Question

How has economic globalization contributed to inequalities around the world?

Answer 1

We live in an unequal world in which descriptors of global inequality—especially inequalities in income—abound. “[T]he world’s richest 500 individuals have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million … 2.5 billion people [are] living on less than $2 a day” (Watkins et al., 2005: 18). Researchers and policy makers continue to debate how, and at what scale, inequality trends are changing, but, by any measure, the disparities between rich and poor are striking (Firebaugh, 2003; Milanovic, 2005; The Economist, 2006; Held and Kaya, 2007; Lobao et al., 2007). The recent past has also seen rapid economic globalization—characterized by the supranational spatial integration of economies and societies (Stiglitz, 2002). Globalization has intensified flows of goods, finance, people, and political/cultural interactions all across our planet (Mittelman, 2002; Dicken, 2007). Understanding the nature of, and linkages between,