Free exchange | Revisiting Ricardo

摘要

Defenders of globalisation often say that, whatever distress it may cause for rich-world workers, it has been good for poor countries. Between 1988 and 2008, global inequality, as measured by the distribution of income between rich and poor countries, has narrowed, according to the World Bank. But within each country, the story is less rosy: globalisation has resulted in widening inequality in many poor places. This can be seen in the behaviour of the Gini index, a measure of inequality. (If the index is one, a country's entire income goes to one person; if zero, the spoils are equally divided.) Sub-Saha-ran Africa saw its Gini index rise by 9% between 1993 and 2008. China's soared by 34% over 20 years. In few places has it fallen. Economists are puzzled: the data contradict the predictions of David Ricardo, one of the founding fathers of their discipline. Countries, said Ricardo, export what they are relatively efficient at producing. Take America and Bangladesh now. In America the ratio of highly skilled to low-skilled workers is high. In Bangladesh it is low. So America focuses on products requiring highly skilled labour, such as financial services and software. Bangladesh focuses on downmarket products such as garments.