Department of Policy and Business Practices

Issues Paper

New facts on globalization, poverty and income distribution

Corporate Economists Advisory Group, 15 January 2003

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Introduction
In the debate over globalization, it is often claimed that the gap between rich and poor has kept widening over recent decades and that the living conditions of the poor have deteriorated as a result of globalization. But new research now disp roves such claims, shedding a much more favourable light on the contribution of global economic integration to incomes and income distribution. This new research shows that, contrary to popular belief, it is precisely during the recent period of increased globalization of the world economy that poverty rates and global income inequality have most diminished.