A T-Shirt's Global Economic Journey: the New Game of Globalization and Trade Protection (2Nd Edition of the Original Book)

How can the story of such a simple product as a T-shirt contribute to the current debate on global trade? When I embarked on this research project in 1999, I was partly driven by my desire to tell the story of the T-shirt, but partly by my concern that small survey-style storytelling methods were insufficient to explain complex global trade issues. In general, this storytelling approach is somewhat outdated in today's business and economic research. Since the story provides us with only "anecdotal" information, we can draw few conclusions from it. According to the accepted methodology of academic research, what happened at a certain time and place, that is, these stories and anecdotes may be entertainment and not informative. Storytelling is not enough for us to derive, test, or generalize theories. The result is that today's researchers have more data, faster computers, and better statistical methods, but fewer and fewer personal observations. Now, I believe that while non-physical data and statistical modeling are a key part of knowledge creation, physical participation and observation are equally important. The continued interest in this book, especially its use as a textbook in several universities, has confirmed my earlier expectation that in economics and politics, biography and story can explain what data and statistical analysis cannot.