Globalisation

Globalisation is an issue that rouses strong emotions among people. The first step in
understanding the topic is to define what it means. The problem is that there is no single agreed definition indeed the term globalisation is used in different ways in different contexts by various writers and commentators. What is common to all usages is an attempt to explain, analyse and evaluate the rapid increase in cross-border (trans-national) business that has take place over the last two decades. The OECD defines globalization as The geographic dispersion of industrial and service activities, for example research and development, sourcing of inputs, production and distribution, and the cross-border networking of companies, for example through joint ventures and the sharing of assets Globalisation is essentially a process of deeper international economic integration that involves: o o An expansion of international trade in goods and services between countries. An increase in transfers of financial capital across national boundaries including the expansion of foreign direct investment (FDI) by multi-national companies and the rising influence of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). The internationalization of products and services and the development of global brands. Shifts in production and consumption from country to country for example the rapid expansion of out-sourcing and off-shoring of production and support services production supply-chains have become more international. Increased levels of labour migration. The entry of countries into the global trading system the most notable examples being China and the former countries of the Soviet economic bloc.

o o

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Another way of describing globalisation is to describe it as a process of making the world economy more inter-dependent. The expansion of trade in goods and services, the huge increase in flows of financial capital across national boundaries and the significant increase in multinational economic activity means that most of the worlds countries are increasingly dependent on each other for their macroeconomic health. Linked with this process is a change in the balance of power in the world economy, many of the newly industrialising countries are winning a growing share of world trade and their economies are growing much faster than in richer developed nations. Shares in world exports Canada France Germany Italy Japan United Kingdom United States Non-OECD Asia inc China Latin America 1991 2006 Change 1991-2006 3.4 3.4 -0.1 6.2 4.0 -2.1 10.8 8.6 -2.2 4.9 3.5 -1.4 8.0 5.0 -2.9 5.5 4.4 -1.1 13.7 10.1 -3.6 11.5 19.3 7.8 2.6 3.0 0.4 Source: OECD World Economic Outlook, June 2006

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For example, a deflationary monetary or fiscal policy introduced in one country which leads to changes in AD inevitably affects the ability of other countries to export to that economy. Secondly, changes in the structure of company taxation and personal taxation from country to country tends to influence flows of investment and have feedback effects in the long term on national income, employment and wealth. Different Waves of Globalisation

Globalisation is not new! Indeed there have seen several previous waves of globalisation. Nick Stern, former Chief Economist of the World Bank has identified three major stages of
globalization: o Wave One: Began around 1870 and ended with the descent into global protectionism during the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. This period involved rapid growth in international trade driven by economic policies that sought to liberalize flows of goods and people, and by emerging technology, which reduced transport costs. This first wave started the pattern which persisted for over a century of developing countries specializing in primary commodities which they export to the developed countries in return for manufactures. During this wave of globalisation, the level of world trade (defined by the ratio of world exports to GDP) increased from 2 per cent of GDP in 1800 to 10 per cent in 1870, 17 per cent in 1900 and 21 per cent in 1913. Wave Two: After 1945, there was a second wave of globalization built on a surge in world trade and reconstruction of the world economy. The rapid expansion of trade was supported by the establishment of new international economic institutions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created in 1944 to promote a stable monetary system and so provide a sound basis for multilateral trade, and the World Bank (founded as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) to help restore economic activity in the devastated countries of Europe and Asia. Their aim was to promote lasting multilateral economic co-operation between nations. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) signed in 1947 provided a framework for progressive mutual reduction in import tariffs. Wave Three: The current wave of globalisation which is demonstrated for example by a sharp rise in the ratio of trade to GDP for many countries and secondly, a sustained increase in capital flows between counties and trade in goods and services

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Decline in tariff and non-tariff restrictions Rising Real Living Standards Fall in Sea Transport Costs

Liberalisation of Domestic Markets Fall in communications costs

Declining Air Freight Costs

Main Motivations and Drivers for Globalisation As the well respected commentator Hamish McRae has argued, Business is the main driver of globalization! The process of globalisation is motivated largely by the desire of multinational corporations to increase profits and also by the motivation of individual national governments to tap into the wider macroeconomic and social benefits that come from greater trade in goods, services and the free flow of financial capital. Among the main drivers of globalisation are the following: o Improvements in transportation including containerisation over the long term, the costs of ocean shipping have come down, due to containerization, bulk shipping, and other efficiencies. The reduced cost of shipping different goods and services around the global economy helps to bring prices in the country of manufacture closer to prices in the export market, and adds to the process where markets are increasingly similar and genuinely contestable in an international sense. This longer term trend has been halted in the last couple of years with the rise of world oil prices and related increases in freight shipping rates. Technological change reducing massively the cost of transmitting and communicating information - sometimes known as the death of distance this is an enormous factor behind the growth of trade in knowledge products using internet technology. Advances in transport technology have lowered the costs, increased the speed and reliability of transporting goods and people extending the geographical reach of firms by making new and growing markets accessible on a cost-effective basis.
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For example, the OECD reports that over the past 50 years, passenger air travel costs, measured by the ratio of airline revenues to miles flown, have been reduced fourfold in real terms. In the telecommunications industry, expressed in 2005 US dollars, the charge for a three-minute New York-London call has dwindled from $80 in 1950 to $0.23 in 2007. o De-regulation of global financial markets: The process of deregulation has included the removal of capital controls in many countries. The opening up of capital markets in developed and developing countries facilitates foreign direct investment and encourages the freer flow of money across national boundaries. Differences in tax systems: The desire of multi-national corporations to benefit from lower labour costs and other favourable factor endowments abroad and therefore develop and exploit fresh comparative advantages in production has encouraged many countries to adjust their tax systems to attract foreign direct investment. Lower import tariffs - tariffs and other means of restraining international trade have declined, with progress especially marked in developing Asia and in Eastern Europe after the break-up of the Soviet Union. The breakdown of the Doha trade talks has dashed hopes of a globally-based reduction in import tariffs and other forms of protectionism. In its place there has been a flurry of bi-lateral trade deals between countries and the emergence of regional trading blocs.

Economies of scale: Many economists believe that there has been an increase in the
estimated minimum efficient scale associated with particular industries. This is linked to technological changes, innovation and invention in many different markets. If the MES is rising this means that the domestic market may be regarded as too small to satisfy the selling needs of these industries. Overseas sales become essential.

Globalization no longer necessarily requires a business to own a physical presence in terms of either owning production plants or land in other countries, or even exports and imports. For instance, economic activity can be shifted abroad by the processes of licensing and franchising which only needs information and finance to cross borders. And increasingly we are seeing many examples of joint-ventures between businesses in different countries e.g. businesses working together in research and development projects. Evaluating the effects of Globalisation Opportunities and Threats As we have mentioned already, there are hugely diverging viewpoints on the costs and benefits of the current process of globalisation. One thing is certain, globalisation is here to stay. Employment effects Concern has been expressed in some quarters that economic activity and employment in the advanced economies will drain away to the developing countries. Inevitably some jobs are lost as firms switch their production to countries with lower unit labour costs. But the neo-classical theory of trade and most past experiences suggest that all nations in the globalization process will gain in the long run providing they can find areas of expertise and competitive advantage as trade is an important determinant of long run growth and rising living standards
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That has not allayed concerns that certain sections of the population in richer countries notably relatively unskilled workers - will lose as an abundance of low-skilled labour in developing countries makes itself available to the world's companies at much cheaper costs leading to a fall in the demand for lower skilled workers in industrialised countries. Critics of globalisation in some developed countries point to the risks of increasing income equalities and greater job insecurity together with the threat of structural unemployment in industries where demand for labour falls. Most workers in industry and, especially, manufacturing in rich advanced countries produce goods that could be imported from abroad. Unemployment in the World Total Male Female million million million 157.3 92.7 64.7 177.2 104.7 72.5 191.4 113 78.5 191.8 112.9 78.9 Source: International Labour Office

1995 2000 2002 2005

Static and Dynamic Efficiency Gains For consumers and capitalists, the rapid expansion of global trade and foreign investment is a normally considered good thing. Textbook theory suggests that increased competition from overseas leads to improvements in static and dynamic efficiency and gains in economic welfare. Vigorous trade has made for more choice in the High Street, greater spending, rising living standards and a growth in international travel. o o o o Trade enhances the division of labour as countries specialise in their areas of comparative advantage. Deeper relationships between markets across borders enable producers and consumers to reap the full benefits of economies of scale. Competitive markets reduce monopoly profit margins and provide stronger incentives for businesses to seek cost-reducing innovations and improvements in their products. The combined effects of these gains in efficiency should be over time an improvement in economic growth and higher per capita incomes. The OECD Growth Project found that a 10 percentage-point increase in trade exposure was associated with a 4% rise in income per capita. But it is important to remember that these gains represent an average we must also consider the distributional consequences of rising incomes.

Expansion of Multinational Activity Capital does not always flow in one direction! The growth of multinational activity throughout the world is the result of a mix of economic and political factors. Most outward investment from one country to another takes places between developed countries but as we shall see, developments in the global economy mean that many developing countries are now exporters of capital and are increasingly willing to use their foreign exchange reserves to buy up the rights to mineral deposits in other countries and to engage in merger and takeover activity with long established businesses in the developed world. The main motivations for the rapid expansion of multinational activity are as follows: o o Higher profits and a stronger position and market access in global markets Reduced technological barriers to movement of goods, services and factors of production
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o o o o o

Cost considerations a desire to shift production to countries with lower unit labour costs Forward vertical integration (e.g. establishing production platforms in low cost countries where intermediate products can be made into finished products at lower cost) Avoidance of transportation costs and avoidance of tariff and non-tariff barriers Extending product life-cycles by producing and marketing products in new countries The urge to merge the financial incentives created by the global deregulation of capital markets is making it easier to achieve acquisitions and mergers and thereby encouraging the external growth of a business

Impact of Globalisation on the UK Economy The UK is a highly open economy. Openness to the global economy can increase the size of commercial markets available to domestic producers, encourage the transfer of technology and knowledge and also permit countries to specialise in those goods and services they produce efficiently by exploiting their comparative advantage. In 1979, the UK abolished its foreign exchange controls were abolished and the major financial markets have been gradually deregulated. This means that each day there is a huge amount of trade within our stock markets, the short-term money markets and the bond markets. UK trade with other countries continues to take a high and rising percentage of our total national output. Clearly, the globalisation process impacts significantly on the British economy with benefits and costs along the way: The UK has been a favoured venue for overseas direct investment indeed a large percentage of total investment into the European Union from non-EU countries has come into the UK. Many factors explain this trend including improvements in the supply-side performance of the economy, a favourable tax system and a much improved record on industrial relations. At the same time, UK investment overseas has soared partly as a result of a high level of merger and takeover activity. o Rising level of import penetration particularly in those industries where Britains previous comparative advantage has been eroded such as textiles and clothing and the manufacture of lower-valued added electronic products Competitive forces for nearly all sectors: Globalisation increases the importance for Britain of continuing to develop a competitive advantage in industries with major growthpotential as a means of improving living standards in the long term. Globalisation has involved a speeding up of the process by which comparative advantage can change over time not least because of the faster diffusion of technological progress. Greater investment is needed in high value goods and services for example in high and medium-high technology manufacturing and in knowledge-intensive service sectors Structural change in industries for example the long-term loss of output and employment in industries such as textiles. This creates problems where factor resources are occupationally and geographically immobile

The current wave of globalisation places increasingly heavy emphasis on the importance of human capital as a factor determining long-run economic growth. The UK has probably lost forever its comparative advantage in producing low-value added manufacturing products. Other countries with significantly lower labour costs can now meet global demand for many textile and clothing products and cheaper electronic products at much lower cost than we can. Whereas the global demand for high skill services and high value-added manufacturing output remains strong and a rising share of UK exports overseas are in hi-tech manufacturing industries and knowledge-intensive services. Maintaining this emerging comparative advantage in a globalised
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economy requires a substantial improvement in the skills and flexibility of the workforce a point emphasized in this statement from a recent CBI research report. Healthy globalisation We have seen that the current wave of globalisation faces a number of pressures and challenges. Some economists, concerned that globalisation might stall as a number of countries move towards protectionism, have called for a form of healthy globalisation. According to Lawrence Summers, a former US Treasury secretary, this means that deeper integration between countries needs to main popular support by reducing inequality and insecurity among those workers in the developed world hit hardest by competition. Shifting sands in the global economy In 2006, the value of output in the world economy was $58.6 trillion compared to $39.4 trillion in 1995. The share of world GDP attributed to developing countries has been growing steadily for several years. There are a number of reasons why developing nations have a higher trend rate of economic growth than their high-income counterparts: 1. Strong labour surpluses which keep unit labour costs down and encourage a shift in global manufacturing towards where production costs are lowest. 2. Higher expected returns to capital investment money and resources tend to flow to countries where the expected rates of profit are highest. 3. Ready access to technology many developing countries are embracing some of the advantage of globalisation in terms of technology transfers. 4. High rates of capital investment as a percentage of national income including huge levels of spending on infrastructure. 5. Many developing countries have become better at managing their economies achieving lower inflation and improved fiscal and trade positions. Countries such as China and Russia have amassed huge trade surpluses which have allowed them to invest enormous sums overseas through sovereign wealth funds. 6. For countries that are exporters of primary commodities the global boom in commodity prices has provided a major boost to their export earnings and an improvement in their terms of trade which allows them to import the consumer goods and capital goods they require, But for oil- and metal-importing economies the price increases have become a major burden.

Fast growth in the BRIC nations - China, India, Brazil and the Russian Federation has been the key to the fast-growth record of the developing countries as a whole because of the relative size of these four countries. Trade and Economic Development Import Substitution and Export Promotion One common aim of developing countries is to pursue industrialisation by expanding their industrial sector. And trade provides a means by which this development strategy can be pursued. Import substitution: The idea here is to domestically produce what was previously imported from elsewhere. There are some economically sound reasons for doing this; producing rather than importing will save valuable foreign exchange and ease the balance of payments deficit that most poor countries have. Moreover, there is obviously a ready-made market for the product, because people are already buying it from abroad.

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In theory, new firms would start by importing capital goods - plant and machinery and the latest technology - intermediate goods [raw materials and other components], and technical expertise. Once off the ground, the industry would be able to import capital goods to make all the necessary machinery themselves. The government would remove the tariffs once the industry was ready to compete with producers from around the world (see the later section on import protectionism and the infant industry argument). In reality, firms have rarely got beyond the first stage. Import tariffs have remained in place, since producers were unprepared to face global competition and so they had no incentive to become efficient and competitive. Export Promotion This was the approach adopted by the East Asian Tiger economies in their expansion of hitech manufacturing industries. Countries try to find markets in which they can successfully exploit their comparative advantages and sell their products to buyers elsewhere in the world. o o o Production centred on labour-intensive technologies (for the comparative advantage!) I.e. production has been based on much lower unit labour costs. Industry made up of private-sector firms driven by the profit motive. Government provides incentives for firms to export.

Many of the emerging market economies have been incredibly successful in implementing export promotion strategies and for them the process of globalisation has been a huge stimulus to their economic growth and development over the last ten twenty years. The New Globalizers Many developing countriessometimes known as the new globalizers have made huge progress in building and sustaining a strong position in world markets for manufactured goods and services. For example there has been a sharp rise in the share of manufactured goods in the exports of developing countries: from about 25 percent in 1980 to more than 80 percent today and a decline in the dependency of some countries on exporting primary commodities. These new globalizers have managed to exploit their competitive advantage in manufacturing based on a fast growth of labour productivity, much lower unit labour costs, high levels of capital investment, (much of it linked to inward investment) and crucially a reduction in the tariff levels imposed by industrialised economies. Technological progress has also speeded up the expansion of trade in manufactured goods from developing economies with improvements in containerisation and airfreight reducing the costs of transportation. Developing countries have become important exporters of manufactures Many developing countries have successfully exploited the rapid growth in demand for transistors, valves, semi-conductors, telecommunications equipment, electrical power machinery, office machines, computer parts and other electrical apparatus. These are all fastgrowing industries, although in many cases, price levels are falling as production shifts across the globe to lower cost production centres. The huge increase in out-sourcing of manufacturing production has been a major factor behind the speedy growth of export industries in many developing countries, not least the emerging market economies of south East Asia and more recently in eastern Europe. Further evidence on the extent to which developing countries are building and then harnessing new comparative advantages in many manufacturing industries is shown in the following table of data again drawn from information published by UNCTAD.

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Two industries where this global shift in manufacturing production has become ever more transparent are in the transport equipment sector and in textiles and clothing. The expansion of trade from developing countries is not focused solely on manufactured goods the share of services in developing country exports has grown from 9% in the early 1980s to 17% at the end of the 1990s. For rich countries, the share of services in total exports is only a little higher at 20%. Relatively low-income countries such as China, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have manufactures shares in their exports that are above the world average of 81 percent. Others, such as India, Turkey, Morocco, and Indonesia, have shares that are nearly as high as the world average. Some regions and countries have struggled to make any sustained progress in using trade as an instrument for long term growth and development. Africa, for example, experienced marginal economic growth during the 1990s leading to an ever-widening gap between living standards in Africa and the rest of the world. Its share of world trade continued to fall, from only 2.7 per cent in 1990 to 2.1 per cent in 2000, and critics argue that the global trading system continues to discriminate against the world's poorest countries. They argue that high-income countries continue to protect their agricultural industries against imports from low-income economies, pointing in particular to the inequities created by the European Union Common Agricultural Policy whereas developing countries' markets have been liberalised opening them up to exports from the developed world. Developed nations spent 154bn on agricultural support in 2005 according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In fact Average tariff levels on agricultural products coming into developed countries are far higher than those set for industrial products. Inequities in the global trading system In a recent report on Global Poverty and Fair Trade, Oxfam argued that "global trade has the potential to act as a powerful motor for the reduction of poverty, as well as for economic growth, but that potential is being lost. The problem according to Oxfam is not that international trade is inherently opposed to the needs and interests of the poor, but that the rules that govern it are rigged in favour of the rich. Barriers to imports in the advanced countries are, argues Oxfam, biased against the exports of developing countries at a cost to the latter of $100bn (or nearly 70bn) a year. The Make Poverty History campaign also focuses on some of the barriers to fair trade that holds back the growth and development of many of the worlds poorest countries. Many development economists claim that the current asymmetry of international trade barriers is actually biased against high-income countries. Tariffs on industrial products set by highincome countries average 3% whereas poor countries' tariffs average 13%.

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Global Exports of Goods and Services

Real value of world trade in US dollars, at constant 2000 prices
14 13 12 11 14 13 12 11

USD (thousand billions)

9 8 7 6 5 4 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08

9 8 7 6 5 4

Source: Reuters EcoWin

Threats and Challenges to Globalisation The political openness generated by, first, the adoption of outward looking policies by the Chinese under Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s and, second, by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 are massive shocks that have rocked the competitive equilibrium of the world economy through both labour and capital flows. Source: Stephen King, chief global economist of HSBC, February 2008 Globalisation is not an inevitable process and, as recent years have shown, there are many pressures and challenges that threaten to undermine, slow down and possible reverse it. Some of these are summarised below: 1. The paradox of inequality: Globalisation may well be leading to a more efficient allocation of scarce resources but it has also been linked to a widening of inequalities in income and wealth. When influential groups within societies decide that they are not benefitting from the process tensions are inevitable and those tensions are growing not receding. Globalisation has tended to reduce inequalities between countries but widen income and wealth gaps within countries. Evidence for this is a rise in the Ginicoefficient for many developed nations and the growing rural urban divide growing in countries such as China, India and Brazil. 2. The return of inflation: In many ways globalisation has acted to reduce costs and prices for many goods and services. But the driving down of interest rates caused by a glut of global savings allied to very fast economic growth rates in emerging market countries has led to a surge in the prices of virtually all internationally traded commodities. Food price inflation is the obvious symptom of this and has placed millions of the worlds poorest people at great risk.
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thousand billions

10

10

3. Bursting of the financial euphoria / bubbles: A decade or more of strong economic growth, low interest rates, easy credit created the conditions for a boom in share prices and property valuations in many countries. The bursting of these speculative bubbles has happened at different times for example the collapse of the sub-prime housing market in the United States in 2007 which prompted the credit crunch and the spreading of contagion from that across the world in 2008. China too has seen an unsustainable share price boom which has now ended. As financial markets experienced sharp falls in asset prices, speculators turned their attention to commodity markets causing the price of oil, gas, food stuffs and precious metals to reach historic highs. 4. Threats to the global commons: Perhaps the biggest long-term threat to the current wave of globalisation is the impact that rapid growth and development in many of the worlds emerging countries and the advanced nations is having on the global environment. Sustainable development is the watchword of the World Bank and other international organisations. The threat of irreversible damage to ecosystems, land degradation, deforestation, loss of bio-diversity and the fears of a permanent shortage of water afflicting millions of the most vulnerable people are just some of the issues facing policy-makers. 5. Huge trade imbalances: World trade has grown remarkably quickly over recent years but so too have trade imbalances. Some countries are running enormous trade and current account surpluses: a. Current account surplus countries: (expressed as a % of GDP) include Norway (11%), Germany (7%), Russia (8%), Saudi Arabia (39%), China (9%), Singapore (16%), Malaysia (15%) and Japan (4%). b. Current account deficit countries include: UK (-4%), USA (-5%), Spain (-11%), Ukraine (-8%), Australia (-6%), New Zealand (-7%) and Vietnam (-23%). Whilst there is nothing inherently wrong with a country operating a current account deficit and nothing decisively good about running persistently high trade surpluses the trade imbalances are a reflection of a number of complex economic forces. For some nations, the root cause of the surplus is the ability to export commodities that have risen in value Russian oil and gas is a good example of that the flip-side being the Ukraines dependence on Russian energy. For other countries such as China, the trade surpluses are the result of a huge surplus of domestic savings over investment and a long term shift in global manufacturing towards lower-cost Far East Asian economies. Whatever the causes, the enormous trade imbalances are creating tensions for globalisation. There is growing political pressure towards o o Economic nationalism where governments block takeovers and mergers of domestic industries and businesses by foreign owned multinationals Resource nationalism: Where countries look to protect their own factor resources such as natural raw materials. And countries with trade surpluses but high levels of import dependency use their foreign exchange reserves to buy up the right to import minerals from other countries. Trade protectionism as a way of reducing fundamental balance of payments deficits and protect domestic output and jobs

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Smaller agreements: A shift away from multi-lateral trade towards bi-lateral trade agreements a process that will be strengthened after the collapse of the Doha trade negotiations.

The Rise of Sovereign Wealth Funds Investment funds run by foreign governments, also called sovereign wealth funds have been in existence since the 1950s - in simple terms they are pools of overseas governmentcontrolled money. As a result of high commodity prices and the success of export-oriented manufacturing economies, countries such as China, Singapore, Dubai, Norway, Libya, Qatar and Abu Dhabi have built up a sizeable surplus of domestic savings over investment. This surplus money has been in large part transferred into sovereign wealth funds worth by some estimates over $2.5 trillion today, and controlling more money than hedge fund and private equity industries combined. According to Standard Chartered, sovereign wealth funds will increase to be valued at more than $13.4 trillion in just a decade, growing at an astonishing $450 billion a year. To some people the existence and rapid expansion of sovereign wealth funds counts as a threat to global trade in the future partly because of fears of a protectionist backlash from many western governments whose countries are running huge current account deficits on their balance of payments. There are many questions up in the air at the moment. o o How will the SWFs use their gigantic surpluses? Do they have an incentive to invest strategically perhaps for quasi political reasons and not simply with the aim of maximising returns?

For example, an investment into another nations telecoms industry might result in a high rate of return and perhaps more importantly, an influx of research and development information. Sovereign wealth funds are already having an important effect on the UK economy. Singapore's Temasek owns stakes in Barclays and Standard Chartered, while Qatar and Dubai between them own about a third of the London Stock Exchange. The government of Singapore has also built up a 3 per cent stake in British Land. Dubai's sovereign wealth fund, Dubai International Capital (DIC) has invested money in building stakes in UK companies, including Travelodge and the London Eye. Many sovereign wealth funds have provided a welcome injection of fresh financial capital for the UK banking system in the wake of the losses sustained from the sub-prime crisis and the credit crunch. Sovereign wealth funds such as those operated by China and Qatar are regarded as nontransparent. In this context transparency refers to the secrecy or openness of a funds investment strategy. As established, these funds have a great amount of money at their disposal and therefore secrecy in their investment policy may create instability in financial markets. Suggestions for reading on globalisation

Articles on globalisation from the Guardian BBC Globalisation and the World Economy (regularly updated articles) Globalisation and the wages of highly skilled workers (Economic Journal, July 2008) Globalisation is a benefit for the UK (Jim ONeill, Telegraph, July 2008) World Development Movement

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