The World Bank says there is mounting evidence that inequalities in global income and poverty are decreasing and that globalisation has contributed to this turnaround.
The report 'Globalisation, Growth and Poverty: Building an Inclusive World Economy' says the experience in countries like Korea is that as countries develop their wage levels rise and the focus shifts from labour intensive to more capital and knowledge intensive industries.
The Asian Drivers Programme at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, is looking at the impact of newly dynamic Asian economies on the global economy. The IDS is also involved in a joint project with the Department for International Development (DFID) to share the best in development, policy, practice and research. Eldis offers free access to documents, news services and resource guides for the use of researchers, development practitioners and policy formers at national and international levels
The World Trade Organization study, Trade, Income Disparity and Poverty finds that trade liberalisation helps poor countries to catch up with rich ones and that this faster economic growth helps alleviate poverty.
Global inequality
Some observers of globalisation argue that the gap between the rich and poor nations of the world is increasing. They say that rising inequality is the inevitable result of market forces. They claim that large corporations invest in poor countries only because they can make greater profits from low wage levels or because they can get access to their natural resources.
A lecture entitled ‘Globalisation and its Discontents: How to Fix What's Not Working’ by Joseph Stiglitz, the controversial former chief economist at the World Bank, and new director of the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester, says the anti-globalisation protesters' arguments have a lot of merit. Stiglitz comments on international policies that benefit developed States and hinder the growth of developing States.