By Joseph E. Stiglitz & Andrew Charlton

- Fair Trade for All; How Trade Can Promote Development (2007)
- Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't Add Up (2010)
- Measuring What Counts; The Global Movement for Well-Being (2019)
- People, Power, and Profits; Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent (2019)
- Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity (2020)
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of the New York Times bestselling book Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz here joins with fellow economist Andrew Charlton to offer a challenging and controversial argument about how globalization can actually help Third World countries to develop and prosper.
In Fair Trade For All, Stiglitz and Charlton address one of the key issues facing world leaders today - how can the poorer countries of the world be helped to help themselves through freer, fairer trade? To answer this question, the authors put forward a radical and realistic new model for managing trading relationships between the richest and the poorest countries. Their approach is designed to open up markets in the interests of all nations and not just the most powerful economies, to ensure that trade promotes development, and to minimize the costs of adjustments. The book illuminates the reforms and principles upon which a successful settlement must be based.
Vividly written, highly topical, and packed with insightful analyses, Fair Trade For All offers a radical new solution to the problems of world trade. It is a must read for anyone interested in globalization and development in the Third World.
Paul Kingsnorth on The Independent wrote:"In their provocative book, Fair Trade for All, Joseph E. Stiglitz [...] and Andrew Charlton [...] argue that the poorer nations are right. A better deal would be for them to move toward free trade gradually, each according to its own particular circumstances. The authors urge richer nations to help poorer ones prepare themselves for trade, while dismantling their own trade barriers, which prevent developing nations from selling them many goods and services. [...] Stiglitz and Charlton show that standard economic assumptions are wrong when it comes to many developing economies. When markets in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are opened, people often can't move easily to new industries where the nation has a comparative advantage. [...] Hence, the authors argue, the pace at which poorer nations open their markets to trade should coincide with the development of new institutions - roads, schools, banks and the like - that make such transitions easier and generate real opportunities. Since many poor nations can't afford the investments required to build these institutions, rich nations have a responsibility to help. Without these other institutions in place, the authors say, trade by itself can do more harm than good. [...] they fail to acknowledge that within richer nations free trade is already disproportionately benefiting the best educated and best connected. Thewealthy are growing much wealthier while the middle class is being squeezed. In fact, the adjustment mechanisms the authors find lacking in most developing economies - good public schools, modern infrastructure and adequate social safety nets - are coming to be less and less available even in America."
Joseph A. McKinney on Journal of Markets and Morality wrote:"the dryness of language and the painstaking, evidence-based presentation favoured by Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton should not be allowed to obscure the power of the points they make. They set out to produce a kind of Beveridge Report for the 21st-century economy, and to knock away some of the shibboleths underpinning the free trade ideology which still dominates global economic thinking. And they largely succeed. [...] In all, they provide a workable and reasonable, if somewhat ponderous, way to make the current system fairer. What they don't do is live up to the claim that they have come up with 'a radical new economic model'. Stiglitz has for some time been seen as something of a Great White Hope by those campaigning to change the global economic model. He is actually a cautious, fair-minded neo-Keynesian, with some sensible ideas. Future historians may conclude that a society in which the ultra-reasonable Joseph Stiglitz was seen as a radical was far more in thrall to the gods of the market than it could bring itself to admit."
"Their stated purpose is 'to describe how trade policies can be designed in developed and developing countries with a view to integrating developing countries into the world trading system and to help them benefit from their participation' (1). Further, they ask, 'What would an agreement based on principles of economic analysis and social justice - not on economic power and special interests - look like?' (5). Stiglitz and Charlton are quite critical of the current world trade regime, but the book differs from most others of that genre in that the criticisms are informed, and repeated references are made to both theoretical and empirical work that supports the criticisms. Even so, the book is unbalanced in that it focuses so much on possible ways in which less-developed countries may be disadvantaged in the current trading system that it does not give a full accounting of the many benefits realized by countries that have successfully integrated into the world economy. [...] Voices such as those of Stiglitz and Charlton, who raise the flag of social justice concerning trade matters and at the same time provide sophisticated discussion of theeconomic issues involved, are rarely heard. Despite its one-sidedness, the book contains much food for thought and is recommended reading for those with a serious interest in trade policy."
Table of Contents
- Introduction: The Story So Far
- Trade Can Be Good for Development
- The Need for a Development Round
- What Has Doha Achieved?
- Founding Principles: The Basis for a Fair Agreement
- Special Treatment for Developing Countries
- Priorities for a Development Round
- How to Open Up Markets
- Priorities Beyond The Border
- What Should Not Be On the Agenda
- Joining the Trading System
- Institutional Reforms
- Trade Liberalization and the Costs of Adjustment
- Appendix 1: Empirical Review of Market Access Issues
- Appendix 2: Empirical Review of the Singapore Issues
About Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton
Bios of the authors at the time of publication of the book (links contain more recent info):
Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University and Co-founder and Executive Director of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue. A winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001, he was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1993-95. He is the author of many books, including the international bestseller Globalization and Its Discontents, which has been translated into 28 languages.
Andrew Charlton is a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics. He has taught at Oxford University and been a consultant for the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, The United Nations Development Program and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.