Nita Rudra

TL;DR: This paper investigated the effects of capital and trade flows on government welfare spending in fifty-three developing countries and found that when the proportion of low-skilled workers in a nation is high, globalization will lead to a decline in welfare spending.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that increasing exposure to international export and financial markets leads to improvements in democracy if safety nets are used simultaneously as a strategy for providing stability and building political support.

TL;DR: The literature on globalization on social policy and welfare, and the parallel literature on the effects of democracy, operate in mutual isolation to a surprising degree as discussed by the authors. But they operate in different domains.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors use cluster analysis to find distinct patterns of welfare regimes in the political economies of less developed countries (LDCs) with respect to their distribution regimes, and find that welfare efforts in LDCs are either directed towards promoting market development (a productive welfare state), protecting select individuals from the market (a protective welfare state) or both (a dual welfare state).

TL;DR: The authors argue that it has been the lower and upper-middle classes who have benefited the most from welfare systems and consequently it is they who are most vulnerable to globalization's race to the bottom.