International Economics: Unlocking the Mysteries of Globalization

Author(s): Jeffrey Sachs

Source: Foreign Policy , Spring, 1998, No. 110, Special Edition: Frontiers of Knowledge (Spring, 1998), pp. 97-111

Published by: Slate Group, LLC Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/1149279

International economics is concerned with the trade and financial relations of national economies, and the effects of international trade and finance on the distribution of production, income, and wealth around the world and within nations. In recent years, international economics has been increasingly taken up with one central question: How will national economies perform now that nearly all of the world is joined in a single global marketplace? As a result of changes in economic policy and technology, economies that were once separated by high transport costs and artificial barriers to trade and finance are now linked in an increasingly dense network of economic interactions. This veritable economic revolution over the last 15 years has come upon us so suddenly that its fundamental ramifications for economic growth, the distribution of income and wealth, and patterns of trade and finance in the world economy are only dimly understood.

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