Populism and the Economics of Globalization

NBER Working Paper No. 23559

Issued in June 2017, Revised in July 2017

NBER Program(s):International Finance and Macroeconomics, International Trade and Investment, Political Economy



Populism may seem like it has come out of nowhere, but it has been on the rise for a while. I argue that economic history and economic theory both provide ample grounds for anticipating that advanced stages of economic globalization would produce a political backlash. While the backlash may have been predictable, the specific form it took was less so. I distinguish between left-wing and right-wing variants of populism, which differ with respect to the societal cleavages that populist politicians highlight. The first has been predominant in Latin America, and the second in Europe. I argue that these different reactions are related to the relative salience of different types of globalization shocks.

Acknowledgments

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w23559

Published: Dani Rodrik, 2018. "Populism and the economics of globalization," Journal of International Business Policy, vol 1(1-2), pages 12-33.

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