Does Globalization hurt the poor?

That was the main question behind our Macro Economics class today. The direct take away was that in the short term poor countries benefit from globalization.

This result is based on the notion of comparative advantage. If the poor country is twice as productive producing product A relative to B, but rich country is three times as productive producing product A relative to B, then the poor country should produce B and rich country should produce A. They both end up with greater output and hence are better off.

However if the growth rate of productivity of A is higher than growth rate of productivity of B then the poor country is worse off on the long term and ends up slowing the growth rate of their potential output.

So the key thing is what is the level of technology involved in the jobs of poor countries relative to rich ones. If poor countries are getting more into relatively low technology jobs the gap will increase and globalization might slow their economic growth.