, Stephen D., Structural Conflict : The Third World Against Global Liberalism, Berkeley (CA), The University of California Press, 1985, 379 p.
