At Book Launch, Bhagwati Analyzes Criticism Of Globalization, Discusses Outsourcing

University Professor Jagdish Bhagwati’s history of barbs against Joseph Stiglitz made it clear that the economic scholar’s re-launching of his book In Defense of Globalization would be far from an exclusively economic event.

About 100 people attended the panel-and-book launch, held Monday night at Roone Arledge Auditorium, to hear prominent economists discuss whether the American “anxiety over globalization” was merited or not. But with primary elections approaching, the talk broadened economic horizons and examined how globalization has played out as part of the domestic political agenda.

Bhagwati opened by describing how criticism of globalization has changed since the first edition of his book. The social critique—focusing on labor and human rights violations—has evolved into a more economic critique.

“We are focusing today on the most economic issue in the political season as the primaries arrive in spades,” Bhagwati said. “That issue has to deal with the American anxiety over globalization, particularly over trade.”

Bhagwati, whose name often comes up in Nobel Prize gossip, defended his stance that people should not fear globalization itself and that trade is not the cause of stagnation in middle-class and unskilled labor wages. He said that the blame falls more on technological progress.

“The anxiety, if you buy into this, is real,” he said. But he placed blame for that anxiety more on unionization, which he described as outdated because unions organize around particular professions rather than individual workers, leaving workers unprotected when jobs in a particular industry disappear.

He said that professor Herbert Gans, the eminent sociologist and a personal friend, often reminds him that one day even his own teaching post could be outsourced to Dubai. He joked that he then retorts that “even as a teaching assistant in economics I would make more than a professor in sociology.”

Bhagwati added that even if the “anxiety” over globalization was valid, closing off trade and restricting outsourcing would not solve the problem.

Economics professor Sunil Gulati moderated the discussion, which included Lael Brainard, vice president of the Brookings Institution, and Sebastian Mallaby, director of the Center for Geoeconomics and Washington Post columnist.

Mallaby said he agreed with much of Bhagwati’s argument, adding that Congress has bought into that “anxiety” and that presiding policy decisions regarding energy, climate change, and other issues do not leave the future looking bright.

Mallaby and Brainard both spoke about the need for better safety nets like wage insurance, diverting slightly from Bhagwati’s oft-repeated plea for more training and education. They also tried to bring other global dynamics to the table.

“What we’re seeing right now is a shift that is broader than simply in trade—it’s in power, in resources, in population,” Brainard said. On the anxiety in the U.S., she added, “What we’re seeing in the United States is nothing compared to in other countries.”

“If you go step by step ... there’s no way you can say globalization is at the center of it,” Bhagwati said. “Everyday I wake up and say, ‘I must have missed something.’ But it’s not really true.”

Tom Faure can be reached at tom.faure@columbiaspectator.com.