Paper short abstract:

The impact of globalisation on rural poverty and development is an important topic, as most of the world’s poor reside in rural areas. As argued by Bardhan (2005), the net impact on poverty is complex and context-dependent, and therefore, empirical evidence needs to be assessed to analyse the effects.

Paper long abstract:

The impact of globalisation on the poor is an area of serious concern, and has elevated both academic and practical debates. This paper aims to discuss these effects of the phenomenon with a particular focus on the rural poor in developing countries. Globalisation is a broad concept with various dimensions. For this paper, only the economic aspect has been considered, mainly emphasising on trade liberalization. The paper argues that both positive and negative outcomes of globalisation have been witnessed. The extent to which the rural poor are able to benefit or be negatively affected, depends largely on the local context, including patterns of society, access to resources, the state of infrastructure and the government's policies. An attempt is made to define the term globalisation and discuss a few perspectives on the issue and its understanding. The paper then presents and analyses the positive and negative effects of globalisation using theoretical arguments, supported by empirical evidence from various countries around the world. It concludes by outlining some conditions under which globalisation could be a means for poverty reduction and improving the welfare of the rural poor.