American economist and Nobel laureate E Maskin today said globalisation has failed to reduce inequality in India.
Globalisation has tripled Indian GDP per capita in less than 15 years, an amazing accomplishment. But the D-workers
(having the lowest skills) of India have been left out,” Maskin said delivering the convocation address at the Indian
Statistical Institute here.
Stating that inequality would not be solved by the market forces alone, he said that someone besides the workers
and producers will have to get involved.
And the obvious someone is government. Government can provide public education and thereby develop general skills.
Government can also develop specific skills either by offering job training directly or by subsidising producers that
undertake to train their workers,” Maskin said.
Comparing a rich economy with a developing economy, he said in the rich one the ratio of high-skill to low-skill
workers is bigger.
This means that the rich country has a comparative advantage in producing goods requiring a big proportion of
high-skill workers, for example, computer software.
The emerging economy, by contrast, has a comparative advantage in producing goods for which skill doesn’t matter as much,” he
said.
However, he said that globalisation does a very good job of increasing wages.
——————————PTI