Trade and Globalization

A Trade and Globalization Reading List

Prepared by Daniel J. Ikenson

Read This First

• “International Trade and Investment Policy” (Cato Handbook for Policymakers) by Daniel J. Ikenson (Washington: Cato Institute, 2016)
  A summary of why we trade and the persistent myths that subvert public understanding of the benefits of trade.
• Mad about Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization by Daniel Griswold (Washington: Cato Institute, 2009)
  How a more open U.S. economy benefits poor and middle‐​class Americans.

General Introductions to Trade and Globalization

• The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protection (3rd Edition) by Russell Roberts (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/​Prentice Hall, 2006)
  An illuminating conversation between David Ricardo and an American businessman tempted by protectionism.
• Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital by Kimberly Clausing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019)
  A progressive’s refutation of populist arguments against trade and globalization.
• The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization by Richard Baldwin (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016)
  Between 1820 and 1990, the share of world income going to today’s wealthy nations soared from twenty percent to almost seventy. Since then, that share has plummeted to where it was in 1900. This reversal of fortune reflects a new age of globalization that is drastically different from the old.
• Borderless Economics: Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global Capitalism by Robert Guest (New York City: St. Martin’s Press, 2011)
  A century ago, migrants often crossed an ocean and never saw their homelands again. Today, thanks to cheap travel and easy communication, immigrants everywhere stay in intimate contact with their native countries, creating powerful cross-border networks. The author explains how these networks create wealth, spread ideas, and foster innovation.
• The Travels of a T‑Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2009)
  The author explains the virtues and inevitabilities of globalization through the supply chains that produce a T‑shirt.
• New Frontiers in Free Trade: Globalization’s Future and Asia’s Rising Role by Razeen Sally (Washington: Cato Institute, 2008)
  A panoramic view of the global trading system and how to revive stalled efforts to liberalize trade.
• Globalization (Greenwood Guides to Business and Economics) by Donald J. Boudreaux (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2008)
  A laymen’s guide to the intellectual and economic arguments for an open and integrated global economy.
• A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J. Bernstein (New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008)
  A fun and fascinating history of trade and how it has contributed to the progress of mankind.
• Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy by Edward Gresser (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Soft Skull Press, 2007)
  An appeal to Democrats and political liberals to support trade as a means to help the poor and promote world peace.
• The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006)
  The cargo container may be the most important advance in transportation since the advent of the combustion engine. The Box tells the story of the container’s creation and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about.
• The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty‐​first Century by Thomas Friedman (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005)
  How globalization has resulted in an interconnected, fast‐​paced world.
• Free Trade Under Fire (2nd ed.) by Douglas Irwin (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005)
  An empirical verification of the positive benefits of free trade.
• Why Globalization Works by Martin Wolf (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004)
  Uses conventional economic analysis to prove the benefits of free trade and globalization.
• In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish Bhagwati (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
  An approachable defense of globalization by one of today’s leading free‐​trade economists.
• In Defense of Global Capitalism by Johan Norberg (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2003)
  A former left‐​anarchist debunks the claims of the anti‐​globalization movement.
• “Spreading the Wealth” by David Dollar and Aart Kraay. Foreign Affairs, January/​February 2002
  Two World Bank economists show that globalization has narrowed the income gap between the world’s rich and poor.
• Against the Dead Hand: The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism by Brink Lindsey (New York: Wiley and Sons, 2002)
  A comprehensive and historical analysis of globalization by the Cato Institute’s Vice‐​President for Research.
• The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization by Tomas Larsson (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2001)
  On the ground reporting of the real effects of globalization.
• Trade Liberalization: Fears and Facts by Robert Rogowsky, et al. (Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2001)
  A fact‐​filled guide to some of the truths and misconceptions concerning trade liberalization.
• Globaphobia: Confronting Fears about Open Trade by Gary Burtless, et al. (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1998)
  Offers suggestions on how to fully embrace globalization while minimizing any negative effects that may result.
• Pop Internationalism by Paul Krugman (Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997)
  A collection of essays that dispel some of the popular myths and fears about free trade.

History of Free Trade and Trade Policy

• Clashing Over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy by Douglas Irwin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017)
  A brilliant history of U.S. trade policy and the regional, industrial, and political forces that shaped it.
• The History and Future of the World Trade Organization by Craig Van Grasstek (Geneva: World Trade Organization, 2013)
  An objective portrayal of the institutions and rules that comprise the modern trading system, from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade through the World Trade Organization.
• Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade by Douglas Irwin (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996)
  Documents the evolution of free trade in intellectual and economic thought.

Trade and Economic Development

• Free Trade and Prosperity: How Openness Helps the Developing Countries Grow Richer and Combat Poverty by Arvind Panagariya (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2019)
  A wholesale indictment on the costs of protectionism and the benefits of free trade, especially for developing countries.
• Globalization, Growth, and Poverty: Building an Inclusive World Economy (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002)
  An extensive report on globalization’s impact on growth and poverty.

China’s Entry Into the Trading System

• Schism: China, America, and the Fracturing of the Global Trading System by Paul Blustein (Waterloo, Canada: Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2019)
  The politics and economics behind the rise and fall of the U.S‑China trade relationship.

Trade Policy Classics

• Protection or Free Trade: An Examination of the Tariff Question, with Especial Regard to the Interest of Free Trade by Henry George (Pantianos Classics: 1905)
  An analysis of the effects of protectionism, in its various manifestations, on workers and on the concentration of monopoly powers.
• “On the Balance of Trade,” “A Petition,” and other essays in Economic Sophisms by Frederic Bastiat
  Clever, concise, and brilliant refutations of the opponents of free trade by one of histories most underappreciated economic minds.
• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  The Father of Economics’ revolutionary treatise.