Notes that if properly managed, globalization can lead to important health gains. Suggests that health gains in China, Costa Rica, the East Asia 'tiger economies' and Viet Nam can be attributed in part to their growing access to global markets, savings and technology. Opines that for most of the remaining countries, many of them in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, globalization has not lived up to its promises due to a combination of poor domestic conditions, and an unequal distribution of foreign investments and the imposition of new conditions further limiting the access of their exports to the OECD markets. Notes that in these developing countries, the last twenty years have brought about a slow, unstable and unequal pattern of growth and stagnation in health indicators.

10/26/01 JOY_D