Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, the renowned Indian intellectual and University Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia, gave a vigorous defense of free trade and answered critics of globalization in his Provost’s Lecture on campus on Tuesday, September 27^th. 

Addressing a standing room only audience of faculty and students, Professor Bhagwati, author of a recent book, “Does Globalization Have a Human Face?" (Oxford), whose ideas have shaped international trade policies including GATT and WTO, argued that globalization is in fact the solution to many social problems, rather than their cause. The rise in income brought about by free trade, he suggested, would free parents to send their children to schools, reducing child labor. He pointed out that exposure to Western societies brought about by globalization made Japanese women aware of the discrimination against them and inspired them to fight for better status. 

Professor Bhagwati said that critics of outsourcing exaggerate the threat to American wages posed by the world’s fastest growing economies, China and India, giving the impression that 3 billion capitalists are going to overwhelm and erode the U.S.’s competitive advantage. They ignore the fact, he said, that the college-educated population constitute but a small minority of these countries’ population; that technology contributes only a small fraction of their GNPs; and economic and social progress is a gradual process and this allows time for the developed economies to readjust their strategies. He suggested that the jobs outsourced are the relatively low-paid ones and the more lucrative managerial and executive positions are still controlled by the developed economies. 

In any case, Professor Bhagwati said, the economic progress of other countries not only contributes to their social welfare, at the same time it enriches the U.S. economy by expanding markets for U.S. goods. 

While some members of the audience felt that Professor Bhagwati was a little too ready to explain away the critics of globalization who argue that untrammeled corporate greed, in the guise of globalization, has caused a range of social problems worldwide, every one was impressed by his superb command of his topic, his broad intellectual sweep, and the vigorous oratory and engaging humor of his presentation—all of which made his talk one of the more successful ones in the Provost’s Lecture Series.


Photo Essay of Jagdish Bhagwati's talk is at
http://aa2sbu.aasquared.org/gallery/JagdishBhagwatiProvostsLecture0905

Pre-lecture Announcement with published reviews
http://www.aa2sbu.org/aaezine/articles/vol12/N5JagdishBhagwati.shtml

Professor Bhagwati's Homepage
http://www.columbia.edu/~jb38/

SBU Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
http://www.sunysb.edu/asianandam