Consumption, globalization, and development

Index v List of Tables 1.1 An outline of Part I 2.1 Growth in the number of television receivers 3.1 Economic vs. sociological approaches to taste change 4.1 Source of individual-specific variations in health functionings following drug usage 5.1 The spread of advertising in the developing world -top 10 countries in advertising expenditure as a share of GDP, 1986 and 1996 5.2 Globalization, frustration and consumer disappointment 6.1 The top 10 advertisers on television in India, 1984-5 7.1 A comparison of television ratings 7.2 Selected technological achievements at TV Globo vi List of Figures 2.1 The quasi-cardinal approach 2.2 The welfare effect of a new product 2.3 The direction of product innovations in the developed countries 3.1 a) Nurkse's view b) The Hirsch/Veblen view 3.2 Positionality and the direction of change in demand 3.3 The appearance of modernity 3.4 The squeeze on essential characteristics 4.1 Functionings in Sen's approach 4.2 Drug efficacy, toxicity and health functionings over time 4.3 Drug usage, characteristics and functionings 4.4 Sequentiality in the determinants of health functionings 6.1 Two types of markets in developing countries 6.2 The laundry detergent market prior to introduction of Nirma 6.3 A comparison of Surf and Nirma in characteristics space vii Preface During the 1980s and early 1990s I wrote a number of essays expressing my concern about the ability of traditional consumption theory to come to grips with the series of changes in developing countries that are frequently referred to as the modernization process. Jointly expressed in a volume entitled Consumption and Development (Macmillan 1993), those concerns have only been intensified by the changes in the relationships between rich and poor countries wrought in the 1990s by information technologies of various kinds. For as this volume seeks to demonstrate, the various processes of globalization render even more implausible the assumptions of traditional consumption theory, and so too the welfare foundations of free market economics that rely so heavily on those assumptions. ## Jeffrey James Tilburg viii Chapters 3 and 4 appeared originally in other sources. The former was published under the title 'Positional Goods, Conspicuous Consumption and the International Demonstration Effect Reconsidered', World Development, 15(4), 1987. It is reprinted here with permission from Elsevier Science. Chapter 4 appeared originally in J. James and H. Khan, Technological Systems and Development, Macmillan 1998. It is reprinted here with permission from the publisher. The author and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: the table, 'What the World is Watching', © In this book Jeffrey James deals with some of the most important and controversial aspects of the relationship between consumption and globalization in developing countries. Part One assesses the welfare effects of globalization on different groups of consumers, using an analytical framework that departs substantially from the assumptions of traditional consumption theory. Part Two deals with the effect of globalization on local products and cultures in developing countries and the potential afforded by the growth of the mass media to alleviate a number of social problems in those countries. The author argues that instead of the welfare gains associated with traditional theory, globalization may often lead to frustration and disappointment among consumers; that it does not invariably displace local products and that, in combination with social marketing, it offers new ways of addressing acute social problems Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-7 Front Matter....Pages 9-9 Globalization, Preference Change and Consumer Welfare in Developing Countries....Pages 11-27 Globalization, Conspicuous Consumption and the International Demonstration Effect Reconsidered....Pages 28-60 From Global Products to Individual Functionings: Medicinal Drugs in Developing Countries....Pages 61-84 Do Consumers in Developing Countries Gain or Lose from Globalization?....Pages 85-102 Front Matter....Pages 103-103 Can Appropriate Products Capture Mass Markets in a Globalizing World? a Case Study from India....Pages 105-121 Cultural Advantage Reversal: the Case of Telenovelas in Brazil....Pages 122-130 Globalization and the Potential for Social Marketing in Developing Countries....Pages 131-139 Back Matter....Pages 141-142 This volume is concerned with the complexities of the relationship between globalization and different groups of consumers in developing countries. Globalization, it is argued, can yield frustration and disappointment as well as welfare gains for consumers; it may, but does not necessarily, displace local products and via the rapid recent expansion of the mass media, it offers policy-makers new opportunities to deal with acute social problems.