Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy / Edition 1

by Kevin H. O'Rourke, Jeffrey G. Williamson

Overview

Kevin O'Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson present a coherent picture of trade, migration, and international capital flows in the Atlantic economy in the century prior to 1914--the first great globalization boom, which anticipated the experience of the last fifty years.

Globalization is not a new phenomenon, nor is it irreversible. In Gobalization and History, Kevin O'Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson present a coherent picture of trade, migration, and international capital flows in the Atlantic economy in the century prior to 1914--the first great globalization boom, which anticipated the experience of the last fifty years. The authors estimate the extent of globalization and its impact on the participating countries, and discuss the political reactions that it provoked. The book's originality lies in its application of the tools of open-economy economics to this critical historical period--differentiating it from most previous work, which has been based on closed-economy or single-sector models. The authors also keep a close eye on globalization debates of the 1990s, using history to inform the present and vice versa. The book brings together research conducted by the authors over the past decade--work that has profoundly influenced how economic history is now written and that has found audiences in economics and history, as well as in the popular press.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262650595
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	01/26/2001
Series:	The MIT Press
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	356
Sales rank:	306,041
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kevin H. O'Rourke is Professor of Economics at Trinity College, Dublin. He is co-author (with Jeffrey Williamson) of Globalization and History.

Jeffrey G. Williamson is Laird Bell Professor of Economics Emeritus at Harvard and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the coauthor (with Kevin O'Rourke) of Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy and (with Timothy J. Hatton) of Global Migration and the World Economy: Two Centuries of Policy and Performance, both published by the MIT Press.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
1 Globalization and History
2 Convergence in History
3 Transport Revolutions and Commodity Market Integration
4 Were Heckscher and Ohlin Right?
5 The Politics of Free Trade: Repeal of the Corn Laws
6 Globalization Backlash: Tariff Responses
7 Mass Migrations: Why They Moved
8 Mass Migrations: Impact on Labor Markets, Home and Abroad
9 Globalization, Relative Factor Price Convergence and
Inequality
10 Globalization Backlash: Migration Policy Gets Restrictive
11 Forging and Breaking Gloabl Capital Markets
12 International Capital Flows: Causes and Consequences
13 Trade and Factor Flows: Substitutes or Complements?
14 Lessons from History
Appendix: Trade Theory and Computable General Equilibrium
Models
Notes
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Endorsement

O'Rourke shows that even in the context of a poor market-socialist country whose state places the highest priority on attracting foreign investment in manufacturing, community-driven regulation can be surprisingly effective in reducing pollution and other forms of environmental degradation. Another important conclusion of his study that is relevant to both North and South is the critical role that citizen access to information on pollution emission standards and on how local firms compare to others across the country plays in such regulation.

—Fredrick H. Buttel, William H. Sewell Professor of Rural Sociology and Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

From the Publisher

O'Rourke shows that even in the context of a poor market-socialist country whose state places the highest priority on attracting foreign investment in manufacturing, community-driven regulation can be surprisingly effective in reducing pollution and other forms of environmental degradation. Another important conclusion of his study that is relevant to both North and South is the critical role that citizen access to information on pollution emission standards and on how local firms compare to others across the country plays in such regulation.

—Fredrick H. Buttel, William H. Sewell Professor of Rural Sociology and Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Fredrick H. Buttel

O'Rourke shows that even in the context of a poor market-socialist country whose state places the highest priority on attracting foreign investment in manufacturing, community-driven regulation can be surprisingly effective in reducing pollution and other forms of environmental degradation. Another important conclusion of his study that is relevant to both North and South is the critical role that citizen access to information on pollution emission standards and on how local firms compare to others across the country plays in such regulation.