INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS

The Open Economy and Its Enemies

Jagdish Bhagwati

Is free trade passé? Is global taxation of banks and financial transactions viable? Has economic globalization improved the lives of the world’s poorest people? Is the current international architecture governing world trade and finance sufficient? Does immigration help or hurt rich country economies?

RECENT COMMENTARIES

FEATURED COMMENTARIES

The Brain-Drain Panic Returns

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2012-01-27

While developed countries are angst-ridden over mostly illegal immigration by unskilled workers from developing countries, a different set of concerns has surfaced in Africa, in particular, over the legal outflow of skilled people to developed countries. But these concerns are misplaced.... read

Comments: 3 Recommended: 0 Read: 11495

America’s Threat to Trans-Pacific Trade

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-12-30

The new Trans-Pacific Partnership between the US and nine Asian countries is being sold as evidence of American leadership on trade. But what it really means is that the US intends to do in Asia what it did in South America – essentially, divide the region into rival blocs.... read

Comments: 7 Recommended: 1 Read: 17383

Deadlock in Durban

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-11-30

The 17th conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, popularly known as COP-17, is taking place in Durban, South Africa at a critical moment, as the historic 1997 Kyoto Protocol is set to expire next year. But, like the last two climate-change conferences, COP-17 can be expected to spend much and produce little.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 10117

Does Redistributing Income Reduce Poverty?

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-10-27

Many on the left are suspicious of the idea that economic growth helps to reduce poverty in developing countries, and that redistribution is the key to poverty reduction. These assertions, however, are not borne out by the evidence.... read

Comments: 14 Recommended: 0 Read: 23221

America’s Free-Trade Abdication

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-09-29

The indifference and apathy that one finds in Washington on the Doha Round of global trade talks mark the end of the post-1945 era of US leadership on multilateral free trade. Instead, the Obama administration confines itself to promoting bilateral agreements with Colombia and other emerging-market countries.... read

Comments: 8 Recommended: 0 Read: 12999

The Outsourcing Bogeyman

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-08-23

If free trade is to regain the support of statesmen who now hesitate over liberalizing trade with developing countries, the myths that turn outsourcing of services into an epithet must be countered. What few understand is that everyone wins from such trade flows.... read

Comments: 5 Recommended: 1 Read: 16101

The Too-Quiet American

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-07-22

It is now apparent that the US is the main culprit in preventing the ten-year-old multilateral trade negotiations known as the Doha Round from being closed this year. America’s rejectionist stance comes from the top of the US government, starting with President Barack Obama’s lack of leadership.... read

Comments: 5 Recommended: 0 Read: 16894

Why Free Trade Matters

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-06-23

Contrary to what skeptics often assert, the case for free trade is robust. It extends not just to overall prosperity, but also to distributional outcomes, which make the free-trade argument morally compelling as well.... read

Comments: 5 Recommended: 1 Read: 19262

Life without Doha

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-05-30

If the Doha Round fails, the global free-trade agenda would shift from the WTO to preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which are already spreading like an epidemic. That, in turn, would mean the end of non-discriminatory trade liberalization and uniform rule-making and enforcement.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 12285

The Doha Round’s Premature Obituary	Jagdish Bhagwati
The Doha Round, the first multilateral trade negotiation conducted under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, is at a critical stage. Now in their 10th year, with much negotiated, the talks need a final political nudge, lest Doha – and hence the WTO – disappear from the world’s radar screen.... read

1 2 3

The Manufacturing Fallacy

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2010-08-27

Economists long ago put to rest Adam Smith’s error in arguing for the primacy of manufactures in a country’s economy. But the manufactures fetish recurs repeatedly, the latest manifestation being in the US in the wake of the recent crisis.... read

Comments: 4 Recommended: 2 Read: 34425

India or China?

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2010-11-30

When US President Barack Obama visited India in November and complimented its leaders on the growing success and prowess of their economy, a tacit question returned to center stage: Will China grow faster than India indefinitely, or will India shortly overtake it?... read

Comments: 6 Recommended: 0 Read: 31966

Protectionist Myths

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2010-07-03

The pessimism and despair that often overwhelms free traders today is unwarranted. The arguments of protectionists, new and old, are just so many myths that can be successfully challenged.... read

Comments: 7 Recommended: 1 Read: 31228

Getting Corruption Right

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2010-12-29

Transparency International and occasionally the World Bank like to rank countries by their degree of corruption, with the media then ceaselessly citing where each country stands. But cultural differences between countries undermine the legitimacy of such rankings.... read

Comments: 7 Recommended: 1 Read: 30789

America Embraces Trade Discrimination

Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2010-09-29

Economists generally agree on the advantages of openness in trade. But the case for non-discrimination in trade is also a compelling one - and the US is flouting WTO rules against it by raising visa fees for temporary foreign workers.... read

Comments: 5 Recommended: 0 Read: 29091

Whose Corporate Social Responsibility?

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2010-10-25

Increasingly, corporations are under pressure, often from activist non-governmental organizations, to take on specific “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) obligations. But the fact that CSR is being demanded, and occasionally conceded, does not ensure clarity about either its rationale or the ways in which it should be undertaken.... read

Comments: 6 Recommended: 1 Read: 28588

Running in Place on Trade

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2010-07-20

G-20 meetings regularly affirm the importance of maintaining and strengthening openness in trade, and June’s summit in Toronto was no different. Yet talk is cheap, and the open-mouth policy of (generally pro-trade) pronouncements has not been matched by action.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 28379

Globalization Marches On

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-01-25

Today’s alarmism about the end of globalization is misplaced. In fact, the current crisis may actually shift policies in favor of more globalization, not less, as is suggested by remarkable commitment to efforts – largely successful – to prevent backsliding into protectionism.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 25820

Does Redistributing Income Reduce Poverty?

Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies

2011-10-27

Comments: 14 Recommended: 0 Read: 23221

Why Free Trade Matters	Jagdish Bhagwati
Contrary to what skeptics often assert, the case for free trade is robust. It extends not just to overall prosperity, but also to distributional outcomes, which make the free-trade argument morally compelling as well.... read
Four Fallacies of the Crisis	Jagdish Bhagwati
The current twin crises in finance and the real economy, what Americans call Wall Street and Main Street, and the interminable discussions about financial reform and the prospects for economic recovery, have spawned several fallacies. They need to be addressed and dismissed, lest we absorb the wrong lessons.... read

AUTHOR INFO

Jagdish Bhagwati

Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University and Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, was the Co-Chair of the High-Level Trade Experts Group appointed by the British, German, Indonesian, and Turkish governments.

WEEKLY SERIES