One Ring to Rule Them All? Globalization of Knowledge and Knowledge Creation

Abstract

This paper directs attention at the globalization of knowledge and knowledge creation as the fundamental global driver of economic outcomes in today's information economy. It documents the globalization of knowledge and spread of scientific research from advanced to developing countries and argues that these developments undermine trade models in which advanced countries invariably have comparative advantage in high tech goods and services; determine the immigration of skilled workers; boosts labor standards; and influences incomes and inequality within and across countries. To the extent that knowledge is the key component in productivity and growth, its spread and creation is the one ring of globalization that rules the more widely studied patterns of trade, capital flows and immigration, per my title.