Is Global Equality the Enemy of National Equality?

From International to Global Development: New Geographies of 21st Century Development

“…In the global North, the fourth Industrial Revolution based on digital communications is attracting considerable hype as a transformative economic paradigm, yet with major concern around its implications for inequality and employment (Schwab, : 3), and its potential for the global South very unclear. However, we believe a consistent priority for global development will be to identify progressive changes in both between‐ and within‐country inequalities (see Rodrik, ). The challenges are severe, whether in relation to the economic growth of countries in the global South, greater taxation (cooperation) on capital and high incomes, international migration, social protection or addressing carbon emissions.…”

“…China's growth, and the accompanying trade ‘shock’ in the United States), or whether both types of inequalities can be addressed simultaneously (e.g. through tackling global public goods problems — pandemics, climate change or international co‐ordination to tackle tax evasion) (Rodrik, ).…”

Migration and Cooperative Infrastructures

“…For details about the different methods of measuring economic global inequalities, see Milanovic (2016). 2 See Rodrik (2017a). For additional complications-due, for example, to the imperfect substitution between skill types-see Hendricks and Schoellman (2017).…”

“…There are limits to the exportability of this model, partly because the converging countries have features that are difficult to replicate in other contexts, and partly because their economic growth has significantly altered the global framework (Rodrik 2017a). How else can one increase global productivity?…”

“…Some have also suggested that policymakers could consider, possibly in combination with permissive pro-immigration policies, measures such as higher taxation rates for immigrant workers or restricting the access of newly arrived migrants to publicly funded housing, transportation, healthcare, benefits, etc. (Milanovic 2016, chapters 3 and 5;Rodrik 2017a;Pritchett 2006). Restrictions on the rights and opportunities available to migrants are not ideal because, by denying them access to some components of the cooperative framework, the cooperative scaffolding accessible to migrants becomes less efficient than the cooperative scaffolding available to the citizens of the host country.…”