'Wanted: Equal Opportunity Globalization': Branko Milanovic Pens New Essay

In a new Eurasia Review essay, Visiting Presidential Professor Branko Milanovic analyzes whether globalization - often seen as the cause of dissatisfaction in the United States and other wealthy countries -- is the result of U.S. policies or other factors.
 
"The middle class of the rich world [has] found itself squeezed between the poorer, but fast-growing Asian middle and the much richer and also fast-growing domestic top 1 percent--and many blamed globalization," Milanovic writes.

Milanovic names three causes for the uneven distributional effects of globalization: technological change that drove productivity up among highly skilled workers compared to low-skilled workers; globalization that has made Western workers less competitive than Asian workers; and tax-cut policies that favored the rich. These causes cannot be separated, and solutions are not easy, according to Milanovic.
 
A core faculty member of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, Milanovic recently spoke to the GC about the complex relationship between globalization and inequality.