Current thinking about global trade policy – Robert Wade’s frustration at UNCTAD

Following a recent United Nations conference, Robert Wade voices his frustration at the failure of international trade economists to see beyond their own bubble

“Wow!” – Robert Wade’s glowing review of Carles Boix, Political Order and Inequality

This is one of those rare books which elicits a “Wow!” at the sight of the table of contents, a “Wow!” when one reaches the end several days later, and many more in between. I imagine that Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations provoked a similar response from its early readers, if in different languages

An economics fit for the 21st century

Professor Robert Wade letter to Guardian, which published edited version of last paragraph, 7 Apr 2014

The Piketty phenomenon: why has Capital become a publishing sensation?

Why has Piketty's Capital become a publishing sensation? Not for revolutionary findings; its message that western societies have experienced increases in inequality of income and wealth over the long term is hardly new. Of the several reasons discussed in this article, attention is paid in particular to the book's timing and its claim to reveal the laws of income and wealth distribution in western societies. Had the book been published before 2008 it would have been much less successful. Piketty's revelation of the big trends and their underlying logic helps to objectify, legitimize and offer a kind of catharsis for surging middle-class anxieties during the Great Recession. These anxieties have been further intensified by evidence that over 90 per cent of the increase in disposable income in the United States has accrued to the top 1 per cent of the population in the past several years, and a not much lower percentage to the top 1 per cent in Britain. In the conclusion it is argued that if Piketty's forecasts are even remotely accurate, capitalism will lose its core claim to legitimacy

Income distribution and the UK referendum – Professor Robert Wade

Large numbers of those who voted Out in the UK’s In/Out referendum did so less from a negative assessment of EU membership than from anger at their falling relative income over the past many years and worry that their children will fare even worse. On the day the result became known, the second most frequently asked question of Google, among all the EU-related questions, was “What is the EU?

Economic and political development under demi-sovereignty: the West Bank

This essay is about a dark side to the Israeli experience: its control system over the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank

Long read: the beginning of the end for the US dollar's global dominance.

The US dollar has been the global reserve currency for over 70 years, enhancing American financial and economic power. Robert Wade writes that the weaponization of the dollar and the dollar payments system against countries such as Russia and Iran over the past decade has incentivised others to find ways to escape the dominance of the US dollar. He looks at just how central the US dollar is to the global economy, and how countries such as the BRICS have been working to create their own alternatives such as new international currencies and using other currencies in important commodity trades such as oil. De-dollarization is coming, but anything close to the end of dollar dominance will be decades ahead

Professor Robert Wade on limited trade protections

Professor Robert Wade responds to the “Trade wars: episode II” article in the Economist, published on Saturday 4 November

The 2024 G20 Rio de Janeiro summit - high stakes, high drama

Brazil will host the next G20 summit in November. Robert H. Wade writes the summit will present several major challenges for its hosts, not least how to bridge geopolitical tensions and address the G20’s lack of representational legitimacy