Globalization, Information Technology and National Inequalities in Developing Countries

Through the mechanisms listed in Table 6.1, developing countries have become integrated to a greater or lesser extent into the global economy. The question that we would like to answer in this chapter is whether, in the process, the degree of inequality within these countries has improved or worsened.1 We recognise only too well that this an extremely difficult question to answer, not only because the necessary data are often lacking, but also because what is true for some countries may not be true for others. What we would nevertheless like to suggest at this tentative stage of research on the issue, is that there is at least one fundamental reason to expect a basic symmetry between the inter-country effects of globalization that were described earlier, and the likely effect of information technology on patterns of inequality within a particular developing country. A common causal influence, that is to say, is being exerted between as well as within developing countries (though, as we indicate at the end of the chapter, a number of countervailing influences also need to be taken into account).