Macro year 2 Flashcards
(103 cards)
What is globalisation?
The growing interconectiveness and interdependence of economies worldwide, through the increased volume and variety of cross border transactions and flows
What are the four main features of economic intergration
- free tade of goods and services
- free movement of labour between countries
- free movement of capital
- free interchange of technology and intellectual capital
What 4 factors have contributed to globalisation?
- Developments in transportation
- Developments in ICT and technology
- Intergovernmental organisations
- The growth of transnational corporations
How has developments in transport lead to increased globalisation?
Containerisation - every year, roughly 200 million containers are shipped. Containerisation brings the unit cost of transportation down massively (through shipping on masse), which means countries can take advantage of offshoring to countries who have a comparitive advantage in manufacturing - the opportunity cost would be too great. Developments in transportation thereffore were the enabler which allowed the global economic restructuring of manufacturing to Asia to occurre (global shift)
How have developments in ICT and technology caused globalisation?
- The internet - invented in 1989, the internet has given buisnesses, both small and multinational, access to a global market
- mobile phones - relatively cheap way to access the internet and digital economy. By 2019, roughly 60% of Africans had a mobile phone.
- transference of capital has been made possible through digital banking - Tajikistan was the most dependent on foreign remitences in 2023, it made up 48.2% of GNP. This means stock markets can be intergrated and labour can move while supporting host family
How have IGOs contributed to globalisation?
Globalisation is not an automatic result of the advancement of technology - global flows can only (and have only) take place if economic liberalisation is embraced by national governments. The WTO encourages trade liberalisation and seeks the abandoment of protectionist policies. In 1995, Pakistan joined the WTO, forcing it to remove the 200 mile exclusioon zone from it’s coast, meaning TNCS could now fish in it’s waters
How have TNCs contributed to globalisation?
TNCs can be referred to as the ‘architects of globalisation’. They build bridges between different countries and markets.
-TNCs, in order to remain productively efficient in a country, make significant investment in the form of FDI. This economically develops the recipient country, developing their markets and exacerbating increases in globalisation. In 2020, global FDI flows reached 1 trillion dollars.
- TNCs create a complex global supply chain network, which connects producers and encourages flows of goods
What are the impacts of globalisation in consumers?
- International trade has given consumers access to larger markets, increasing consumer choice
- Pricess for goods and services fall as labour costs fall
- Incomes have risen globally, 1 billion people have escaped absolute poverty since 1960
What are the impacts of globalisation on workers?
- structural unemployment in western countries, like in the rust belt
- Supply of unskilled workers has massively increased, depressing their wages in developed countries. The demand for high skilled worker has surged, increasing their wages as there are relatively few in developing countries as of yet
- Migration and free movement of labour
Impacts of globalisation on producers?
- globalisation comes through increased specilisation, meaning firms are increasinly dependent upon one another
- Unit costs have fallen due to a decrease in the cost of labour
- demand may increase for some goods as now the market of consumers has increased
- Producers move overseas to take advantage of comparitive advantage
- Firms can tax avoid
Impact of globalisation on governments
Global shift of manufactturing away from the uk will lower exports, lower tax revenues and therefore lower AD
What are the impacts of globalisation on the enviroment
Enviromental degragation due to failures of governments in developing countries to enforce enviromental regulations. Togo has lost 60% of it’s forest, 2 million people in China die a year due to air pollution.
What is absolute advantage?
Absolute advantage occures when a country can producce a good or serrvice at a lower cost / using less resources. The two countries use the exact same materials, only the makespans for the products are different. In country A it takes 10 hours to assemble a car and 5 hours to build a bike. In country B, on the other hand, it only takes 8 hours to finish a car and 2 hours to assemble a bike. Hence, country B has an absolute advantage in producing both cars and bikes
What is comparative advantage?
When a country can produce a good or service at a lower opportunity cost. Even if it has an absolute advantage in both goods, if country A produces a car it has to spend 10 hours that could have been used to work on the bikes. In fact, it could have instead assembled 2 bikes (since it only takes 5 hours to build a bike). Obviously the same goes for producing a bike. The time spent finishing one bike could have alternatively been used to build half a car. If we apply this to country B, we can see that the time spent producing one car could have been used to finish 4 bikes. Meanwhile, one bike has an opportunity cost of 0.25 cars. Hence, country A has a comparative advantage in producing cars, while country B has a comparative advantage in producing bikes (see table 2).
What is the comparative advantages for these countries?
Why should countries specalise and trade using the theory of compartive advantage?
The concept of comparative advantage suggests that as long as two countries (or individuals) have different opportunity costs for producing similar goods, they can profit from specialization and trade. If both of them focus on producing the goods with lower opportunity costs, their combined output will increase and all of them will be better off.
both countries have 2’000 labor hours available. If they both decided to allocate half of those resources to each product, country A could produce 100 cars and 200 bikes while country B could produce 125 cars and 500 bikes. This would result in a total output of 925 units
Now, if country A specializes in the production of cars, and country B specializes in the production of bikes (i.e. the respective goods with lower opportunity costs), their outputs will look considerably different. In that case, country A will produce 200 cars and no bikes while country B will still manufacture 25 cars and use the rest of its time to produce 900 bikes. This results in an overall output of 1125 units which equals an increase of 200 units due to specialization.
How would you show comparative and aabsolute advntage on a PPF?
What are the assumptions/limitations of the comparative advantage model?
- That there are no transportation costs, which in real life may eliminate any comparative advatange
- there are constant returns to scale and no economies of scale
- very simplified - only two economies
- goods are assumed to be perffectly homogonous, which is only the case for commodities
- There are no trade barriers or protectionist policies in place
What are the benefits of specilisation and trade?
- If countries specilise and trade, resources are allocated more effeciently due to their comparative advntage, so world outpput increases
- countries can reach economies of scale and reduce costs
- Free trade encourages innovation due to the increased competetion domestic firms experience from overseas
What are the costs of specilisation and trade?
- overdependence - if a country becomes overdependent on the exports of one good, they are vulnerable to the fluxuations in that goods price.
- Changes in what a country produuces will have an effect on employment - if factors of production are immobile, than structural unemployment will occure
- trade can lead to a less equal distribution of income if the benefits are mainlly going to the elites in a country
- if a trading partner stops exporting to a country due to ppolitical reasons, that country may find itself in a situation where it does not have the supply necessary to match domestiic demand
What is pattern of trade?
the nature of trade between countries and how they change over time
What factors influence the pattern of trade between countries?
o comparative advantage - Countries tend to export goods and services in which they have a comparative advantage and import those in which they have a comparative disadvantage. This principle is a fundamental driver of international trade patterns.
o impact of emerging economies - These countries often become major exporters of manufactured goods and services, altering the dynamics of global trade. They can both compete with and complement established economies.
o growth of trading blocs and bilateral trading agreements - Within trading blocs, member countries often enjoy reduced tariffs and trade barriers, leading to increased trade among them
o changes in relative exchange rates - A depreciation of a country’s currency can make its exports cheaper and more competitive on the international market, leading to increased exports. Conversely, a stronger currency can reduce exports and increase imports.
What is terms of trade?
a measure of the relative price of a country’s exports compared to its imports - the ratio between average export prices and average import prices. When export prices rise relative to imports, the terms of trade are said to be improved. When export prices fall relative to imports, the terms of trade is detereorated.
What is the forumula for the terms of trade?
Index of terms of trade = Index of export prices/index of import prices x 100