Nobel Laureate Eric Maskin Addresses Issues of Globalization and Inequality

9 December 2016

Addis Ababa — On Day 1 of the 11th African Economic Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, Prof. Eric Maskin of Harvard University and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in economics made a short presentation on why globalization is accelerating inequality instead of reducing it. Maskin called for greater skills education and training, to provide people usually in rural agricultural areas with the means to enable them to find jobs in agro-industry. Maskin spoke about income inequality in developing countries. "As you will see, this has quite a lot to do with agriculture," he said.

"We have been going through an intense period of globalization in the past 20 or 30 years, and globalization has brought with it many benefits. Developing countries like China, India and a number of African countries have seen dramatic impetus as a result of globalization.

"But globalization has also brought with it some difficulties. In particular, it has led to a fairly dramatic increase in inequality in a number of developing countries - China, India and a number of African countries are examples of this as well."

In theory, said Maskin, "exactly the opposite should have happened." However, "developing countries," he said, "are rich in unskilled labour. And when a country embarks in international trade, it tends to specialize in goods which make use of skilled labour." For this reason, Maskin argued, "governments need to get involved in skills training and education in agriculture because that is where the unskilled are mostly located," he said. "There is no higher priority than investing in people.

"Globalization is a force that should be enjoyed by everybody," he said, "not just the people at the top. Let the fruits of globalization be shared equally."

Maskin made the comments during a televised roundtable on the theme "The way forward to transforming Africa's agriculture" on Monday, December 5.

Read the presentation:

http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/AEC/2016/SpecialPresentation_NobelLaureate_ProfMaskin.pdf

Watch the video:

http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/multimedia/video/aec-2016-the-opening-ceremony-speech-by-nobel-laureate-eric-maskin-abuja-1293/

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.