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Do Consumers in Developing Countries Gain or Lose from Globalization?

In this paper, I argue that neoclassical consumption theory cannot serve as a framework for answering the question posed in the title because the theory cannot deal with the features of globalization that bear on consumers in poor countries. The welfare effects of globalization on consumers are especially prone to the forms of uncertainty and disappointment that are assumed away in traditional demand theory.I In particular, neoclassical theory unrealistically assumes that cOIlSumers are perfectly informed about their own preferences and about the range of available products; that these preferences are exogenously determined and stable over time; that individual satisfaction depends only on one's own consumption; and that consumption occurs at the point of purchase. To describe the actual gains and losses to consumers in developing countries from globalization, it is necessary to replace these assumptions with alternatives that describe reality more accurately. Before setting about this task, however, let us begin by examining precisely how the assumptions of traditional demand theory preclude the possibility that consumers may experience feelings of frustration and disappointment.