In a globalised world, where goods cross borders many times as intermediate and as final products, trade facilitation is essential to lowering overall trade costs and increasing economic welfare, in particular for developing and emerging economies. Facilitation efforts undertaken by various countries around the world also show that the benefits of such measures clearly compensate the costs and challenges posed by their implementation.

Globalization and its relation to poverty reduction and development is not well understood. The book identifies the ways in which globalization can overcome poverty or make it worse. The book defines the big historical trends, identifies main global flows - trade, finance, aid, migration, and ideas - and examines how each can contribute to undermine economic development. By considering what helps and what does not, the book presents policy recommendations to make globalization more effective as a vehicle for shared growth and prosperity. It will be of interest to students, researchers and anyone interested in the effects of globalization in today's economy and in international development issues.

Over the past two decades, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day has been cut in half. How much of that improvement is because of—or in spite of—globalization? While anti-globalization activists mount loud critiques and the media report breathlessly on globalization’s perils and promises, economists have largely remained silent, in part because of an entrenched institutional divide between those who study poverty and those who study trade and finance. Globalization and Poverty bridges that gap, bringing together experts on both international trade and poverty to provide a detailed view of the effects of globalization on the poor in developing nations, answering such questions as: Do lower import tariffs improve the lives of the poor? Has increased financial integration led to more or less poverty? How have the poor fared during various currency crises? Does food aid hurt or help the poor? Poverty, the contributors show here, has been used as a popular and convenient catchphrase by parties on both sides of the globalization debate to further their respective arguments. Globalization and Poverty provides the more nuanced understanding necessary to move that debate beyond the slogans.

The book defines the big historical trends, identifies the main globalization processes - trade, finance, aid, migration, and ideas - and examines how each can contribute to economic development.

This book provides an excellent resource for understanding the forces in international trade liberalization over two centuries that have brought us to this point, where the successes, setbacks and the countervailing forces now vie for the public's mind and support: the outcome of which will determine the future progress of increased globalization, or lack thereof. The book also examines whether trade policy has indeed promoted exports in the vast number of countries which increasingly look to trade agreements to gain a competitive edge, and to what extent export-driven growth has been an important force in advancing economic development around the world. In doing so, the book examines one of the most controversial issues in economic development: the promotion and significance of export-led growth.

We live today in an interconnected world in which ordinary people can became instant online celebrities to fans thousands of miles away, in which religious leaders can influence millions globally, in which humans are altering the climate and environment, and in which complex social forces intersect across continents. This is globalization. In the fifth edition of his bestselling Very Short Introduction Manfred B. Steger considers the major dimensions of globalization: economic, political, cultural, ideological, and ecological. He looks at its causes and effects, and engages with the hotly contested question of whether globalization is, ultimately, a good or a bad thing. From climate change to the Ebola virus, Donald Trump to Twitter, trade wars to China's growing global profile, Steger explores today's unprecedented levels of planetary integration as well as the recent challenges posed by resurgent national populism. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This book analyses key elements of the trade performance of the so-called BRIICS: Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa, in relation to the rest of the world, focusing on trade and other policies influencing that performance. It also presents a separate chapter for each country.