Mediterranean labor markets in the first age of globalization : an economic history of real wages and market integration /
Why did the Mediterranean not engage with an unprecedented age of globalization? Clear economic analysis shows protective trade policy, poverty and overpopulation held migration and so the region's global integration back. Most countries reacted to the globalization of commodity markets with ta...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Palgrave Macmillan,
[2015]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
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| Summary: | Why did the Mediterranean not engage with an unprecedented age of globalization? Clear economic analysis shows protective trade policy, poverty and overpopulation held migration and so the region's global integration back. Most countries reacted to the globalization of commodity markets with tariff hikes, experiencing declining terms of trade and slower wage growth relative to open economies. Overpopulation kept unskilled wages low and wage gaps wide. The emigration of unskilled labor was not high enough to raise domestic unskilled wages, and thereby reduce domestic inequality. Further, the well-documented emigration from the northern Mediterranean to the New World was not high enough to facilitate the region's integration with the global labor market. Emigration from the British Mediterranean, Syria and north Africa was high enough, but the countries themselves comprised too small a part of the Mediterranean for the region to globally integrate in aggregate. The result was income inequality and relative economic decline. There are lessons for today's debate on migration. |
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| Physical Description: | xiv, 197 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781137401083 1137401087 |