Recommended Citation
Joel R. Paul,
The Myth of Economic Interdependence, 11
Waseda Proc. Comp. L.
293
(2009).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/faculty_scholarship/984
Publication Date
2009
Abstract
We often hear that the world is becoming more economically interdependent. This observation is so universally shared as to go virtually unquestioned. Economists, legal scholars, government officials, journalists, and business leaders frequently assert that, whether states want to integrate economically or not, increasing economic interdependence is happening, and countries simply must accommodate that reality, or they risk becoming economic relics. The global financial crisis of 2008 is a vivid example, if one were needed, of the extent to which our economies have grown interdependent with good and bad consequences. The theory that international capital markets has become "de-linked" from one another has been disproved as financial panic spreads across the globe. The worldwide fall in aggregate demand, the contraction of global markets, and the crash of stock exchanges from India to Russia, all appear to corroborate the assertion of global economic interdependence. Yet, the appearance of economic interdependence may be illusory. In this paper I will challenge the conventional view that economic interdependence is increasing and unavoidable.
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Waseda University Journal of Comparative Law