Globalisation Indices (DP IB Geography)

Revision Note

Measuring Globalisation

What is globalisation?

  • Globalisation is the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of the world's economies, societies and cultures

  • Globalisation is nothing new, with people and places having past connections of raw materials and labour exchanges

  • However, globalisation today is bigger, more global and developing at a faster rate than in the past

  • It is a process driven by improvements in communication and transport which have made it easier for people, goods and information to move across national borders

  • There are three main forms of globalisation:

    • Economic

      • Pushed by the growth of transnational corporations (TNCs)

    • Social

      • The influence of ideas, culture, food, art, sport, etc. of one society on another

    • Political

      • The development and influence of international organisations on nation-states

  • The degree of globalisation can be measured through how much a country participates in global interactions

KOF Index of Globalisation

  • KOF Index (The Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research) produces an annual Index of Globalisation 

    • First published in 2002, it contains data from 1970

    • Measures the social, economic and political aspects of globalisation

    • Uses a wide range of data, such as participation in UN Peace-keeping missions to TV ownership

    • Countries are scored out of 100 and the higher the number, the more globalised the country is

Dimension of Index

% of Index

Measures

Economic

36%

Degree of the flow of trade, capital, services and investments

Social

38%

Includes indicators such as the flow of information, ideas, images, culture and people across borders

Political

26%

The degree of political cooperation and participation in international organisations

  • Issues with KOF Index

    • This information is only available for 122 countries (2023)

    • Some of the indicators used are now outdated due to improvements in telecommunications

    • There is cultural bias in some of the indicators for example, the number of McDonald's Restaurants

    • Trade indicators ignore the informal economy

    • It does not consider environmental factors

Other Indices

A T Kearney Index

  • First published in 2008

  • It uses 12 indicators spread across 4 categories:

    • Economic integration

      • Flows of trade and foreign direct investments

    • Connectivity

      • The number of internet users, internet hosts and secure servers the country has

    • Political engagement

      • Membership of international organisations and treaties, contribution to UN peacekeeping, level of governmental transfers, such as aid

    • Personal integration

      • International travel and tourism, international telephone traffic and personal cross-border financial transfers such as remittances

  • The index value is calculated for each indicator on a scale of 0 to 1.0 (highest)

Issues with AT Kearney Index

  • Only includes 62 countries (2023), although it does include 84% of the world's population and 96% of global GDP

  • Dominated by European countries, USA and Canada

  • The increased weighting given to connectivity, enables USA to get a high index score despite its low global political engagement in terms of treaties, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement

The New Globalisation Index

  • This index is based on finance, trade, politics and social factors

  • It is different from other indices, as it also measures the distance of traded goods and how many refugees a country has

    • Countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Argentina would score higher than France and Germany as the distances are greater

    • Jordan and Lebanon would appear more globalised than the UK due to the high numbers of refugees they have taken in

The Ernst and Young Globalisation Index

  • Developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit

  • It measures the 60 largest economies by its GDP according to their level of globalisation

  • It measures:

    • Openness to trade

    • Capital flows

    • Cultural integration

    • Flows of ideas and technology

    • Labour movement

Examiner Tip

Be careful not to confuse globalisation with development. They are not the same, so make sure you understand the difference.

Globalisation is the increasing connectedness of countries around the world through the movement of goods, services, capital and ideas across borders.

Development is progress a country makes towards improving the standard of living for its population.

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