The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization

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Review ------ Chosen in the best books of 2016 in the Financial Times Chosen in the best books of 2016 in the Times Literary Supplement "This excellent book by Richard Baldwin... seems likely to become a standard, perhaps indispensable, guide to understanding how globalisation has got us here and where it is likely to take us next. There can be few more vital subjects today that will benefit from this sort of clear and comprehensive exposition." - Alan Beattie, Financial Times "The book is so important."- The Economist "In The Great Convergence, Richard Baldwin of the Graduate School in Geneva sheds a bright light on the nature of trade in today's era the second globalisation since the industrial revolution." - Martin Wolf "The Great Convergence is important and accessible in equal measure, with a balance between examples presented as stories and analytics set out with clarity and verve."- Paul Collier, University of Oxford "This important book should change the way we think about globalization. There have been two big globalization booms over the past two centuries. The first caused divergence between rich and poor nations while the second, since the 1970s, has caused convergence. With elegance, economist Richard Baldwin tells us why." --Jeffrey G. Williamson, Harvard University "Many books deal with various features of globalization. Only Baldwin's deals with the logic of globalization. Globalization happens when the movement of goods, knowledge, and people is technologically possible and cheap enough to encompass the entire world. The first globalization was built on the movement of goods, the one we live today on the movement of knowledge and information, the next one will be built on the movement of people. It is a must-read for those who want to learn about the past and to peer into the future." - --Branko Milanovic, City University of New York "Bill Clinton once called globalisation the economic equivalent of a force of nature, like wind or water . It pushes countries to spee and swap, making them richer, and the world smaller. In The Great Convergence, Richard Baldwin, a Geneva-based economist, adds an important detail: like wind and water, globalisation is powerful, but can be inconstant or even destructive. Unless beloved notions catch up with reality, politicians will be pushed to make grave mistakes." - --The Economist About the Author ---------------- Richard Baldwin is Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and President of the Centre at Economic Policy Research (CERP), London.