The Globalization-Deglobalization Policy Conundrum

The dynamic process of economic globalization and deglobalization has been occurring in “waves” over the past 250 years. Diffusion models reveal how globalization policies occupy the policy-centre stage when the global economy is booming and is cast on the back-burner when the global economy nose-dives into a slump. According to the diffusion models, when the global economy is booming the nodes that establish crucial linkages in the economy exceed the social optimum generating negative externalities thereby eroding social welfare in such a context policy intervention is justified to reduce the linkages that facilitate the spread of negative shocks or contagion that reduce the capacity for risk- sharing. The globalization-deglobalization policy conundrum also resurfaces in relation to trade flows, cross-border capital mobility, current account sustainability and technology diffusion. The latter has exacerbate the “digital divide” that has accompanied the revolutionary changes in information and communication technology (ICT) revolution by overcoming the “tyranny of distance”. The recurrent global financial crises and speculative attacks on the currency peg have ignited the debate for reshaping the international financial architecture in order to reduce the vulnerability of the domestic economy to the disruptive effects of the global financial crises.