Wolf, Martin (Harry) 1946-

PERSONAL: Born August 16, 1946; son of Edmund and Rebecca (Wijnschenk) Wolf; married Alison Margaret Potter, August, 1970; children: Jonathan Thomas, Benjamin Jacob, Rachel Janet. Education: Corpus Christi College, Oxford, M.A.; Nuffield College, Oxford, M.Phil., 1971. Hobbies and other interests: Theater, opera, skiing, reading.

ADDRESSES: Office—Financial Times, 1 Southward Bridge, London SE1 9HL, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: World Bank, Washington, DC, member of Young Professional program, 1971, staff member in office of the vice president in East Africa, 1972-74, senior economist for India division, 1974-77, member of core team for World Development Report, 1977-78, senior economist for international trade and capital-flows division, 1979-81, director of studies for Trade Policy Research Centre, 1981-87; Financial Times, London, England, 1987-, associate editor, beginning 1990, chief economics leader writer, 1990-96, chief economics commentator, beginning 1996. Consultant; European Economic Integration advisory board member, Erasmus University Faculty of Economics, Rotterdam, Netherlands; member of national consumer council, 1967-73; fellow, World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, beginning 1999. Special professor, University of Nottingham, beginning 1993; visiting fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford, beginning 1999.

AWARDS, HONORS: Wincott Foundation senior prizes, 1989, 1997, for excellence in financial journalism; New Zealand Commemoration Medal, 1990, for work with Eminent Persons Group on World Trade; R.T.Z. David Watt Memorial Prize, 1994; named commander, Order of the British Empire, 2000; Decade of Excellence Award, Business Journalist of the Year Awards, 2003; Newspaper Feature of the Year Award, Workworld Media, 2003.

WRITINGS:

(With Donald B. Keesing) Textile Quotas against Developing Countries, Trade Policy Research Centre (London, England), 1980.

(With Oli Havrylyshyn) Trade among Developing Countries: Theory, Policy Issues, and Principal Trends, World Bank (Washington, DC), 1981.

India's Exports, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1982.

Costs of Protecting Jobs in Textiles and Clothing, Trade Policy Research Centre (London, England), 1984.

(Editor, with Deepak Lal) Staglation, Savings, and the State: Perspectives on the Global Economy, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Global Implications of the European Community's Programme for Completing the Internal Market, Lehrman Institute (New York, NY), 1989.

The Resistible Appeal of Fortress Europe, American Enterprise Institute (Washington, DC), 1994.

Why Globalization Works: The Case for the Global Market Economy, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2004.

Contributor to professional journals, including CATO Journal, Foreign Policy, International Affairs, and New York University Journal of International Law and Politics.

SIDELIGHTS: A former economist for the World Bank who is now chief economics writer for London's Financial Times, Martin Wolf is a highly respected commentator on international business and fiscal policies. As a financial journalist and author, many of Wolf's writings have been targeted at fellow economists, but his 2004 book, Why Globalization Works: The Case for the Global Market Economy, is accessible to general readers interested in this subject. In this book Wolf makes the argument that the globalization of markets—that is, allowing for more free trade between nations and permitting businesses to operate with less government interference across borders—is a beneficial practice to rich and poor countries alike. This position remains controversial, especially to those who insist that globalization results in corporations exploiting cheap labor abroad while also damaging labor unions and other blue-collar workers at home. While not all reviewers were convinced by Wolf's arguments, many concluded that Why Globalization Works is, as one Economist critic put it, "the fullest and most sophisticated treatment to date of the case for globalization."

In Why Globalization Works Wolf uses both historical and modern examples of how opening trade has helped countries to support his position, and he explains that the cases in which globalization did not work to improve people's lives involve countries wherein government interfered with capitalism or else other factors conspired to thwart capitalism's success. An example of the latter would be India, where a "stifling industrial licensing system would nullify any benefits from opening up trade," as Arvind Panagariya explained in a Foreign Affairs assessment of Wolf's book. Several critics had problems with Wolf's arguments, however. For example, Andres Hernandez Alende maintained in Latin Trade that "history doesn't back him up" in a number of cases, including the fact that the economic success of industrialized countries is frequently boosted by "rigorous protectionist policies." Alende added that Wolf "repeats ideas in vogue 20 years ago, before the fall of the Soviet Union changed our concept of the world." Panagariya similarly noted flaws in the author's assertion that trade barriers and subsidies are an impediment to economic success, writing that Wolf "does not make a convincing case for these charges and, at times, too readily embraces populist arguments without necessary qualification." Still, Panagariya admitted that when Wolf makes his case against the idea that globalization leads to the exploitation of the poor abroad and the working classes at home, he "debunks both myths eloquently and decisively."

Despite such criticism, reviewers found much to praise in Why Globalization Works. Comparing the Wolf book favorably to Jagdish Bhagwati's In Defence of Globalisation, which was published the same year, New Statesman contributor Robert Skidelsky noted that Wolf's work is "the more comprehensive, better organised and … more concise book." The Economist writer further attested that "Wolf writes in plain, taut English, without gimmicks or condescension. His book is the definitive treatment of the subject, and an absorbing read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

African Business, October, 2004, review of Why Globalization Works: The Case for the Global Market Economy.

American Enterprise, December, 2004, Joseph Sternberg, review of Why Globalization Works, p. 54.

Choice, October, 2004, M. Veseth, review of Why Globalization Works, p. 342.

Economist, July 17, 2004, "Too Many Countries? Economics Focus," p. 75.

Foreign Affairs, September-October, 2004, Arvind Panagariya, "The Miracles of Globalization," p. 146.

Latin Trade, October, 2004, Andres Hernandez Alende, review of Why Globalization Works, p. 58.

New Statesman, July 12, 2004, Robert Skidelsky, "Engine of Growth: Globalisation, Despite Its Imperfections, Represents the Best Hope There Is for Alleviating Poverty," p. 50.

Newsweek International, June 7, 2004, Robert J. Samuelson, review of Why Globalization Works, p. 95.

Publishers Weekly, April 12, 2004, review of Why Globalization Works, p. 49.

Spectator, June 12, 2004, Martin Vander Weyer, review of Why Globalization Works, p. 45.