Nobel laureate calls for "greening" of globalization.

• Author: French, Hilary
• Position: Joseph Stiglitz

In his latest book, Making Globalization Work, 2001 Nobel laureate and Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses the many issues and challenges--including environmental--associated with globalization. The book follows on Stiglitz's popular 2003 critique, Globalization and its Discontents, but moves beyond identifying problems to outlining solutions.

Among the issues Stiglitz addresses are the links between globalization and the pervasive poverty, financial instability, and indebtedness that plague many developing countries. He critiques the trade and capital market liberalization that were key components of the much-reviled "Washington Consensus" of the 1990s and points to the now-widespread agreement that these policies focused "too much on just an increase in GDP, not on other things that affect living standards." Stiglitz argues that international financial policies focused too little on "whether growth could be sustained economically, socially, politically, or environmentally."

Stiglitz's attention to environmental issues is significant in light of the tendency of many mainstream economists to give them short shrift. In particular, Stiglitz...