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Globalization and National Income Inequality: Observations and Lessons from the U.S. Experience

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Getting Globalization Right
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Abstract

Significant changes in the global economy with respect to trade, investment and technology are casting a shadow over the system at a time when concerns about who has benefited from globalization and who has not is affecting the conduct of national economic policies. Widening inequality in many countries, but principally the U.S., is a concern since America is still the world’s largest and in many respects most open economy. A shift away from openness would harm not only emerging market economies, but also create worries for the maintenance of the system. For this reason, exploring what has driven the rising income inequality in the U.S. is important to understand and this paper lays out those trends in the context of broader issues affecting the future of globalization.

Danny Leipziger is Professor of International Business and International Affairs, George Washington University and Managing Director of the Growth Dialogue Institute. The assistance of Axel Eizmendi Larrinaga and Alex Webb as well as the Institute for International Economic Policy at GW’s Elliott School for International Affairs are gratefully acknowledged.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Constantinescu et al. (2015).

  2. 2.

    See McKinsey Global Institute (2017).

  3. 3.

    See Leipziger (2017).

  4. 4.

    Evidence taken from Leipziger and Dodev (2016).

  5. 5.

    See Rodrik (2011).

  6. 6.

    See Task Force Report on Middle Class (2010) and Pew Research Center (2015).

  7. 7.

    See Piketty (2014).

  8. 8.

    Commission Report by Brynolfsson and Mitchell (2017).

  9. 9.

    See Kim and Leipziger (1997).

  10. 10.

    See Congressional report on intellectual property (2012) and IP Commission Report (2017).

  11. 11.

    Rodrik (2017).

  12. 12.

    Krugman remarks at IMF Annual Meetings Seminar, Washington D.C., Oct., 12, 2017.

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Correspondence to Danny M. Leipziger .

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Leipziger, D.M. (2018). Globalization and National Income Inequality: Observations and Lessons from the U.S. Experience. In: Paganetto, L. (eds) Getting Globalization Right. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97692-1_7

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