GLOBALISATION: PAST AND PRESENT

This article compares and contrasts the two modern eras of globalisation, namely the one that started in the mid-nineteenth century and ended on the eve of World War I, and the contemporary era. Although in both periods globalisation brought down national barriers and integrated economies and societies, there were distinct characteristic features of both periods. For example, the scale of global integration through trade and financial channels during the contemporary era was unmatched by the previous phase of globalisation. Furthermore, never in history had global integration involved so many countries and people, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the global population.     

Labour market response to globalisation: Spain, 1880–1913

This paper analyses the impact of globalisation (trade and migration) on the Spanish labour market between 1880 and 1913 by examining the influence that globalisation factors had on agricultural and industrial wages. Our results show that the nineteenth century grain invasion had a negative impact on agricultural wages, whereas the fall in wheat prices did not benefit industry workers. We also found that migration pushed up real agricultural and industrial wages. As agriculture was the main sector in the economy, the final impact was a wage decrease. The negative impact of trade on agricultural and industrial labour markets partly explains the trade policy response of “integral protection”. However, other alternatives that would have been effective in raising living standards, such as migration policy, were not used.     

基于经济区视角下的区域金融发展与经济增长关系的实证研究——以京津冀经济区为例

本文从跨行政区的经济区的视角来研究区域金融发展与经济增长之间的关系,采用协整检验和因果关系检验对以京津冀经济区进行实证研究。检验结果显示:在京津冀经济区金融规模与金融效率对经济增长存在正相关性,但是,两者对经济增长的促进作用并不显著。金融规模与经济增长之间不具有因果关系,而经济增长与金融效率之间存在显著的单向因果关系。说明京津冀经济区的经济增长与金融深化发展遵循的是需求引致型发展模式。     

Limits to Knowledge Transfer

Abstract

Discussion of the transfer of market-economic principles and practices into the post-command economies of central and eastern Europe is often couched in terms which assert the undoubted inadequacies of the pre-1989 management practices, but which pay insufficient regard to those practices which reflected an adaptive adjustment to the old ways of doing things and which, when carefully examined, testify to the existence of well-developed skills which could be drawn on in developing managers for effective performance in the new market economy. This paper argues that ignorance of these skills leads to misunderstanding of reactions to the change process, and that this misunderstanding may lead to ineffective change interventions. Some suggestions for practice are outlined in the light of different interpretations of the process and consequences of globalisation.     

Consequences of deindustrialisation for globalisation: Insights for international business

Literature suggests many countries across the world are facing a growing political backlash against the consequences of deindustrialisation. Intensifying anti-globalisation sentiment associated with this backlash has important implications for international business. In the absence of empirical evidence, it is however unclear to what extent deindustrialisation has contributed to a recent slowdown in the rate of growth of globalisation. Considering the importance of this knowledge, this paper tests predictions in the literature that this slowdown has to some extent been caused by deindustrialisation (declining country shares of manufacturing’s output in gross domestic product). Granger and generalised method of moments findings suggest some support for these predictions. On the basis of the findings, it is argued that compensation should be prioritised for those that stand to lose due to deindustrialisation. Further research is also called for, to explore other ‘root’ causes of current anti-globalisation movements, and to address them, before consequences spill over into a post COVID-19 era of uncertainty for international business.     

Are the antiglobalists right? Gains-from-trade without a Walrasian auctioneer

We show that the “fear” of globalisation can be rationalised by economic theory in the standard AD/AS equilibrium model, if we substitute the coordinational role of the Auctioneer by an implementation device based on learning (Guesnerie in Am Econ Rev 82, 1254–1278, 1992). When endowing producers with a learning ability to forecast market prices, individual profit-maximizing production decisions become interdependent in a strategic sense (strategic substitutes). Performing basic comparative statics exercises, we show that “competitiveness” matters in a precise sense: as foreign producers gain access to the home market, home producers’ ability to forecast market prices is undermined, so being their ability to forecast the profit consequences of their production decisions. A standard open economy exercise shows that the efficiency gains triggered by increased competition have to be traded-off against higher uncertainty (a lower likelihood to coordinate upon the welfare enhancing free-trade equilibrium). We interpret it as a new rationale for the existence of barriers to trade targeting coordination, rather than protecting mere inefficient sectors or industries (political economy driven). Finally, we show that classical measures evaluating ex-ante the desirability of economic integration (net welfare gains) do not always advice free trade. I wish to specially thank Roger Guesnerie, Thierry Verdier and an anonymous referee for their helpful suggestions. Comments by Facundo Albornoz, Pol Antràs, Gregory Corcos, Maurice Kugler, Robin Mason, Victor Norman, Emmanuel Ornelas and Susanna Thede are sincerely acknowledged. Audiences at the U. of Alicante, U. Autonoma de Barcelona, ETSG 2005 (Dublin), FGV-EPGE (RJ, Brazil), LACEA 2005 (Paris), the Miwest Trade Meeting at Minneapolis 2007, the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), SBE 2005 (Natal, Brazil), U. of Southampton and T2M 2005 are acknowledged. The contents constitute chapter 4 of my PSE-EHESS PhD thesis, extended while I visited the NYU Economics department, sponsored by A. Bisin. Financial support from the Bank of Spain and CNRS is sincerely acknowledged.     

The shrivelled USA: representing time–space in the context of metropolitanization and the development of high-speed transport

On the one hand the present globalisation process has only been made possible through a reduction in time–distances allowed by high-speed transport, and particularly through the development of air transport. On the other hand the metropolitanization process seen as the urban counterpart of globalisation is deeply associated with the development of air transport.Understanding distances between places is a fundamental task for the geographer, while the representation of distances constitutes one of the major functions of cartography.Among the types of maps invented to represent time–space, distorted projections were supplemented with time–space relief cartography in the 1990s. This paper proposes a representation of the time–space relief of the USA considering terrestrial and air modes. This constitutes a key innovation in this type of cartography, giving the possibility of creating a representation of global time–space. The metaphors associated with the images proposed are then discussed evoking the shrinking, the crumpling and finally the shrivelling of time–space. The shrivelling metaphor takes account of the complicated contraction/expansion movement that high-speed transport impacts on space and allows for a rich interpretation of the time–space relief map of the USA in the perspective of the processes of globalisation and metropolitanization.