March 13, 2009

Trading Tasks: Globalization In The Information Age

Dr. Gene M. Grossman, Princeton University

It is difficult to overestimate the impact of Professor Grossman’s work on our understanding of the global economy.  Professor Grossman will discuss globalization in the information age. Most international trade is not in goods, but instead in intermediates, components, or pieces of the production chain that we may call “tasks.” While many would fear the idea of competing with India or China in a global marketplace for tasks, low skilled workers may instead gain from this new form of trade as it brings new productivity gains and can alter how international trade affects the distribution of income both within and across countries.  How do international trade and the globalization of tasks affect the incomes of workers?

Gene M. Grossman is the Jacob Viner Professor of International Economics at Princeton University, Chair of Princeton’s Economics Department, and the Director of the International Economics Section.  He received his B.A. in Economics from Yale University in 1976 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980.  Professor Grossman joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1980 and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

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