Making Sense of Globalization: The Past and Future of World Trade

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Pinelope Goldberg, the Elihu Professor of Economics at Yale University and former Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. We discuss her extensive research into globalization, trade liberalization, and development. We address some of the most critical questions of global economics: how has the reduction in trade barriers affected countries across the development spectrum, and distributionally within nations? What are many economists getting wrong about trade policy? What various sorts of development paths allow low-income countries to grow rapidly?

She leverages her wide body of research to give insight into these questions, including her recent publication “The Uneven Effects of Globalization,” which challenges some of the common critiques of trade liberalization, and other research that has explored the effects of freer cross-border exchange on labor dynamics and inequality within countries. Moreover, she discusses her experience at the helm of economics at the World Bank, describing the hopeful case of Vietnam and the promise of collaboration between international institutions and local governments. Join us on this episode of Policy Punchline for insights from a seasoned practitioner and prominent academic on the all-important problems of global growth.

Dr. Pinelope Goldberg