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The Benefits of Globalization

The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development has a good study on globalization. Making the Most of Globalization offers a good economic…

The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development has a good study on globalization. Making the Most of Globalization offers a good economic summary of what we know about the impact of globalization on growth, investment, wages, inflation, and the like in the world’s most developed nations. The opening page has a powerful chart: This current wave of globalization is historically large compared to the 1950s and the 1870s, two previous major episodes when the worldwide integration of markets for goods, labor, and capital expanded.The population of the integrating economies–China, India, and the like–as a ratio of that in advanced countries is around 225%. In 1950, with the entry of Japan, the comparable figure was around 20% and in 1870 with the emergence of North America and peripheral Europe, 50%. “In comparison with earlier phases of globalization, the countries now coming in have relatively larger populations,” the report says.