NIKLAS POTRAFKE, CESifo (Center for
Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute
Email: potrafke@ifo.de
Email: potrafke@ifo.de
Globalization
is blamed for many socio-economic shortcomings. I discuss the consequences of
globalization by surveying the empirical globalization literature. My focus is
on the KOF indices of globalization (Dreher 2006a and Dreher et al. 2008a),
that have been used in more than 100 studies. Early studies using the KOF index
reported correlations between globalization and several outcome variables.
Studies published more recently identify causal effects. The evidence shows
that globalization has spurred economic growth, promoted gender equality, and
improved human rights. Moreover, globalization did not erode welfare state
activities, did not have any significant effect on labor market interaction and
hardly influenced market deregulation. It increased however within-country
income inequality. The consequences of globalization thus turn out to be
overall much more favorable than often conjectured in the public discourse.
Book: 152-154
Book: 152-154
