Research on Global Inequality and Development in the Wake of Global Economic Crises

My dissertation research, which is couched in network analysis and comparative historical sociology, advances the discipline by providing a large-scale quantitative analysis of the 2008-2009 global economic crisis’ impact on the international trade network in which the world economy rests upon. It addresses three questions central to sociological research on globalization and economic development: 1) how did the international trade network adapt and respond to the 2008-2009 global economic crisis? 2) In what ways did these responses alter power asymmetries within the international trade network? and 3) how do these alterations affect stratification and inequality within the world economy? Findings from the dissertation suggest that the 2008-2009 global economic crisis accelerated two long-term development trends: the growing influence of emerging economies on the structure of the world economy and declining influence from historically dominant economies from Global North countries such as the US, UK and Japan. A key reason has been the increasing trade relations within and between regions commonly associated with the Global South, including Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, which are mediated by large emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa. During and immediately after the crisis, these large emerging economies facilitated and expanded transnational links for smaller developing economies across the Global South, and thus provide further empirical evidence that the crisis facilitated increased Global South-to-South Cooperation across the international trade network. As a result, the hierarchy of the world economy has become less vertical and more horizontal.

Core Status in Export-Import Trade (2003)

Core Status in Export-Import Trade (2009)

Core Status in Export-Import Trade (2011)

Core Status in Export-Import Trade (2017)

 

The Global Trade in 2017 that has become increasingly interconnected since 2001.