Introduction

Abstract

Globalization means different things to different people. The term, which is used to describe the shape of the world economy today, has become fashionable but its meaning and implications, particularly for developing countries, are far from clear. The phenomenon is not new since trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), the most commonly used indicators of globalization, grew rapidly even in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The geographical dispersion of economic activitiy has been taking place for decades if not centuries. This volume therefore considers globalization as a continuum, with the latest phase (the 1980s and early 1990s) representing the acceleration of globalization (see Chapter 1 for a discussion of globalization in a historical perspective).