[...]We conclude that technological change, combinedwith overall growth in the capital stock, is the most importantfactor driving the growing wage inequality betweenlow-skilled and high-skilled workers. Increased competitionfrom abroad, both from developing and industrializedcountries, appears...

Under the international economic order which prevailed between the end of mercantilism and decolonisation (referred to in this essay as liberal imperialism) the costs of transacting, transporting and trading commodities, both within and across national and imperial frontiers declined sharply.1...