A new poll across 44 countries shows that people in poor countries are most likely to approve of globalization and multinational companies than those in rich countries:
More, not less, economic integration is good for the world, according to a worldwide poll, conducted by the Pew Global Attitude Survey. David Dollar, Director of Developmental Policy at the World Bank, cites findings from the survey to support the argument he has made in the past that globalization indeed helps reduce poverty and inequality.
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Contradicting the anti-globalization movement’s claims, Dollar says that most “striking in the survey is that views of globalization are distinctly more positive in low-income countries than in rich ones.” For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa 75% of households thought that multinational corporations had a positive influence on their country, compared to only 54% in rich countries. Of the 38,000 people in 44 nations surveyed, those in the developing world generally blamed their local governments, not globalization, for their country’s ills.
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The anti-globalization movement often claims that integration leads to growing inequality within countries, with no benefits going to the poor. Generally, this is not true. There are certainly some countries in which inequality has risen, like China and the U.S., but there is no worldwide trend. Most important, in the developing countries that are growing well as a result of integration and other reforms, rapid growth translates into rapid poverty reduction.
I don't think this will stop any of the anti-globalization forces, though, from acting as if they speak for the poor people of the world.
(Via
Tyler Cowen at The Volokh Conspiracy).
