Economic universalization

This article is intended to show and specify the economic aspects and financial article Mondialisation which is centered more largely on various dimensions of the phenomenon.

The universalization economic (or economic and financial ) relates to the whole of the economic exchanges become world:

of the services and the goods
and also of the factors of production corresponding (capital, work, knowledge…), become more mobile nowadays.

Some of these exchanges can form Marché S world.

The universalization term is sometimes taken as synonym of the Anglicism globalisation , whereas it would rather be necessary to refer in this case with the phrase “market globalisation” or “corporate globalisation”.

In France, the concept is strongly connoted of Libéralisme, within the meaning of " Liberalization mondiale".

As first approach, this article will stress the history of the process.

Stages of the universalization of the 20th century on the economic plan

Exit of a historical process (see the article Universalization), contemporary economic universalization appeared in three stages, which tend in fact to overlap:

Internationalization of financial flows and commercial
Establishments abroad of the companies
Globalisation of the economy

Internationalization of commercial and financial flows

The various periods of economic universalization (of the Fairs of Champagne to the current liberal internationalization, while passing by the Silk route) present common points of the development of the International business under the effect:

of an expansion of transport (maritime, railroad or air);
of installations of monetary and financial tools international (going up in time with the credit and bill of exchanges and counter of Templiers)
of a diversification of products and services due to Innovation S;
of an improvement of the standard of living of a layer of the population, which supported or created a request;
of a development of the means of communication and circulation of the people which gave birth to a besides coming attraction of the consumers for the products;
of international agreements of Free trade which they are multilateral or bilateral.

During the contemporary time, the international business evolved/moved in a geographical direction of specialization which developed commercial flows between country. Thus:

the portion of the international business which develops more is that which is “intra-group”, in other words between the subsidiary companies of each group of companies to world establishment. Each one is specialized in activities given in function in particular of the principle of the competitive Avantage local.
international subcontracting also strongly develops in the same spirit of local specialization.

In same time, a strong development of the financial markets, with in parallel a release of the exchanges, created a broad system of financing of the investment and commercial operations to the international level.

Establishments with the international one

The establishment of the companies to international develops in triple drank:

to distribute their well S and service S in all the countries to cover the worldwide market and thus to ensure the growth of the Turnover and to obtain the economy of scale which bring of larger outlets,
to produce each element in the country where the conditions are most favorable, as shows it higher the development of flows joint committees
to reach products and rare Raw materials (example of Total-Elf which settles in the Golfe of Guinea).

“Globalisation” of the economy

See also comparative Advantage

Result of the internationalization of the economic and financial Flows by the establishment with international thanks to the technological revolution, the Globalisation of the economy is illustrated by the firms transnational (FTN), commonly called Multinationale S known as Mondiale S or total (also called FMN for Firmes Multi Nationales), and marks a new stage in the history of the Capitalisme.

In same time, Capitaux circulate per billion from one country to another, because of a very great facility of communication gotten by the Technologies the information. That creates opportunities Spéculative S which can cause financial destabilization (see Financial crisis).

Concomitant economic phenomena

Development of the economy of knowledge

In parallel, a certain saturation of the saving in Industrial type resulting from the previous centuries (one thus speaks about post-industrial economy), makes that the Information in electronic form (Informatique), the economy of knowledge, the services, the Organization and financial management tend to take the step, in term of economic weight, on the production of well S materials, in the countries known as developed.

These phenomena are indirectly related to universalization, and are a concomitant shutter of the contemporary economic development scheme. The development of the E-business (B2B…) on the Web is the most manifest expression (see will infra ). The economy becomes extremely volatile, flows between partners which can be realized in some fractions of a second on a worldwide scale.

Specialization of the productions on a worldwide scale

The recent evolutions of the international exchanges result in considering rather clear distributions of the various types of production:

Manufacturing output in South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia
Production of goods with strong content of qualified work and strong capital intensive content, seeks, design in the developed countries: Japan, the United States and Western Europe.
Positioning with the margin of the Africa and the South America, playing a part of supply of specialized raw materials and production.

This very simplified vision is contestable; the regional idiosyncracies and the costs of transport make that specializations of the zones will remain incomplete.

In the “fight” between countries developed to accommodate the principal research centres various policies of the states intervene. The European Union, in light lose speed vis-a-vis the the United States, set up the Stratégie of Lisbon. The American strategy is based on a concentration of the means of research and on a policy of prevalence in the Technologies the information.

Institutional aspects

The reduction in the capacities of the Institution S main roads vis-a-vis an economy become Mondiale resulted in assembling multilateral organizations and Mondiale S.

International organizations

Among these organizations, one can quote mainly:

OMC (World Trade organization) based with Geneva,
of other organizations either with parallel objectives (the World Bank, the IMF, ILO), or specialized in economic sectors and professional very precise, for example the Navigation, the Telecommunications (International union of telecommunications).
the international Chamber of commerce,
the Business Action for Sustainable Development,
the the United Nations, which have an organization regulating the E-business on a worldwide scale, UN/CEFACT, on the basis of register EbXML.

Development of the commercial exchanges

These Institution S is charged to extend the possibilities of exchanges between country to the majority of the Transaction S, to ensure and Economic growth, balance of the Flux, Concurrence not Biaisée. They try Réglementer the International business by way of treated S multilateral of reciprocal lowering or rise in the tariff barriers, and more recently, following criticisms of the Altermondialiste S, they accompany this action by assistance to the Economic development.

They take now into account, at least partly, of the social aspects and Environnementaux (see Sustainable development on the general aspects, and Responsabilité sociétale for the companies on the points interesting the companies directly).

These institutions define International treaties, which are essential on the European Community, and are introduced into the Community legislation by the green books, White papers and other directives. The Right to take initiatives of the Commission is in fact very reduced because of obligation which is made to him apply the International treaties.

Technologies the information and E-business

A particular mention must be made with the E-business. This one is governed by the technical specification EbXML. An organization of the United Nations, UN/CEFACT, is charged to develop, approve and maintain the contents of Affaire S in conformity with ebXML.

China adopted EbXML like national standard of E-business.

To the difference of the the United States, which manage Registres of metadata for the kingly Fonctions (see registers of metadata in the United States), the European Union is not due, apart from the European Agence of the environment (related to American project XMDR), of Registre of metadata. The technical specification EbXML thus arises in the European Union like the only standard defining the European Cadre of data-processing interworking.

However, there exists another standard of interworking (Dublin Core) which is used as reference frame for governmental registers of metadata (information of Autorité). Very implemented of Métadonnée S employing the Dublin Core requires to set up rules of management of the recordings by Autorité S (of the type ISO 11179). This is not always carried out.

Consequences of economic universalization

The evaluation of the consequences of economic universalization comprises several aspects, very contrasted according to the richness of the country considered.

Environment

In 1993, within the framework of the debate on Alena (Agreement of North-American free trade), G. Grossman and A. Krueger tried to describe the effects of economic universalization on the Environnement. Its authors distinguished three principal effects of internationalization from the exchanges.

an effect of composition related to the specialization of the countries allows according to them a better use of the Natural resources, which must be favorable to the Environnement.

the second effect, known as scale effect, is related to the increase in Production, which according to the theory of the Libre-échange rises from the International business. It is thus harmful with the environment as an effect of the economic growth.

But according to these authors, a technical effect of the Mondialisation comes to counterbalance this harmful effect: liberalization allows transfers of Technologie S favorable to the Environnement as well as a rise of the incomes of the inhabitants who would become more demanding then out of environmental matter.

However, other authors think that the technology transfers correspond to a substitution of Capital naturalness by a stock of knowledge (low Durabilité).

Rich countries

For the rich countries, economic universalization comprises two essential benefit. The first benefits the consumer, who has access to a broader range of goods (diversity) at a price weaker than if they were manufactured in the country even. Quantitatively, this effect is considerable, and can be apprehended by adding the profits with the consumers to the Chinese product purchase textile. The second benefit benefits the holders from the capital, who obtain a better output of their capital.

The rich countries suffer on the other hand from the Délocalisation their intensive industries in little qualified labor, as well as increased competition between rich countries themselves. Quantitatively not very important, these effects pose problems however owing to the fact that they are localized, touching particularly certain individuals or certain areas, whereas the profits are distributed on the whole of the population.

The quantitative studies econometric trying to evaluate these two aspects conclude all that the profits of the rich countries to the international division of work are higher than the losses (delocalizations, disindustrialization) by several orders of magnitude. The problem of the rich countries vis-a-vis economic universalization would be thus before a whole problem of distribution of profits in order to be able to compensate the losers in their granting a share of the profits proportioned to their loss.

Economic universalization also encourages the rich countries to be made competition as regards Réglementation, of Social protection, Fiscalité and education. The assessment of this competition is currently impossible to establish. For the ones, it leads to a lowest bidder in all the fields, while for the others it highlights inefficiencies of the various social models (see: Social dumping).

New industrialized countries (NPI)

Until the Asian Crisis, the Nouveaux industrialized countries seemed the big winners of economic universalization. Benefitting from a Main-d'oeuvre qualified and low costs, they profited from Investissement S very important coming from the rich countries, which enabled them to build a modern economy and a system of thorough formation, to leave poverty. The Asian Crise however showed the extent of their dependence with regard to prompt Financial markets with the speculative racing as with panic.

The assessment of economic universalization for these countries thus is very contrasted, with side of the countries, like the Korea or Taiwan definitively classified among the rich countries, others, like the Filipino Thailand and the , which has evil to recover from the Volatilité of the Investissement S, and others finally which profit very largely from the Mondialisation on the level of the country, but with a very unequal distribution of these profits (Brésil, Mexico, China).

Poor countries

At the economic level, the poorest countries remain largely apart from the process of universalization. The consensus of Washington requires stable institutions and a level of human development (health, education) that do not present the majority of these countries. Their principal economic resource, agriculture, remains dominated by the protectionist strategies of the rich countries, except for the cultures specific to the poor countries.

See too

Mondialisation information
Maurice Went, the World-wide crisis today, 1999

Gerard Ayache, " great confusion " , 2006

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