Wednesday 12 May 2021

Has Globalisation Slowed Down

 Happy to have done a Tuck/Dartmouth college panel on this.  Here's some data from Pol Antras on "slowbalisation" https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/antras/files/deglobalization_sintra_antras.pdf


a.       "The world trade‐to‐GDP ratio – a standard measure of globalisation – has recovered from its late 2008 low, while last year, the share of migrants in world population attained its highest level since 1990

b.       Concerning the ratio of world trade to world GDP in the last fifty years, 1970-2020

                                                               i.      The ratio of world trade to world GDP almost doubled (increasing by a factor of 1.72) during that period of “hyperglobalisation”.

                                                             ii.      I find that 80% of the growth in this ratio occurred during the subperiod 1986‐2008. (Why? Combination of ICT, fall of communism, China, shipping costs falling)

                                                           iii.      Because many measures of globalisation are simple ratios or shares that have natural upper bounds, I argue that growth explosions in trade openness of the type experienced during the hyperglobalisation of 1986‐2008 are simply not sustainable. In other words, a period of “slowbalisation” was inevitable."



Here's his figure 1