Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990–2015

Unequal exchange theory posits that economic growth in the “advanced economies” of the global North relies on a large net appropriation of resources and labour from the global South, extracted through price differentials in international trade. Past attempts to estimate the scale and value of this drain have faced a number of conceptual and empirical limitations, and have been unable to capture the upstream resources and labour embodied in traded goods. Here we use environmental input-output data and footprint analysis to quantify the physical scale of net appropriation from the South in terms of embodied resources and labour over the period 1990 to 2015. We then represent the value of appropriated resources in terms of prevailing market prices. Our results show that in 2015 the North net appropriated from the South 12 billion tons of embodied raw material equivalents, 822 million hectares of embodied land, 21 exajoules of embodied energy, and 188 million person-years of embodied labour, worth $10.8 trillion in Northern prices – enough to end extreme poverty 70 times over. Over the whole period, drain from the South totalled $242 trillion (constant 2010 USD). This drain represents a significant windfall for the global North, equivalent to a quarter of Northern GDP. For comparison, we also report drain in global average prices. Using this method, we find that the South’s losses due to unequal exchange outstrip their total aid receipts over the period by a factor of 30. Our analysis confirms that unequal exchange is a significant driver of global inequality, uneven development, and ecological breakdown.

Is Dollar Dominance Good for the U.S.?

Thoughts on the U.S.'s so-called exorbitant privilege.

Les inégalités aux Etats-Unis (5/5) : une financiarisation prédatrice

traduction française du billet de blog "Predatory financialization. Understanding Inequality: Part V" de Paul Krugman

Unequal exchange of labour in the world economy

Researchers have argued that wealthy nations rely on a large net appropriation of labour and resources from the rest of the world through unequal exchange in international trade and global commodity chains. Here we assess this empirically by measuring flows of embodied labour in the world economy from 1995–2021, accounting for skill levels, sectors and wages. We find that, in 2021, the economies of the global North net-appropriated 826 billion hours of embodied labour from the global South, across all skill levels and sectors. The wage value of this net-appropriated labour was equivalent to €16.9 trillion in Northern prices, accounting for skill level. This appropriation roughly doubles the labour that is available for Northern consumption but drains the South of productive capacity that could be used instead for local human needs and development. Unequal exchange is understood to be driven in part by systematic wage inequalities. We find Southern wages are 87–95% lower than Northern wages for work of equal skill. While Southern workers contribute 90% of the labour that powers the world economy, they receive only 21% of global income.

Who supplies and demands safe assets – and why it matters

Safe assets are the building blocks of modern financial markets. This column examines the sectoral dynamics of safe assets across advanced economies since the 1980s. It shows that foreign demand for these assets has steadily increased, with the financial sector playing a key role in meeting it. However, because financial institutions often back the safe assets they create with risky loans, this rising foreign demand can fuel domestic credit booms and contribute to macroeconomic instability. The results highlight the importance of carefully managing the creation of safe assets within the global financial system.

Lower-income country debt payments hit highest level in 30 years - Debt Justice

Lower-income country debt payments have trebled in the last decade, according to figures calculated by Debt Justice based on IMF and World Bank data

Les inégalités aux Etats-Unis (1/5) : pourquoi l'écart s'est-il creusé entre les riches et les autres ?

traduction française du billet de blog "Why did the rich pull away from the rest? Understanding inequality: Part I" de Paul Krugman

Le très mauvais excédent de mille milliards de dollars de la Chine

traduction française du billet de blog "China’s very bad, no good trillion-dollar trade surplus" de Paul Krugman

Beyond GDP: Measuring and Valuing What Really Matters

Rethinking the UN’s “beyond GDP” agenda and the case for putting wealth at the centre

The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure

A report shows that a $50 trillion redistribution of income to benefit the richest has made America less healthy, resilient, and secure

The myth of catch-up development: trends in core–periphery inequality from 1960 to 2023

The conventional narrative in international development holds that poorer countries are “catching up” with richer countries through the process of capitalist growth. This paper assesses this claim ...

annotations: A propos de la super-implication des super-riches dans la politique américaine

Blog de sciences économiques et sociales de Martin Anota. Traductions, revues de presse.

$1 Trillion of Wealth Was Created for the 19 Richest U.S. Households Last Year

Total household wealth for the richest 19 U.S. households jumped to about $2.6 trillion in 2024, after the biggest one-year increase on record.

Exocapitalism: economies with absolutely no limits

There is a touch of destiny with this one. We have real…

Structural adjustment: damages, reparations and pathways to non-recurrence

Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank implemented neoliberal structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) across most countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. SAPs imposed austerity, privatisation and economic deregulation and have been associated with severe negative impacts on human welfare, including (a) declining real wages and working-class consumption, (b) increased rates of poverty and basic-needs deprivation, (c) increased neonatal and maternal mortality and (d) reduced health system access. Structural adjustment also created conditions for increased financial outflows and drain from the global South through unequal exchange. This paper reviews evidence of these damages and proposes possible options for reparations and distributive justice. We argue that the IMF and the World Bank should be democratised and restructured—or otherwise replaced by alternative institutions—to prevent further harm.