"In considering the effects of economic globalization, increasing trade openness and growth arguably matter less than the concomitant change in the structure of world trade: the rise in intermediate goods trade resulting from the break-up of the production process into different parts and their location in different countries. This article examines the extent of that structural change, its causes, and its implications for theory and policy. In particular, Milberg argues, international trade and investment theories need refocusing away from the mutually beneficial world of comparative advantage and internalization, toward a theory of the competitive struggle of absolute advantage and externalization."

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