effects of globalisation essay

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Essays on Globalization

Hook examples for globalization essays, "the global village" metaphor hook.

"In the age of globalization, our world has transformed into a 'global village.' Explore the implications of this metaphor and how it has reshaped our understanding of interconnectedness and cultural exchange."

The Impact of Digital Connectivity Hook

"In an era where a single tweet can reach millions, digital connectivity has revolutionized globalization. Delve into the profound impact of the internet, social media, and technology on global interactions."

The Paradox of Local vs. Global Hook

"Globalization blurs the lines between local and global identities. Analyze the paradox of preserving cultural heritage while embracing the globalized world and how this tension shapes our societies."

The Global Marketplace Hook

"Globalization has ushered in an era of unprecedented trade and economic interconnectedness. Explore the dynamics of the global marketplace, from multinational corporations to supply chains spanning continents."

Cultural Fusion and Identity Hook

"Globalization has led to a melting pot of cultures, but what happens to cultural identities in the process? Investigate how globalization impacts the preservation and evolution of cultural identities."

The Challenges of Globalization Hook

"While globalization offers numerous benefits, it also presents challenges. Examine issues such as income inequality, cultural homogenization, and environmental concerns that arise in a globalized world."

The Future of Globalization Hook

"As we stand on the brink of a globalized future, what can we expect? Join me in exploring the potential trajectories of globalization, from its impact on politics to the role of emerging technologies."

The Best Globalization Essay Topics

• The Impact of Globalization on Local Cultures: Integration or Erasure?
• The Impact of Globalization on Cultural Identity in Anthropological Studies
• Globalization and Economic Inequality: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor
• The Role of Technology in Advancing Globalization and Its Social Implications
• Environmental Consequences of Globalization: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions
• Analyzing the Advantages and Disadvantages of Globalization
• The Influence of Globalization on Education and Cross-Cultural Exchanges
• Global Political Dynamics: How Globalization Affects Sovereignty and Governance
• Globalization and Health: The Spread of Diseases and Global Health Initiatives
• Consumer Culture and Globalization: The Homogenization of Global Markets

Globalization: Its Advantages and Disadvantages

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Importance of Global Interdependence

The effects of globalization on developing countries and its advantages and disadvantages, the impact of globalization to cultural identity, globalization, its causes and effects on the world, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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Good and Bad Impact of Globalization

History of globalization and its benefits for society, financial, social and political effects of globalization, globalization: global concerns of global development, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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Globalization's Theories and Effects in The Modern World

The effects of globalization on health and medicine, a study on globalization and its various sides, overview of five articles about globalization, globalization: two sides of the arguments both for and against, globalization and its positive and negative sides for india, the advantages and disadvantages of the globalization process based on real-life examples, criticism and controversial benefits of globalization, globalization: importance of english nowadays, the impact of globalization, nationalism and protectionism on india, an overview of the overall impact of globalization, research of effects of globalization on the media in the world, globalisation as an economical, political and cultural process, pro globalist and anti globalist view from developed country perspective, how global issues impact individual states, electronic commerce in the globalization era, the effect of globalization and americanization on mass media, components of globalization: concept sociocultural and social globalizations, how the impact of globalization on illicit drug trafficking has affected international security, discussion of whether globalization is good or bad for the indian economy.

1. Halliday, T. C., & Osinsky, P. (2006). Globalization of law. Annu. Rev. Sociol., 32, 447-470. (https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.32.061604.123136) 2. Fischer, S. (2003). Globalization and its challenges. American Economic Review, 93(2), 1-30. (https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282803321946750) 3. Lang, M. (2006). Globalization and its history. The Journal of Modern History, 78(4), 899-931. (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/511251?journalCode=jmh) 4. Spring, J. (2008). Research on globalization and education. Review of educational research, 78(2), 330-363. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654308317846?journalCode=rera) 5. Scott, A., & Storper, M. (2003). Regions, globalization, development. Regional studies, 37(6-7), 579-593. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0034340032000108697a) 6. Jameson, F. (1998). Notes on globalization as a philosophical issue. In The cultures of globalization (pp. 54-78). Duke University Press. (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780822378426-005/html?lang=de) 7. Frankel, J. A. (2003). The environment and globalization. (https://www.nber.org/papers/w10090) 8. Teeple, G. (2000). What is globalization?. Globalization and its discontents, 9-23. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780333981610_2)

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Globalization.

Globalization is a term used to describe the increasing connectedness and interdependence of world cultures and economies.

Anthropology, Sociology, Social Studies, Civics, Economics

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Globalization is a term used to describe how trade and technology have made the world into a more connected and interdependent place. Globalization also captures in its scope the economic and social changes that have come about as a result. It may be pictured as the threads of an immense spider web formed over millennia, with the number and reach of these threads increasing over time. People, money, material goods, ideas, and even disease and devastation have traveled these silken strands, and have done so in greater numbers and with greater speed than ever in the present age. When did globalization begin? The Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes across China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean used between 50 B.C.E. and 250 C.E., is perhaps the most well-known early example of exchanging ideas, products, and customs. As with future globalizing booms, new technologies played a key role in the Silk Road trade. Advances in metallurgy led to the creation of coins; advances in transportation led to the building of roads connecting the major empires of the day; and increased agricultural production meant more food could be trafficked between locales. Along with Chinese silk, Roman glass, and Arabian spices, ideas such as Buddhist beliefs and the secrets of paper-making also spread via these tendrils of trade. Unquestionably, these types of exchanges were accelerated in the Age of Exploration, when European explorers seeking new sea routes to the spices and silks of Asia bumped into the Americas instead. Again, technology played an important role in the maritime trade routes that flourished between old and newly discovered continents. New ship designs and the creation of the magnetic compass were key to the explorers’ successes. Trade and idea exchange now extended to a previously unconnected part of the world, where ships carrying plants, animals, and Spanish silver between the Old World and the New also carried Christian missionaries. The web of globalization continued to spin out through the Age of Revolution, when ideas about liberty , equality , and fraternity spread like fire from America to France to Latin America and beyond. It rode the waves of industrialization , colonization , and war through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, powered by the invention of factories, railways, steamboats, cars, and planes. With the Information Age, globalization went into overdrive. Advances in computer and communications technology launched a new global era and redefined what it meant to be “connected.” Modern communications satellites meant the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo could be watched in the United States for the first time. The World Wide Web and the Internet allowed someone in Germany to read about a breaking news story in Bolivia in real time. Someone wishing to travel from Boston, Massachusetts, to London, England, could do so in hours rather than the week or more it would have taken a hundred years ago. This digital revolution massively impacted economies across the world as well: they became more information-based and more interdependent. In the modern era, economic success or failure at one focal point of the global web can be felt in every major world economy. The benefits and disadvantages of globalization are the subject of ongoing debate. The downside to globalization can be seen in the increased risk for the transmission of diseases like ebola or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), or in the kind of environmental harm that scientist Paul R. Furumo has studied in microcosm in palm oil plantations in the tropics. Globalization has of course led to great good, too. Richer nations now can—and do—come to the aid of poorer nations in crisis. Increasing diversity in many countries has meant more opportunity to learn about and celebrate other cultures. The sense that there is a global village, a worldwide “us,” has emerged.

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The State of Globalization in 2021

• Steven A. Altman
• Caroline R. Bastian

Trade, capital, and information flows have stabilized, recovered, and even grown in the past year.

As the coronavirus swept the world, closing borders and halting international trade and capital flows, there were questions about the pandemic’s lasting impact on globalization. But a close look at the recent data paints a much more optimistic picture. While international travel remains significantly down and is not expected to rebound until 2023, cross-border trade, capital, and information flows have largely stabilized, recovered, or even grown over the last year. The bottom line for business is that Covid-19 has not knocked globalization down to anywhere close to what would be required for strategists to narrow their focus to their home countries or regions.

Cross-border flows plummeted in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world, reinforcing doubts about the future of globalization. As we move into 2021, the latest data paint a clearer — and more hopeful — picture. Global business is not going away, but the landscape is shifting, with important implications for strategy and management.

• Steven A. Altman is a senior research scholar, adjunct assistant professor, and director of the DHL Initiative on Globalization at the NYU Stern Center for the Future of Management .
• CB Caroline R. Bastian is a research scholar at the DHL Initiative on Globalization.

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Home / Essay Samples / Social Issues / Globalization / The Effects of Globalization: A Comprehensive Analysis

The Effects of Globalization: A Comprehensive Analysis

• Category: Economics , Social Issues
• Topic: Globalization , Indian Economy

Pages: 3 (1463 words)

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History of Globalization

Features of globalization.

• It leads to greater interaction between different populations in social terms.
• Culturally, globalization represents the exchange of ideas, values and artistic expression between cultures and even a trend towards the development of a single world culture.
• Globalization has paid political attention to intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
• Legally, globalization has changed the creation and enforcement of international law.

Factors That Led to Globalization

Globalization on the example of indian economy.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Globalization and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence on the Role of Complementarities

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Faculty of Management, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor, Malaysia, Department of Management, Mobarakeh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Affiliation Applied Statistics Department, Economics and Administration Faculty, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• Parisa Samimi, 
• Hashem Salarzadeh Jenatabadi

• Published: April 10, 2014
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824
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This study was carried out to investigate the effect of economic globalization on economic growth in OIC countries. Furthermore, the study examined the effect of complementary policies on the growth effect of globalization. It also investigated whether the growth effect of globalization depends on the income level of countries. Utilizing the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator within the framework of a dynamic panel data approach, we provide evidence which suggests that economic globalization has statistically significant impact on economic growth in OIC countries. The results indicate that this positive effect is increased in the countries with better-educated workers and well-developed financial systems. Our finding shows that the effect of economic globalization also depends on the country’s level of income. High and middle-income countries benefit from globalization whereas low-income countries do not gain from it. In fact, the countries should receive the appropriate income level to be benefited from globalization. Economic globalization not only directly promotes growth but also indirectly does so via complementary reforms.

Citation: Samimi P, Jenatabadi HS (2014) Globalization and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence on the Role of Complementarities. PLoS ONE 9(4): e87824. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824

Editor: Rodrigo Huerta-Quintanilla, Cinvestav-Merida, Mexico

Received: November 5, 2013; Accepted: January 2, 2014; Published: April 10, 2014

Copyright: © 2014 Samimi, Jenatabadi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The study is supported by the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, Malaysian International Scholarship (MIS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Globalization, as a complicated process, is not a new phenomenon and our world has experienced its effects on different aspects of lives such as economical, social, environmental and political from many years ago [1] – [4] . Economic globalization includes flows of goods and services across borders, international capital flows, reduction in tariffs and trade barriers, immigration, and the spread of technology, and knowledge beyond borders. It is source of much debate and conflict like any source of great power.

The broad effects of globalization on different aspects of life grab a great deal of attention over the past three decades. As countries, especially developing countries are speeding up their openness in recent years the concern about globalization and its different effects on economic growth, poverty, inequality, environment and cultural dominance are increased. As a significant subset of the developing world, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries are also faced by opportunities and costs of globalization. Figure 1 shows the upward trend of economic globalization among different income group of OIC countries.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.g001

Although OICs are rich in natural resources, these resources were not being used efficiently. It seems that finding new ways to use the OICs economic capacity more efficiently are important and necessary for them to improve their economic situation in the world. Among the areas where globalization is thought, the link between economic growth and globalization has been become focus of attention by many researchers. Improving economic growth is the aim of policy makers as it shows the success of nations. Due to the increasing trend of globalization, finding the effect of globalization on economic growth is prominent.

The net effect of globalization on economic growth remains puzzling since previous empirical analysis did not support the existent of a systematic positive or negative impact of globalization on growth. Most of these studies suffer from econometrics shortcoming, narrow definition of globalization and small number of countries. The effect of economic globalization on the economic growth in OICs is also ambiguous. Existing empirical studies have not indicated the positive or negative impact of globalization in OICs. The relationship between economic globalization and economic growth is important especially for economic policies.

Recently, researchers have claimed that the growth effects of globalization depend on the economic structure of the countries during the process of globalization. The impact of globalization on economic growth of countries also could be changed by the set of complementary policies such as improvement in human capital and financial system. In fact, globalization by itself does not increase or decrease economic growth. The effect of complementary policies is very important as it helps countries to be successful in globalization process.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between economic globalization and growth in panel of selected OIC countries over the period 1980–2008. Furthermore, we would explore whether the growth effects of economic globalization depend on the set of complementary policies and income level of OIC countries.

The paper is organized as follows. The next section consists of a review of relevant studies on the impact of globalization on growth. Afterward the model specification is described. It is followed by the methodology of this study as well as the data sets that are utilized in the estimation of the model and the empirical strategy. Then, the econometric results are reported and discussed. The last section summarizes and concludes the paper with important issues on policy implications.

Literature Review

The relationship between globalization and growth is a heated and highly debated topic on the growth and development literature. Yet, this issue is far from being resolved. Theoretical growth studies report at best a contradictory and inconclusive discussion on the relationship between globalization and growth. Some of the studies found positive the effect of globalization on growth through effective allocation of domestic resources, diffusion of technology, improvement in factor productivity and augmentation of capital [5] , [6] . In contrast, others argued that globalization has harmful effect on growth in countries with weak institutions and political instability and in countries, which specialized in ineffective activities in the process of globalization [5] , [7] , [8] .

Given the conflicting theoretical views, many studies have been empirically examined the impact of the globalization on economic growth in developed and developing countries. Generally, the literature on the globalization-economic growth nexus provides at least three schools of thought. First, many studies support the idea that globalization accentuates economic growth [9] – [19] . Pioneering early studies include Dollar [9] , Sachs et al. [15] and Edwards [11] , who examined the impact of trade openness by using different index on economic growth. The findings of these studies implied that openness is associated with more rapid growth.

In 2006, Dreher introduced a new comprehensive index of globalization, KOF, to examine the impact of globalization on growth in an unbalanced dynamic panel of 123 countries between 1970 and 2000. The overall result showed that globalization promotes economic growth. The economic and social dimensions have positive impact on growth whereas political dimension has no effect on growth. The robustness of the results of Dreher [19] is approved by Rao and Vadlamannati [20] which use KOF and examine its impact on growth rate of 21 African countries during 1970–2005. The positive effect of globalization on economic growth is also confirmed by the extreme bounds analysis. The result indicated that the positive effect of globalization on growth is larger than the effect of investment on growth.

The second school of thought, which supported by some scholars such as Alesina et al. [21] , Rodrik [22] and Rodriguez and Rodrik [23] , has been more reserve in supporting the globalization-led growth nexus. Rodriguez and Rodrik [23] challenged the robustness of Dollar (1992), Sachs, Warner et al. (1995) and Edwards [11] studies. They believed that weak evidence support the idea of positive relationship between openness and growth. They mentioned the lack of control for some prominent growth indicators as well as using incomprehensive trade openness index as shortcomings of these works. Warner [24] refuted the results of Rodriguez and Rodrik (2000). He mentioned that Rodriguez and Rodrik (2000) used an uncommon index to measure trade restriction (tariffs revenues divided by imports). Warner (2003) explained that they ignored all other barriers on trade and suggested using only the tariffs and quotas of textbook trade policy to measure trade restriction in countries.

Krugman [25] strongly disagreed with the argument that international financial integration is a major engine of economic development. This is because capital is not an important factor to increase economic development and the large flows of capital from rich to poor countries have never occurred. Therefore, developing countries are unlikely to increase economic growth through financial openness. Levine [26] was more optimistic about the impact of financial liberalization than Krugman. He concluded, based on theory and empirical evidences, that the domestic financial system has a prominent effect on economic growth through boosting total factor productivity. The factors that improve the functioning of domestic financial markets and banks like financial integration can stimulate improvements in resource allocation and boost economic growth.

The third school of thoughts covers the studies that found nonlinear relationship between globalization and growth with emphasis on the effect of complementary policies. Borensztein, De Gregorio et al. (1998) investigated the impact of FDI on economic growth in a cross-country framework by developing a model of endogenous growth to examine the role of FDI in the economic growth in developing countries. They found that FDI, which is measured by the fraction of products produced by foreign firms in the total number of products, reduces the costs of introducing new varieties of capital goods, thus increasing the rate at which new capital goods are introduced. The results showed a strong complementary effect between stock of human capital and FDI to enhance economic growth. They interpreted this finding with the observation that the advanced technology, brought by FDI, increases the growth rate of host economy when the country has sufficient level of human capital. In this situation, the FDI is more productive than domestic investment.

Calderón and Poggio [27] examined the structural factors that may have impact on growth effect of trade openness. The growth benefits of rising trade openness are conditional on the level of progress in structural areas including education, innovation, infrastructure, institutions, the regulatory framework, and financial development. Indeed, they found that the lack of progress in these areas could restrict the potential benefits of trade openness. Chang et al. [28] found that the growth effects of openness may be significantly improved when the investment in human capital is stronger, financial markets are deeper, price inflation is lower, and public infrastructure is more readily available. Gu and Dong [29] emphasized that the harmful or useful growth effect of financial globalization heavily depends on the level of financial development of economies. In fact, if financial openness happens without any improvement in the financial system of countries, growth will replace by volatility.

However, the review of the empirical literature indicates that the impact of the economic globalization on economic growth is influenced by sample, econometric techniques, period specifications, observed and unobserved country-specific effects. Most of the literature in the field of globalization, concentrates on the effect of trade or foreign capital volume (de facto indices) on economic growth. The problem is that de facto indices do not proportionally capture trade and financial globalization policies. The rate of protections and tariff need to be accounted since they are policy based variables, capturing the severity of trade restrictions in a country. Therefore, globalization index should contain trade and capital restrictions as well as trade and capital volume. Thus, this paper avoids this problem by using a comprehensive index which called KOF [30] . The economic dimension of this index captures the volume and restriction of trade and capital flow of countries.

Despite the numerous studies, the effect of economic globalization on economic growth in OIC is still scarce. The results of recent studies on the effect of globalization in OICs are not significant, as they have not examined the impact of globalization by empirical model such as Zeinelabdin [31] and Dabour [32] . Those that used empirical model, investigated the effect of globalization for one country such as Ates [33] and Oyvat [34] , or did it for some OIC members in different groups such as East Asia by Guillaumin [35] or as group of developing countries by Haddad et al. [36] and Warner [24] . Therefore, the aim of this study is filling the gap in research devoted solely to investigate the effects of economic globalization on growth in selected OICs. In addition, the study will consider the impact of complimentary polices on the growth effects of globalization in selected OIC countries.

Model Specification

Methodology and Data

This paper applies the generalized method of moments (GMM) panel estimator first suggested by Anderson and Hsiao [38] and later developed further by Arellano and Bond [39] . This flexible method requires only weak assumption that makes it one of the most widely used econometric techniques especially in growth studies. The dynamic GMM procedure is as follow: first, to eliminate the individual effect form dynamic growth model, the method takes differences. Then, it instruments the right hand side variables by using their lagged values. The last step is to eliminate the inconsistency arising from the endogeneity of the explanatory variables.

The consistency of the GMM estimator depends on two specification tests. The first is a Sargan test of over-identifying restrictions, which tests the overall validity of the instruments. Failure to reject the null hypothesis gives support to the model. The second test examines the null hypothesis that the error term is not serially correlated.

The GMM can be applied in one- or two-step variants. The one-step estimators use weighting matrices that are independent of estimated parameters, whereas the two-step GMM estimator uses the so-called optimal weighting matrices in which the moment conditions are weighted by a consistent estimate of their covariance matrix. However, the use of the two-step estimator in small samples, as in our study, has problem derived from proliferation of instruments. Furthermore, the estimated standard errors of the two-step GMM estimator tend to be small. Consequently, this paper employs the one-step GMM estimator.

In the specification, year dummies are used as instrument variable because other regressors are not strictly exogenous. The maximum lags length of independent variable which used as instrument is 2 to select the optimal lag, the AR(1) and AR(2) statistics are employed. There is convincing evidence that too many moment conditions introduce bias while increasing efficiency. It is, therefore, suggested that a subset of these moment conditions can be used to take advantage of the trade-off between the reduction in bias and the loss in efficiency. We restrict the moment conditions to a maximum of two lags on the dependent variable.

Data and Empirical Strategy

We estimated Eq. (1) using the GMM estimator based on a panel of 33 OIC countries. Table S1 in File S1 lists the countries and their income groups in the sample. The choice of countries selected for this study is primarily dictated by availability of reliable data over the sample period among all OIC countries. The panel covers the period 1980–2008 and is unbalanced. Following [40] , we use annual data in order to maximize sample size and to identify the parameters of interest more precisely. In fact, averaging out data removes useful variation from the data, which could help to identify the parameters of interest with more precision.

The dependent variable in our sample is logged per capita real GDP, using the purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates and is obtained from the Penn World Table (PWT 7.0). The economic dimension of KOF index is derived from Dreher et al. [41] . We use some other variables, along with economic globalization to control other factors influenced economic growth. Table S2 in File S2 shows the variables, their proxies and source that they obtain.

We relied on the three main approaches to capture the effects of economic globalization on economic growth in OIC countries. The first one is the baseline specification (Eq. (1)) which estimates the effect of economic globalization on economic growth.

The second approach is to examine whether the effect of globalization on growth depends on the complementary policies in the form of level of human capital and financial development. To test, the interactions of economic globalization and financial development (KOF*FD) and economic globalization and human capital (KOF*HCS) are included as additional explanatory variables, apart from the standard variables used in the growth equation. The KOF, HCS and FD are included in the model individually as well for two reasons. First, the significance of the interaction term may be the result of the omission of these variables by themselves. Thus, in that way, it can be tested jointly whether these variables affect growth by themselves or through the interaction term. Second, to ensure that the interaction term did not proxy for KOF, HCS or FD, these variables were included in the regression independently.

In the third approach, in order to study the role of income level of countries on the growth effect of globalization, the countries are split based on income level. Accordingly, countries were classified into three groups: high-income countries (3), middle-income (21) and low-income (9) countries. Next, dummy variables were created for high-income (Dum 3), middle-income (Dum 2) and low-income (Dum 1) groups. Then interaction terms were created for dummy variables and KOF. These interactions will be added to the baseline specification.

Findings and Discussion

This section presents the empirical results of three approaches, based on the GMM -dynamic panel data; in Tables 1 – 3 . Table 1 presents a preliminary analysis on the effects of economic globalization on growth. Table 2 displays coefficient estimates obtained from the baseline specification, which used added two interaction terms of economic globalization and financial development and economic globalization and human capital. Table 3 reports the coefficients estimate from a specification that uses dummies to capture the impact of income level of OIC countries on the growth effect of globalization.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.t001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.t002

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.t003

The results in Table 1 indicate that economic globalization has positive impact on growth and the coefficient is significant at 1 percent level. The positive effect is consistent with the bulk of the existing empirical literature that support beneficial effect of globalization on economic growth [9] , [11] , [13] , [19] , [42] , [43] .

According to the theoretical literature, globalization enhances economic growth by allocating resources more efficiently as OIC countries that can be specialized in activities with comparative advantages. By increasing the size of markets through globalization, these countries can be benefited from economic of scale, lower cost of research and knowledge spillovers. It also augments capital in OICs as they provide a higher return to capital. It has raised productivity and innovation, supported the spread of knowledge and new technologies as the important factors in the process of development. The results also indicate that growth is enhanced by lower level of government expenditure, lower level of inflation, higher level of human capital, deeper financial development, more domestic investment and better institutions.

Table 2 represents that the coefficients on the interaction between the KOF, HCS and FD are statistically significant at 1% level and with the positive sign. The findings indicate that economic globalization not only directly promotes growth but also indirectly does via complementary reforms. On the other hand, the positive effect of economic globalization can be significantly enhanced if some complementary reforms in terms of human capital and financial development are undertaken.

In fact, the implementation of new technologies transferred from advanced economies requires skilled workers. The results of this study confirm the importance of increasing educated workers as a complementary policy in progressing globalization. However, countries with higher level of human capital can be better and faster to imitate and implement the transferred technologies. Besides, the financial openness brings along the knowledge and managerial for implementing the new technology. It can be helpful in improving the level of human capital in host countries. Moreover, the strong and well-functioned financial systems can lead the flow of foreign capital to the productive and compatible sectors in developing countries. Overall, with higher level of human capital and stronger financial systems, the globalized countries benefit from the growth effect of globalization. The obtained results supported by previous studies in relative to financial and trade globalization such as [5] , [27] , [44] , [45] .

Table (3 ) shows that the estimated coefficients on KOF*dum3 and KOF*dum2 are statistically significant at the 5% level with positive sign. The KOF*dum1 is statistically significant with negative sign. It means that increase in economic globalization in high and middle-income countries boost economic growth but this effect is diverse for low-income countries. The reason might be related to economic structure of these countries that are not received to the initial condition necessary to be benefited from globalization. In fact, countries should be received to the appropriate income level to be benefited by globalization.

The diagnostic tests in tables 1 – 3 show that the estimated equation is free from simultaneity bias and second-order correlation. The results of Sargan test accept the null hypothesis that supports the validity of the instrument use in dynamic GMM.

Conclusions and Implications

Numerous researchers have investigated the impact of economic globalization on economic growth. Unfortunately, theoretical and the empirical literature have produced conflicting conclusions that need more investigation. The current study shed light on the growth effect of globalization by using a comprehensive index for globalization and applying a robust econometrics technique. Specifically, this paper assesses whether the growth effects of globalization depend on the complementary polices as well as income level of OIC countries.

Using a panel data of OIC countries over the 1980–2008 period, we draw three important conclusions from the empirical analysis. First, the coefficient measuring the effect of the economic globalization on growth was positive and significant, indicating that economic globalization affects economic growth of OIC countries in a positive way. Second, the positive effect of globalization on growth is increased in countries with higher level of human capital and deeper financial development. Finally, economic globalization does affect growth, whether the effect is beneficial depends on the level of income of each group. It means that economies should have some initial condition to be benefited from the positive effects of globalization. The results explain why some countries have been successful in globalizing world and others not.

The findings of our study suggest that public policies designed to integrate to the world might are not optimal for economic growth by itself. Economic globalization not only directly promotes growth but also indirectly does so via complementary reforms.

The policy implications of this study are relatively straightforward. Integrating to the global economy is only one part of the story. The other is how to benefits more from globalization. In this respect, the responsibility of policymakers is to improve the level of educated workers and strength of financial systems to get more opportunities from globalization. These economic policies are important not only in their own right, but also in helping developing countries to derive the benefits of globalization.

However, implementation of new technologies transferred from advanced economies requires skilled workers. The results of this study confirm the importance of increasing educated workers as a complementary policy in progressing globalization. In fact, countries with higher level of human capital can better and faster imitate and implement the transferred technologies. The higher level of human capital and certain skill of human capital determine whether technology is successfully absorbed across countries. This shows the importance of human capital in the success of countries in the globalizing world.

Financial openness in the form of FDI brings along the knowledge and managerial for implementing the new technology. It can be helpful in upgrading the level of human capital in host countries. Moreover, strong and well-functioned financial systems can lead the flow of foreign capital to the productive and compatible sectors in OICs.

In addition, the results show that economic globalization does affect growth, whether the effect is beneficial depends on the level of income of countries. High and middle income countries benefit from globalization whereas low-income countries do not gain from it. As Birdsall [46] mentioned globalization is fundamentally asymmetric for poor countries, because their economic structure and markets are asymmetric. So, the risks of globalization hurt the poor more. The structure of the export of low-income countries heavily depends on primary commodity and natural resource which make them vulnerable to the global shocks.

The major research limitation of this study was the failure to collect data for all OIC countries. Therefore future research for all OIC countries would shed light on the relationship between economic globalization and economic growth.

Supporting Information

Sample of Countries.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.s001

The Name and Definition of Indicators.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.s002

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PS. Performed the experiments: PS. Analyzed the data: PS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PS HSJ. Wrote the paper: PS HSJ.

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Essay on Globalization for Students and Children

500+ words essay on globalization.

Globalization refers to integration between people, companies, and governments. Most noteworthy, this integration occurs on a global scale. Furthermore, it is the process of expanding the business all over the world. In Globalization, many businesses expand globally and assume an international image. Consequently, there is a requirement for huge investment to develop international companies.

How Globalization Came into Existence?

First of all, people have been trading goods since civilization began. In the 1st century BC, there was the transportation of goods from China to Europe. The goods transportation took place along the Silk Road. The Silk Road route was very long in distance. This was a remarkable development in the history of Globalization. This is because, for the first time ever, goods were sold across continents.

Globalization kept on growing gradually since 1st BC. Another significant development took place in the 7th century AD. This was the time when the religion of Islam spread. Most noteworthy, Arab merchants led to a rapid expansion of international trade . By the 9th century, there was the domination of Muslim traders on international trade. Furthermore, the focus of trade at this time was spices.

True Global trade began in the Age of Discovery in the 15th century. The Eastern and Western continents were connected by European merchants. There was the discovery of America in this period. Consequently, global trade reached America from Europe.

From the 19th century, there was a domination of Great Britain all over the world. There was a rapid spread of international trade. The British developed powerful ships and trains. Consequently, the speed of transportation greatly increased. The rate of production of goods also significantly increased. Communication also got faster which was better for Global trade .

Finally, in 20th and 21st -Century Globalization took its ultimate form. Above all, the development of technology and the internet took place. This was a massive aid for Globalization. Hence, E-commerce plays a huge role in Globalization.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Impact of Globalization

First of all, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increases at a great rate. This certainly is a huge contribution of Globalization. Due to FDI, there is industrial development. Furthermore, there is the growth of global companies. Also, many third world countries would also benefit from FDI.

Technological Innovation is another notable contribution of Globalization. Most noteworthy, there is a huge emphasis on technology development in Globalization. Furthermore, there is also technology transfer due to Globalization. The technology would certainly benefit the common people.

The quality of products improves due to Globalization. This is because manufacturers try to make products of high-quality. This is due to the pressure of intense competition. If the product is inferior, people can easily switch to another high-quality product.

To sum it up, Globalization is a very visible phenomenon currently. Most noteworthy, it is continuously increasing. Above all, it is a great blessing to trade. This is because it brings a lot of economic and social benefits to it.

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Article contents

Globalization and education.

• Liz Jackson Liz Jackson University of Hong Kong
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.52
• Published online: 26 October 2016

Few would deny that processes of globalization have impacted education around the world in many important ways. Yet the term “globalization” is relatively new, and its meaning or nature, conceptualization, and impact remain essentially contested within the educational research community. There is no global consensus on the exact time period of its occurrence or its most significant shaping processes, from those who focus on its social and cultural framings to those that hold global political-economic systems or transnational social actors as most influential. Intersecting questions also arise regarding whether its influence on human communities and the world should be conceived of as mostly good or mostly bad, which have significant implications for debates regarding the relationship between globalization and education. Competing understandings of globalization also undergird diverse methodologies and perspectives in expanding fields of research into the relationship between education and globalization.

There are many ways to frame the relationship of globalization and education. Scholars often pursue the topic by examining globalization’s perceived impact on education, as in many cases global convergence around educational policies, practices, and values has been observed in the early 21st century. Yet educational borrowing and transferal remains unstraightforward in practice, as educational and cultural differences across social contexts remain, while ultimate ends of education (such as math competencies versus moral cultivation) are essentially contested. Clearly, specificity is important to understand globalization in relation to education. As with globalization generally, globalization in education cannot be merely described as harmful or beneficial, but depends on one’s position, perspective, values, and priorities.

Education and educators’ impacts on globalization also remain a worthwhile focus of exploration in research and theorization. Educators do not merely react to globalization and related processes, but purposefully interact with them, as they prepare their students to respond to challenges and opportunities posed by processes associated with globalization. As cultural and political-economic considerations remain crucial in understanding globalization and education, positionality and research ethics and reflexivity remain important research concerns, to understand globalization not just as homogeneity or oppressive top-down features, but as complex and dynamic local and global intersections of people, ideas, and goods, with unclear impacts in the future.

• globalization
• economic integration
• education borrowing
• global studies in education
• comparative education
• education development

Few would deny that processes of globalization have impacted education around the world in many important ways. Yet the term “globalization” is relatively new, and its meaning or nature, conceptualization, and impact remain essentially contested within the educational research community. Competing understandings of globalization undergird diverse methodologies and perspectives in the expanding web of fields researching the relationship between education and globalization examined below. The area of educational research which exploded at the turn of the 21st century requires a holistic view. Rather than take sides within this contentious field, it is useful to examine major debates and trends, and indicate where readers can learn more about particular specialist areas within the field and other relevant strands of research.

The first part below considers the development of the theorization and conceptualization of globalization and debates about its impact that are relevant to education. The next section examines the relationship between education and globalization as explored by the educational research community. There are many ways to frame the relationship between globalization and education. First explored here is the way that globalization can be seen to impact education, as global processes and practices have been observed to influence many educational systems’ policies and structures; values and ideals; pedagogy; curriculum and assessment; as well as broader conceptualizations of teacher and learner, and the good life. However, there is also a push in the other direction—through global citizenship education, education for sustainable development, and related trends—to understand education and educators as shapers of globalization, so these views are also explored here. The last section highlights relevant research directions.

The Emergence of Globalization(s)

At the broadest level, globalization can be defined as a process or condition of the cultural, political, economic, and technological meeting and mixing of people, ideas, and resources, across local, national, and regional borders, which has been largely perceived to have increased in intensity and scale during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. However, there is no global consensus on the exact time period of its occurrence, or its most significant shaping processes, from social and cultural framings to those that hold global political-economic systems or transnational social actors as most influential. Intersecting questions also arise regarding whether its influence on human communities and the world should be conceived as mostly good or mostly bad, which have clear and significant implications for understanding debates regarding the relationship between globalization and education.

Conceptualizing Globalization

Globalization is a relatively recent concept in scholarly research, becoming popular in public, academic, and educational discourse only in the 1980s. However, many leading scholars of globalization have argued that the major causes or shapers of globalization, particularly the movement and mixing of elements beyond a local or national level, is at least many centuries old; others frame globalization as representing processes inherent to the human experience, within a 5,000–10,000-year time frame. 1 Conceptualizations of globalization have typically highlighted cultural, political-economic, and/or technological aspects of these processes, with different researchers emphasizing and framing the relationships among these different aspects in diverse ways in their theories.

Cultural framings: Emphasizing the cultural rather than economic or political aspects of globalization, Roland Robertson pinpointed the occurrence of globalization as part of the process of modernity in Europe (though clearly similar processes were occurring in many parts of the world), particularly a growing mutual recognition among nationality-based communities. 2 As people began identifying with larger groups, beyond their family, clan, or tribe, “relativization” took place, as people saw others in respective outside communities similarly developing national or national-like identities. 3 Through identifying their own societies as akin to those of outsiders, people began measuring their cultural and political orders according to a broader, international schema, and opening their eyes to transnational inspirations for internal social change.

Upon mutual recognition of nations, kingdoms, and the like as larger communities that do not include all of humanity, “emulation” stemming from comparison of the local to the external was often a next step. 4 While most people and communities resisted, dismissed, or denied the possibility of a global human collectivity, they nonetheless compared their own cultures and lives with those beyond their borders. Many world leaders across Eurasia looked at other “civilizations” with curiosity, and began increasing intercultural and international interactions to benefit from cultural mixing, through trade, translation of knowledge, and more. With emulation and relativization also came a sense of a global standard of values, for goods and resources, and for the behavior and organization of individuals and groups in societies, though ethnocentrism and xenophobia was also often a part of such “global” comparison. 5

Political-economic framings: In political theory and popular understanding, nationalism has been a universalizing discourse in the modern era, wherein individuals around the world have been understood to belong to and identify primarily with largely mutually exclusive national or nation-state “imagined communities.” 6 In this context, appreciation for and extensive investigation of extranational and international politics and globalization were precluded for a long time in part due to the power of nationalistic approaches. However, along with the rise historically of nationalist and patriotic political discourse, theories of cosmopolitanism also emerged. Modern cosmopolitanism as a concept unfolded particularly in the liberalism of Immanuel Kant, who argued for a spirit of “world citizenship” toward “perpetual peace,” wherein people recognize themselves as citizens of the world. 7 Martha Nussbaum locates cosmopolitanism’s roots in the more distant past, however, observing Diogenes the Cynic (ca. 404–323 bce ) in Ancient Greece famously identifying as “a citizen of the world.” 8 This suggests that realization of commonality, common humanity, and the risks of patriotism and nationalism as responses to relativization and emulation have enabled at least a “thin” kind of global consciousness for a very long time, as a precursor to today’s popular awareness of globalization, even if such a global consciousness was in ancient history framed within regional rather than planetary discourse.

In the same way as culturally oriented globalization scholars, those theorizing from an economic and/or political perspective conceive the processes of globalization emerging most substantively in the 15th and 16th centuries, through the development of the capitalist world economic system and the growth of British- and European-based empires holding vast regions of land in Africa, Asia, and the Americas as colonies to enhance trade and consumption within empire capitals. According to Immanuel Wallerstein’s world system theory, which emerged before globalization theory, in the 1970s, the capitalist world economic system is one of the most essential framing elements of the human experience around the world in the modern (or postmodern) era. 9 Interaction across societies primarily for economic purposes, “ not bounded by a unitary political structure,” characterizes the world economy, as well as a capitalist order, which conceives the main purpose of international economic exchange as being the endless generation and accumulation of capital. 10 A kind of global logic was therein introduced, which has expanded around the globe as we now see ourselves as located within an international financial system.

Though some identify world system theory as an alternative or precursor to globalization theories (given Wallerstein’s own writing, which distinguished his view from globalization views 11 ), its focus on a kind of planetary global logic interrelates with globalization theories emerging in the 1980s and 1990s. 12 Additionally, its own force and popularity in public and academic discussions enabled the kind of global consciousness and sense of global interrelation of people which we can regard as major assumptions underpinning the major political-economic theories of globalization and the social imaginary of globalization 13 that came after.

Globalization emerged within common discourse as the process of international economic and political integration and interdependency was seen to deepen and intensify during and after the Cold War era of international relations. At that time, global ideologies were perceived which spanned diverse cultures and nation-states, while global economic and military interdependency became undeniable facts of the human condition. Thus, taking world systems theory as a starting point, global capitalism models have theorized the contemporary economic system, recognizing aspects of world society not well suited to the previously popular nationalistic ways of thinking about international affairs. Leslie Sklair 14 and William Robinson 15 highlighted the transnational layer of capitalistic economic activity, including practices, actors and social classes, and ideologies of international production and trade, elaborated by Robinson as “an emergent transnational state apparatus,” a postnational or extranational ideological, political, and practical system for societies, individuals, and groups to interact in the global space beyond political borders. 16 Globalization is thus basically understood as a process or condition of contemporary human life, at the broadest level, rather than a single event or activity.

Technological framings: In the 1980s and 1990s, the impact of technology on many people’s lives, beliefs, and activities rose tremendously, altering the global political economy by adding an intensity of transnational communication and (financial and information) trading capabilities. Manuel Castells argued that technological advancements forever altered the economy by creating networks of synchronous or near-synchronous communication and trade of information. 17 Anthony Giddens likewise observed globalization’s essence as “time-space distanciation”: “the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” 18 As information became present at hand with the widespread use of the Internet, a postindustrial society has also been recognized as a feature of globalization, wherein skills and knowledge to manipulate data and networks become more valuable than producing goods or trading material resources.

Today, globalization is increasingly understood as having interrelating cultural, political-economic, and technological dimensions, and theorists have thus developed conceptualizations and articulations of globalization that work to emphasize the ways that these aspects intersect in human experience. Arjun Appadurai’s conception of global flows frames globalization as taking place as interactive movements or waves of interlinked practices, people, resources, and ideologies: ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, finanscapes, and ideoscapes. 19 Ethnoscapes are waves of people moving across cultures and borders, while mediascapes are moving local, national, and international constructions of information and images. Technoscapes enable (and limit) interactions of peoples, cultures, and resources through technology, while finanscapes reflect intersection values and valuations; human, capital, and national resources; and more. Ideoscapes reflect competing, interacting, reconstructing ideologies, cultures, belief systems, and understandings of the world and humanity. Through these interactive processes, people, things, and ideas move and move each other, around the world. 20

Evaluating Globalization

While the explanatory function of Appadurai’s vision of globalization’s intersecting dimensions is highlighted above, many theories of globalization emphasize normative positions in relation to the perceived impact of global and transnational processes and practices on humanity and the planet. Normative views of globalization may be framed as skeptical , globalist , or transformationalist . As Fazal Rizvi and Bob Lingard note, these are ideal types, rather than clearly demarcated practical parties or camps of theorists, though they have become familiar and themselves a part of the social imaginary of globalization (that is, the way globalization is perceived in normative and empirical ways by ordinary people rather than researchers). 21 The positions are also reflected in the many educational discourses relating to globalization, despite their ideological rather than simply empirical content.

Skeptical views: Approaches to globalization in research that are described as skeptical may question or problematize globalization discourse in one of two different ways. The first type of skepticism questions the significance of globalization. The second kind of skepticism tends to embrace the idea of globalization, but regards its impact on people, communities, and/or the planet as negative or risky, overall.

As discussed here, global or international processes are hardly new, while globalization became a buzzword only in the last decades of the 20th century. Thus a first type of skeptic may charge that proponents of globalization or globalization theory are emphasizing the newness of global processes for ulterior motives, as a manner of gaining attention for their work, celebrating that which should instead be seen as problematic capitalist economic relations, for example. Alternatively, some argue that the focus on globalization in research, theorization, and popular discourse fails to recognize the agency of people and communities as actors in the world today, and for this reason should be avoided and replaced by a focus on the “transnational.” As Michael Peter Smith articulates, ordinary individual people, nation-states, and their practices remain important within the so-called global system; a theory of faceless, ahistorical globalization naturalizes global processes and precludes substantive elaboration of how human (and national) actors have played and continue to play primary roles in the world through processes of knowledge and value construction, and through interpersonal and transnational activities. 22

The second strand of globalization skepticism might be referred to as antiglobalist or antiglobalization positions. Thinkers in this vein regard globalization as a mark of our times, but highlight the perceived negative impacts of globalization on people and communities. Culturally, this can include homogenization and loss of indigenous knowledge, and ways of life, or cultural clashes that are seen to arise out of the processes of relativization and emulation in some cases. George Ritzer coined the term “McDonaldization” to refer to the problematic elements of the rise of a so-called global culture. 23 More than simply the proliferation of McDonalds fast-food restaurants around the world, McDonaldization, according to Ritzer, includes a valuation of efficiency over humanity in production and consumption practices, a focus on quantity over quality, and control and technology over creativity and culture. Global culture is seen as a negative by others who conceive it as mainly the product of a naïve cultural elite of international scholars and business people, in contrast with “low-end globalization,” which is the harsher realities faced by the vast majority of people not involved in international finance, diplomacy, or academic research. 24

Alternatively, Benjamin Barber 25 and Samuel Huntington 26 have focused on “Jihad versus McWorld” and the “clash of civilizations,” respectively, as cultures can be seen to mix in negative and unfriendly ways in the context of globalization. Although Francis Fukuyama and other hopeful globalists perceived a globalization of Western liberal democracy at the turn of the 21st century, 27 unforeseen global challenges such as terrorism have fueled popular claims by Barber and Huntington that cultural differences across major “civilizations” (international ideological groupings), particularly of liberal Western civilization and fundamentalist Islam, preclude their peaceful relativization, homogenization, and/or hybridization, and instead function to increase violent interactions of terrorism and war.

Similarly, but moving away from cultural aspects of globalization, Ulrich Beck highlighted risk as essential to understanding globalization, as societies face new problems that may be related to economy or even public health, and as their interdependencies with others deepen and increase. 28 Beck gave the example of Mad Cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) as one instance where much greater and more broadly distributed risks have been created through global economic and political processes. Skeptical economic theories of globalization likewise highlight how new forms of inequality emerge as global classes and labor markets are created. For instance, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri argue that a faceless power impersonally oppresses grassroots people despite the so-called productivity of globalization (that is, the growth of capital it enables) from a capitalist economic orientation. 29 It is this faceless but perceived inhumane power that has fueled globalization protests, particularly of the meetings of the World Trade Organization in the 1990s and 2000s, in the United States and Europe.

In light of such concerns, Walden Bello argued for “deglobalization,” a reaction and response by people that aims to fight against globalization and reorient communities to local places and local lifestyles. Bello endorsed a radical shift to a decentralized, pluralistic system of governance from a political-economic perspective. 30 Similarly, Colin Hines argues for localization, reclaiming control over local economies that should become as diverse as possible to rebuild stability within communities. 31 Such ideas have found a broad audience, as movements to “buy local” and “support local workers” have spread around the world rapidly in the 2000s.

Globalist views: Globalists include researchers and advocates who highlight the benefits of globalization to different communities and in various areas of life, often regarding it as necessary or natural. Capitalist theories of globalization regard it as ideal for production and consumption, as greater specialism around the world increases efficiency. 32 The productive power of globalization is also highlighted by Giddens, who sees the potential for global inclusivity and enhanced creative dialogue arising (at least in part) from global processes. 33 In contrast with neoliberal (pro-capitalism) policies, Giddens propagated the mixture of the market and state interventions (socialism and Keynesian economy), and believed that economic policies with socially inclusive ideas would influence social and educational policies and thus promote enhanced social development.

The rise of global culture enhances the means for people to connect with one another to improve life and give it greater meaning, and can increase mutual understanding. As democracy becomes popular around the world as a result of global communication processes, Scott Burchill has argued that universal human rights can be achieved to enhance global freedom in the near future. 34 Joseph Stiglitz likewise envisioned a democratizing globalization that can include developing countries on an equal basis and transform “economic beings” to “human beings” with values of community and social justice. 35 Relatedly, some globalists contend against skeptics that cultural and economic-political or ideological hybridity and “glocalization,” as well as homogenization or cultural clashes, often can and do take place. Under glocalization , understood as local-level globalization processes (rather than top-down intervention), local actors interact dynamically with, and are not merely oppressed by, ideas, products, things, and practices from outside and beyond. Thus, while we can find instances of “Jihad” and “McWorld,” so too can we find Muslims enjoying fast food, Westerners enjoying insights and activities from Muslim and Eastern communities, and a variety of related intercultural dialogues and a dynamic reorganization of cultural and social life harmoniously taking place.

Transformationalist views: Globalization is increasingly seen by educators (among others) around the globe to have both positive and negative impacts on communities and individuals. Thus, most scholars today hold nuanced, middle positions between skepticism and globalism, such as David Held and Anthony McGrew’s transformationalist stance. 36 As Rizvi and Lingard note, globalization processes have material consequences in the world that few would flatly deny, while people increasingly do see themselves as interconnected around the globe, by technology, trade, and more. 37 On the other hand, glocalization is often a mixed blessing, from a comparative standpoint. Global processes do not happen outside of political and economic contexts, and while some people clearly benefit from them, others may not appear to benefit from or desire processes and conditions related to globalization.

Thus, Rizvi and Lingard identify globalization “as an empirical fact that describes the profound shifts that are taking place in the world; as an ideology that masks various expression of power and a range of political interests; and as a social imaginary that expresses the sense people have of their own identity and how it relates to the rest of the world, and … their aspirations and expectations.” 38 Such an understanding of globalization enables its continuous evaluation in terms of dynamic interrelated practices, processes, and ideas, as experienced and engaged with by people and groups within complex transnational webs of organization. Understandings of globalization thus link to education in normative and empirical ways within research. It is to the relationship of globalization to education that we now turn.

Historical Background

Globalization and education are highly interrelated from a historical view. At the most basic level, historical processes that many identify as essential precursors to political-economic globalization during the late modern colonial and imperialist eras influenced the development and rise of mass education. Thus, what we commonly see around the world today as education, mass schooling of children, could be regarded as a first instance of globalization’s impact on education, as in many non-Western contexts traditional education had been conceived as small-scale, local community-based, and as vocational or apprenticeship education, and/or religious training. 39 In much of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the indigenous Americas and Australasia, institutionalized formal schools emerged for the first time within colonial or (often intersecting) missionary projects, for local elite youth and children of expatriate officials.

The first educational scholarship with a global character from a historical point of view would thus be research related to colonial educational projects, such as in India, Africa, and East Asia, which served to create elite local communities to serve colonial officials, train local people to work in economic industries benefiting the colony, and for preservation of the status quo. Most today would describe this education as not part of an overall development project belonging to local communities, but as a foreign intervention for global empire maintenance or social control. As postcolonial educational theorists such as Paulo Freire have seen it, this education sought to remove and dismiss local culture as inferior, and deny local community needs for the sake of power consolidation of elites, and it ultimately served as a system of oppression on psychological, cultural, and material levels. 40 It has been associated by diverse cultural theorists within and outside the educational field with the loss of indigenous language and knowledge production, with moral and political inculcation, and with the spread of English as an elite language of communication across the globe. 41

Massification of education in the service of local communities in most developing regions roughly intersected with the period after the Second World War and in the context of national independence movements, wherein nationally based communities reorganized as politically autonomous nation-states (possibly in collaboration with former colonial parties). In 1945 , the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) emerged, as the United Nations recognized education as critical for future global peace and prosperity, preservation of cultural diversity, and global progress toward stability, economic flourishing, and human rights. UNESCO has advocated for enhancement of quality and access to education around the world through facilitating the transnational distribution of educational resources, establishing (the discourse of) a global human right to education, promoting international transferability of educational and teaching credentials, developing mechanisms for measuring educational achievement across countries and regions, and supporting national and regional scientific and cultural developments. 42 The World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have engaged in similar work.

Thus, the first modern global educational research was that conducted by bodies affiliated with or housed under UNESCO, such as the International Bureau of Education, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and the International Institute of Educational Planning, which are regarded as foundational bodies sponsoring international and comparative research. In research universities, educational borrowing across international borders became one significant topic of research for an emerging field of scholars identified as comparative educational researchers. Comparative education became a major field of educational inquiry in the first half of the 20th century, and expanded in the 1950s and 1960s. 43 Comparative educational research then focused on aiding developing countries’ education and improving domestic education through cross-national examinations of educational models and achievement. Today, comparative education remains one major field among others that focuses on globalization and education, including international education and global studies in education.

Globalization as a contemporary condition or process clearly shapes education around the globe, in terms of policies and values; curriculum and assessment; pedagogy; educational organization and leadership; conceptions of the learner, the teacher, and the good life; and more. Though, following the legacy of the primacy of a nation-state and systems-theory levels of analysis, it is traditionally conceived that educational ideas and changes move from the top, such as from UNESCO and related bodies and leading societies, to the developing world, we find that often glocalization and hybridity, rather than simple borrowing, are taking place. On the other hand, education is also held by scholars and political leaders to be a key to enhancing the modern (or postmodern) human condition, as a symbol of progress of the global human community, realized as global citizenship education, education for sustainable development, and related initiatives. 44 The next subsections consider how globalization processes have been explored in educational research as shapers of education, and how education and educators can also be seen to influence globalization.

Research on Globalization’s Impact on Education

Global and transnational processes and practices have been observed to influence and impact various aspects of contemporary education within many geographical contexts, and thus the fields of research related to education and globalization are vast: they are not contained simply within one field or subfield, but can be seen to cross subdisciplinary borders, in policy studies, curriculum, pedagogy, higher education studies, assessment, and more. As mentioned previously, modern education can itself be seen as one most basic instance of globalization, connected to increased interdependency of communities around the world in economic and political affairs first associated with imperialism and colonialism, and more recently with the capitalist world economy. And as the modern educational system cannot be seen as removed or sealed off from cultural and political-economic processes involved in most conceptualizations of globalization, the impacts of globalization processes upon education are often considered wide-ranging, though many are also controversial.

Major trends: From a functionalist perspective, the globalization of educational systems has been influenced by new demands and desires for educational transferability, of students and educators. In place of dichotomous systems in terms of academic levels and credentialing, curriculum, and assessment, increasing convergence can be observed today, as it is recognized that standardization makes movement of people in education across societies more readily feasible, and that such movement of people can enhance education in a number of ways (to achieve diversity, to increase specialization and the promotion of dedicated research centers, to enhance global employability, and so on). 45 Thus, the mobility and paths of movement of students and academics, for education and better life opportunities, have been a rapidly expanding area of research. A related phenomenon is that of offshore university and school campuses—the mobility of educational institutions to attract and recruit new students (and collect fees), such as New York University in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. By implication, education is often perceived as becoming more standardized around the globe, though hybridity can also be observed at the micro level.

How economic integration under globalization impacts local educational systems has been traced by Rizvi and Lingard. 46 As they note, from a broad view, the promotion of neoliberal values in the context of financial adjustment and restructuring of poorer countries under trade and debt agreements led by intergovernmental organizations, most notably the OECD, encouraged, first, fiscal discipline in educational funding (particularly impacting the payment of educators in many regions) and, second, the redistribution of funds to areas of education seen as more economically productive, namely primary education, and to efforts at privatization and deregulation of education. While the educational values of countries can and do vary, from democracy and peace, to social justice and equity, and so on, Rizvi and Lingard also observed that social and economic efficiency views have become dominant within governments and their educational policy units. 47 Though human capital theory has always supported the view that individuals gain proportionately according to the investment in their education and training, this view has become globalized in recent decades to emphasize how whole societies can flourish under economic interdependency via enhanced education.

These policy-level perspectives have had serious implications for how knowledge and thus curriculum are increasingly perceived. As mentioned previously, skills for gaining knowledge have taken precedent over knowledge accumulation, with the rise of technology and postindustrial economies. In relation, “lifelong learning,” learning to be adaptive to challenges outside the classroom and not merely to gain academic disciplinary knowledge, has become a focal point for education systems around the globe in the era of globalization. 48 Along with privatization of education, as markets are seen as more efficient than government systems of provision, models of educational choice and educational consumption have become normalized as alternatives to the historical status quo of traditional academic or intellectual, teacher-centered models. Meanwhile, the globalization of educational testing—that is, the use of the same tests across societies around the world—has had a tremendous impact on local pedagogies, assessment, and curricula the world over. Though in each country decision-making structures are not exactly the same, many societies face pressure to focus on math, science, and languages over other subjects, as a result of the primacy of standardized testing to measure and evaluate educational achievement and the effectiveness of educational systems. 49

However, there remains controversy over what education is the best in the context of relativization and emulation of educational practices and students, and therefore the 2010s have seen extraordinary transfers of educational approaches, not just from core societies to peripheral or developing areas, but significant horizontal movements of educational philosophies and practices from West to East and East to West. With the rise of global standardized tests such as the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), educational discourse in Western societies has increasingly emphasized the need to reorient education to East Asian models (such as Singapore or Shanghai), seen as victors of the tests. 50 On the other hand, many see Finland’s educational system as ideal in relation to its economic integration in society and focus on equity in structure and orientation, and thus educators in the Middle East, East Asia, and the United States have also been seen to consider emulating Finnish education in the 2010s. 51

Evaluations: From a normative point of view, some regard changes to local education in many contexts brought about by globalization as harmful and risky. Freire’s postcolonial view remains salient to those who remain concerned that local languages and indigenous cultural preservation are being sacrificed for elite national and international interests. 52 There can be no doubt that language diversity has been decreasing over time, while indigenous knowledge is being reframed within globalist culture as irrelevant to individual youths’ material needs. 53 Many are additionally skeptical of the sometimes uncritical adoption of educational practices, policies, and discourse from one region of the globe to another. In many countries in Africa and the Middle East, ideas and curricula are borrowed from the United Kingdom, the United States, or Finland in an apparently hasty manner, only to be discarded for the next reform, when it is not found to fit neatly and efficiently within the local educational context (for instance, given local educational values, structures and organizations, and educator and student views). 54 Others argue, in parallel to globalization skeptics, that globalization’s major impact on education has actually been the promotion of a thin layer of aspirational, cosmopolitan values among global cultural elites, who largely overlook the realities, problems, and challenges many face. 55

On the other hand, the case for globalization as a general enhancer of education worldwide has compelling evidence as well. Due to the work of UNESCO, the OECD, and related organizations, educational attainment has become more equitable globally, by nation, race, gender, class, and other markers of social inequality; and educational access has been recognized as positively aligned with personal and national economic improvement, according to quantitative educational researchers. 56 (David Hill, Nigel Greaves, and Alpesh Maisuria argue from a Marxist viewpoint that education in conjunction with global capitalism reinforces rather than decreases inequality and inequity; yet they also note that capitalism can be and often has been successfully regulated to diminish rather than increase inequality generally across countries. 57 ) As education has been effectively conceived as a human right in the era of globalization, societies with historically uneven access to education are on track to systematically enhance educational quality and access.

Changes to the way knowledge and the learner have been conceived, particularly with the rise of ubiquitous technology, are also often regarded as positive overall. People around the world have more access to information than ever before with the mass use of the Internet, and students of all ages can access massive open online courses (MOOCs); dynamic, data-rich online encyclopedias; and communities of like-minded scholars through social networks and forums. 58 In brick-and-mortar classrooms, educators and students are more diverse than ever due to enhanced educational mobility, and both are exposed to a greater variety of ideas and perspectives that can enhance learning for all participants. Credentials can be earned from reputable universities online, with supervision systems organized by leading scholars in global studies in education in many cases. Students have more choices when it comes to learning independently or alongside peers, mentors, or experts, in a range of disciplines, vocations, and fields.

The truth regarding how globalization processes and practices are impacting contemporary education no doubt lies in focusing somewhere in between the promises and the risks, depending on the context in question: the society, the educational level, the particular community, and so on. Particularly with regard to the proposed benefits of interconnectivity and networked ubiquitous knowledge spurred by technology, critics contend that the promise of globalization for enhancing education has been severely overrated. Elites remain most able to utilize online courses and use technologies due to remaining inequalities in material and human resources. 59 At local levels, globalization in education (more typically discussed as internationalization) remains contentious in many societies, as local values, local students and educators, and local educational trends can at times be positioned as at odds with the priorities of globalization, of internationalizing curricula, faculty, and student bodies. As part of the social imaginary of globalization, international diversity can become a buzzword, while cultural differences across communities can result in international students and faculty members becoming ghettoized on campus. 60 International exchanges of youth and educators for global citizenship education can reflect political and economic differences between communities, not merely harmonious interconnection and mutual appreciation. 61 In this context of growing ambivalence, education and educators are seen increasingly as part of the solution to the problems and challenges of the contemporary world that are associated with globalization, as educators can respond to such issues in a proactive rather than a passive way, to ensure globalization’s challenges do not exceed its benefits to individuals and communities.

Education’s Potential Impact on Globalization

As globalization is increasingly regarded with ambivalence in relation to the perceived impact of global and transnational actors and processes on local educational systems, educators are increasingly asked not to respond passively to globalization, through enacting internationalization and global economic agendas or echoing simplistic conceptualizations or evaluations of globalization via their curriculum. Instead, education has been reframed in the global era as something youth needs, not just to accept globalization but to interact with it in a critical and autonomous fashion. Two major trends have occurred in curriculum and pedagogy research, wherein education is identified as an important potential shaper of globalization. These are global citizenship education (also intersecting with what are called 21st-century learning and competencies) and education for sustainable development.

Global citizenship education: Global citizenship education has been conceived by political theorists and educational philosophers as a way to speak back to globalization processes seen as harmful to individuals and communities. As Martha Nussbaum has argued, educators should work to develop in students feelings of compassion, altruism, and empathy that extend beyond national borders. 62 Kathy Hytten has likewise written that students need to learn today as part of global citizenship education not just feelings of sympathy for people around the world, but critical skills to identify root causes of problems that intersect the distinction of local and global, as local problems can be recognized as interconnected with globalization processes. 63 In relation to this, UNESCO and nongovernmental organizations and foundations such as Oxfam and the Asia Society have focused on exploring current practices and elaborating best practices from a global comparative standpoint for the dissemination of noncognitive, affective, “transversal” 21st-century competencies, to extend civic education in the future in the service of social justice and peace, locally and globally. 64

Questions remain in this area in connection with implementation within curriculum and pedagogy. A first question is whether concepts of altruism, empathy, and even harmony, peace, and justice, are translatable, with equivalent meanings across cultural contexts. There is evidence that global citizenship education aimed at educating for values to face the potential harms of globalization is converging around the world on such aims as instilling empathy and compassion, respect and appreciation of diversity, and personal habits or virtues of open-mindedness, curiosity, and creativity. However, what these values, virtues, and dispositions look like, how they are demonstrated, and their appropriate expressions remain divergent as regards Western versus Eastern and African societies (for example). 65 By implication, pedagogical or curriculum borrowing or transferral in this area may be problematic, even if some basic concepts are shared and even when best practices can be established within a cultural context.

Additionally, how these skills, competencies, and dispositions intersect with the cognitive skills and political views of education across societies with different cultures of teaching and learning also remains contentious. In line with the controversies over normative views of globalization, whether the curriculum should echo globalist or skeptical positions remains contested by educators and researchers in the field. Some argue that a focus on feelings can be overrated or even harmful in such education, given the immediacy and evidence of global social justice issues that can be approached rationally and constructively. 66 Thus, token expressions of cultural appreciation can be seen to preclude a deeper engagement with social justice issues if the former becomes a goal in itself. On the other hand, the appropriate focus on the local versus the global, and on the goods versus the harms of globalization, weighs differently across and within societies, from one individual educator to the next. Thus, a lack of evidence of best practices in relation to the contestation over ultimate goals creates ambivalence at the local level among many educators about what and how to teach global citizenship or 21st-century skills, apart from standardized knowledge in math, science, and language.

Education for sustainable development: Education for sustainable development is a second strand of curriculum and pedagogy that speaks back to globalization and that is broadly promoted by UNESCO and related intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations. Education for sustainable development is, like global citizenship education, rooted in globalization’s impact upon individuals in terms of global consciousness. Like global citizenship, education for sustainable development also emphasizes global interconnection in relation to development and sustainability challenges. It is also a broad umbrella term that reflects an increasingly wide array of practices, policies, and programs, formal and informal, for instilling virtues and knowledge and skills seen to enable effective responses to challenges brought about by globalization. 67 In particular, education for sustainable development has seen global progress, like globalization, as enmeshed in intersecting cultural, social, and economic and political values and priorities. Education for All is an interrelated complementary thread of UNESCO work, which sees access to education as a key to social justice and development, and the improvement of human quality of life broadly. In developed societies, environmental sustainability has come to be seen as a pressing global issue worth curricular focus, as behaviors with regard to consumption of natural resources impact others around the world, as well as future generations. 68

A diversity of practices and views also marks this area of education, resulting in general ambiguity about overall aims and best means. Controversies over which attitudes of sustainability are most important to inculcate, and whether it is important to inculcate them, intertwine with debates over what crises are most pertinent and what skills and competencies students should develop. Measures are in place for standardizing sustainability knowledge in higher education worldwide, as well as for comparing the development of prosustainability attitudes. 69 However, some scholars argue that both emphases miss the point, and that education for sustainable development should first be about changing cultures to become more democratic, creative, and critical, developing interpersonal and prosocial capabilities first, as the challenges of environmental sustainability and global development are highly complex and dynamic. 70 Thus, as globalization remains contested in its impacts, challenges, and promise at local levels, so too does the best education that connects positively with globalization to enhance local and global life. In this rich and diverse field, as processes of convergence and hybridity of glocalization continue to occur, the promise of globalization and the significance of education in relation to it will no doubt remain lively areas of debate in the future, as globalization continues to impact communities in diverse ways.

Research Considerations

There is no shortage of normative and explanatory theories about globalization, each of which points to particular instances and evidence about domains and contexts of globalization. However, when it comes to understanding the interconnections of globalization and education, some consensus regarding best practices for research has emerged. In fields of comparative and international education and global studies in education, scholars are increasingly calling today for theories and empirical investigations that are oriented toward specificity, particularity, and locality, in contrast with the grand theories of globalization elaborated by political scholars. However, a challenge is that such scholarship should not be reduced artificially to one local level in such a way as to exclude understanding of international interactions, in what has been called in the research community “methodological nationalism.” 71 Such reductive localism or nationalism can arise particularly in comparative education research, as nation-states have been traditional units for comparative analysis, but are today recognized as being too diverse from one to the next to be presumed similar (while global processes impact them in disparate ways). 72 Thus, Rizvi has articulated global ethnography as a focused approach to the analysis of international educational projects that traces interconnections and interactions of local and global actors. 73 In comparative educational research, units of analysis must be critically pondered and selected, and it is also possible to make comparisons across levels within one context (for instance, from local educational interactions to higher-level policy-making processes in one society). 74

Qualitative and quantitative analyses can be undertaken to measure global educational achievements, values, policy statements, and more; yet researcher reflexivity and positionality, what is traditionally conceived of as research ethics, is increasingly seen as vital for researchers in this politically and ethically contentious field. Although quantitative research remains important for highlighting convergences in data in global educational studies, such research cannot tell us what we should do, as it does not systematically express peoples’ values and beliefs about the aims of education, or their experiences of globalization, and so on, particularly effectively. On the other hand, normative questions about how people’s values intersect with globalization and related educational processes can give an in-depth view of one location or case, but should be complemented by consideration of generalizable trends. 75

In either case, cultural assumptions can interfere or interact in problematic or unintentional ways with methodologies of data gathering and analysis, for instance, when questions or codes (related to race, ethnicity, or class, for example) are applied across diverse sites by researchers, who may not be very familiar and experienced across divergent cultural contexts. 76 Thus, beyond positionality, the use of collaborative research teams has become popular in global and comparative educational research, to ensure inevitable cultural and related differences across research domains are sufficiently addressed in the research process. 77 In this context, researchers must also contend with the challenges of collaborating across educational settings, as new methods of engaging, saving, and sharing data at distance through technology continue to unfold in response to ongoing challenges with data storage, data security, and privacy.

Among recent strands of educational research fueled by appreciation for globalization is the exploration of the global economy of knowledge. Such research may consider the practices and patterns of movement, collaboration, research production and publication, and authorship of researchers, and examine data from cultural, political, and economic perspectives, asking whose knowledge is regarded as valid and most prized, and what voices dominate in conversations and discourse around globalization and education, such as in classrooms studying global studies in education, or in leading research journals. 78 Related research emerging includes questions such as who produces knowledge, who is the subject of knowledge, and where are data gathered, as recurring historical patterns may appear to be reproduced in contemporary scholarship, wherein those from the global North are more active in investigating and elaborating knowledge in the field, while those from the global South appear most often as subjects of research. As globalization of education entails the globalization of knowledge itself, such inquiries can be directed to various sites and disciplines outside of education, in considering how communication, values, and knowledge are being dynamically revised today on a global scale through processes of globalization.

Research that focuses on globalization and education uses a wide array of approaches and methods, topics, and orientations, as well as diverse theoretical perspectives and normative assumptions. The foregoing sections have explored this general field, major debates, and topics; the relationships have been traced between globalization and education; and there have been brief comments on considerations for research. One key point of the analysis has been that the way globalization is conceived has implications for how its relationship with education is understood. This is important, for as is illustrated here, the ways of conceptualizing globalization are diverse, in terms of how the era of globalization is framed chronologically (as essential to the human condition, to modernity, or as a late 20th-century phenomena), what its chief characteristics are from cultural, political-economic, and technological views, and whether its impact on human life and history is seen as good or bad. A broad consideration of viewpoints has highlighted the emergence of a middle position within research literature: there is most certainly an intertwined meeting and movement of peoples, things, and ideas around the globe; and clearly, processes associated with globalization have good and bad aspects. However, these processes are uneven, and they can be seen to impact different communities in various ways, which are clearly not, on the whole, simply all good or all bad.

That the processes associated with globalization are interrelated with the history and future of education is undeniable. In many ways global convergence around educational policies, practices, and values can be observed in the early 21st century. Yet educational borrowing and transferral remain unstraightforward in practice, as educational and cultural differences across social contexts remain, while the ultimate ends of education (such as math competencies versus moral cultivation) are essentially contested. Thus, specificity is important to understand globalization in relation to education. As with globalization generally, globalization in education cannot be merely described as harmful or beneficial, but depends on one’s position in power relations, and on one’s values and priorities for local and global well-being.

Education and educators’ impact on globalization also remains an important area of research and theorization. Educators are no longer expected merely to react to globalization, they must purposefully interact with it, preparing students around the world to respond to globalization’s challenges. As cultural and political-economic considerations remain crucial in understanding major aspects of both globalization and education, positionality and research ethics and reflexivity remain important research concerns, to understand globalization not just as homogeneity or oppressive top-down features, but as complex and dynamic local, global, and transnational intersections of people, ideas, and goods, with unclear impacts in the future.

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1. W. I. Robinson (2007), Theories of globalization, in G. Ritzer (Ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Globalization (pp. 125–143) (Malden, MA: Blackwell).

2. R. Robertson (1992), Globalization: Social theory and global culture (Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 1992).

3. Robertson, Globalization .

4. Robertson, Globalization.

5. For an historical example of how negative cultural comparison has interconnected with international political relations, see H. Kotef (2015), Little Chinese feet encased in iron shoes: Freedom, movement, gender, and empire in Western political thought, Political Theory, 43 , 334–355.

6. B. Anderson (1983), Imagined communities (London: Verso).

7. Anderson, Imagined communities.

8. M. Nussbaum (1996), For love of country? (Boston: Boston Press).

9. I. Wallerstein (1974), The modern world system (New York: Academic Press).

10. I. Wallerstein (2000), Globalization or the age of transition? International Sociology, 15 , 249–265.

11. Wallerstein, Globalization.

12. Robinson, Theories.

13. F. Rizvi and B. Lingard (2010), Globalizing educational policy (London: Routledge).

14. L. Sklair (2002), Globalization: Capitalism and its alternatives (New York: Oxford University Press).

15. W. I. Robinson (2003), Transnational conflicts: Central America, social change, and globalization (London: Verso)

16. Robinson, Theories.

17. M. Castells (1996), The rise of the network society (Oxford: Blackwell).

18. A. Giddens (1990), The consequences of modernity (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity), 64 ; see also D. Harvey (1990), The condition of post-modernity (London: Blackwell).

19. A. Appadurai (1997), Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).

20. See also D. Held , A. G. McGrew , D. Goldblatt , and J. Perraton (1999), Global transformations: Politics, economics, and culture (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press) ; M. Waters (1995), Globalization (London: Routledge).

21. Rizvi and Lingard, Globalizing.

22. M. P. Smith (2001), Transnational urbanism: Locating globalization (Oxford: Blackwell).

23. G. Ritzer (1993), The McDonaldization of society (Boston: Pine Forge).

24. G. Mathews (2011), Ghetto at the center of the world (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press).

25. B. Barber (1995), Jihad versus McWorld (New York: Random House).

26. S. Huntington (1993), The clash of civilizations? Foreign Affairs, 72 (3), 22–49.

27. F. Fukuyama (1992), The end of history and the last man (London: Free Press).

28. U. Beck (1992), The risk society: Toward a new modernity (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity).

29. M. Hardt and A. Negri (2000), Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) ; Hardt and Negri (2004), Multitude: War and democracy in the age of empire (New York: Penguin).

30. W. Bello (2004), Deglobalization: Ideas for a new world economy (London: New York University Press) ; Bello (2013), Capitalism’s last stand? Deglobalization in the age of austerity (London: Zed Books).

31. C. Hines (2000), Localization: A global manifesto (New York: Routledge).

32. See D. Harvey (1989), The condition of post-modernity: An enquiry into the conditions of cultural change (Oxford: Blackwell).

33. A. Giddens (1990), The consequences of modernity (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity).

34. S. Burchill (2009), Liberalism, in S. Burchill , A. Linklater , R. Devetak , J. Donnelly , T. Nardin , M. Paterson , C. Reus-Smit , and J. True (Eds.) (pp. 57–85), Theories of international relations (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).

35. See, for instance, J. Stiglitz (2006), Making globalization work (New York: W. W. Norton).

36. D. Held and A. McGrew (Eds.) (2000), The global transformation reader: An introduction to the globalization debate (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity).

37. Rizvi and Lingard, Globalizing.

38. Rizvi and Lingard, Globalizing , 24.

39. T. Reagan (2000), Non-Western educational traditions: Alternative approaches to educational thought (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum). Of course, scholars such as Michael P. Smith would reject describing these processes as belonging to globalization, as people, nations, and communities played significant roles.

40. P. Freire (1972), Pedagogy of the oppressed (Victoria: Penguin).

41. B. Ashcroft , G. Griffiths , and H. Tiffin (Eds.) (1995), The post-colonial studies reader (London: Routledge).

42. R. E. Wanner (2015), UNESCO’s origins, achievements, problems and promise: An inside/outside perspective from the US (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre/University of Hong Kong).

43. M. Manzon (2011), Comparative education: The construction of a field (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre/University of Hong Kong).

44. S. Walby (2009), Globalization and inequalities (London: SAGE).

45. See for instance J. Stier (2004), Taking a critical stance toward internationalization ideologies in higher education: idealism, instrumentalism and educationalism, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 2 , 1–28.

46. Rizvi and Lingard, Globalizing .

47. Rizvi and Lingard, Globalizing .

48. Rizvi and Lingard, Globalizing .

49. Rizvi and Lingard, Globalizing .

50. See for instance M. S. Tucker and L. Darling-Hammond (2011), Surpassing Shanghai: An agenda for American education built on the world’s leading systems (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

51. See for instance P. Sahlberg (2014), Finnish lessons 2.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? (New York: Teachers College Press).

52. A. Darder (2015), Paulo Freire and the continuing struggle to decolonize education, in M. A Peters and T. Besley (Eds.), Paulo Freire: The global legacy (pp. 55–78) (New York: Peter Lang).

53. S. J. Shin (2009), Bilingualism in schools and society (London: Routledge) ; H. Norberg-Hodge (2009), Ancient futures: Lessons from Ladakh for a globalizing world (San Francisco: Sierra Club).

54. L. Jackson (2015), Challenges to the global concept of student-centered learning with special reference to the United Arab Emirates: “Never Fail a Nahayan,” Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47 , 760–773.

55. T. Besley (2012), Narratives of intercultural and international education: Aspirational values and economic imperatives, in T. Besley and M. A. Peters (Eds.), Interculturalism: Education and dialogue (pp. 87–112) (New York: Peter Lang).

56. W. J. Jacob and D. B. Holsinger (2008), Inequality in education: A critical analysis, in D. B. Holsinger and W. J. Jacob (Eds.), Inequality in education: Comparative and international perspectives (pp. 1–33) (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre/University of Hong Kong).

57. D. Hill , N. M. Greaves , and A. Maisuria (2008), Does capitalism inevitably increase inequality? in D. B. Holsinger and W. J. Jacob (Eds.), Inequality in education: Comparative and international perspectives (pp. 59–85) (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre/University of Hong Kong).

58. D. M. West (2013), Digital schools : How technology can transform education (Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press) ; N. Burbules and T. Callister (2000), Watch IT: The risks and promises of technologies for education (Boulder, CO: Westview).

59. Burbules and Callister, Watch IT.

60. Stier, Critical Stance.

61. See for example, S. K. Gallwey and G. Wilgus (2014), Equitable partnerships for mutual learning or perpetuator of North-South power imbalances? Ireland–South Africa school links, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 44 , 522–544.

62. M. C. Nussbaum (2001), Upheavals of thought: The intelligence of emotions (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press).

63. K. Hytten (2009), Education for critical democracy and compassionate globalization, in R. Glass (Ed.), Philosophy of Education 2008 (pp. 330–332) (Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society).

64. See for example, Report to the UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century (1996), Learning: The treasure within (Paris: UNESCO) ; Asia Society (2015), A Rosetta Stone for noncognitive skills: Understanding, assessing, and enhancing noncognitive skills in primary and secondary education (New York: Asia Society).

65. See S. Y. Kang (2006), Identity-centered multicultural care theory: White, Black, and Korean caring, Educational Foundations, 20 (3–4), 35–49 ; L. Jackson (2016), Altruism, non-relational caring, and global citizenship education, in M. Moses (Ed.), Philosophy of Education 2014 (Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education).

66. Jackson, Altruism.

67. L. Jackson (2016), Education for sustainable development: From environmental education to broader view, in E. Railean , G. Walker , A. Elçi , and L. Jackson (Eds.), Handbook of research on applied learning theory and design in modern education (pp. 41–64) (Hershey, PA: IGI Press).

68. Jackson, Education for Sustainable Development.

69. Jackson, Education for Sustainable Development.

70. P. Vare and W. Scott (2007), Learning for change: Exploring the relationship between education and sustainable development, Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 1 , 191–198.

71. P. Kennedy (2011), Local lives and global transformations: Towards a world society (London: Palgrave).

72. M. Manzon (2015), Comparing places, in M. Bray , B. Adamson , and M. Mason (Eds.), Comparative education research: Approaches and methods (pp. 85–121) (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre/University of Hong Kong).

73. F. Rizvi (2009), Global mobility and the challenges of educational policy and research, in T. S. Popkewitz and F. Rizvi (Eds.), Globalization and the study of education (pp. 268–289) (Oxford: Blackwell).

74. Manzon, Comparing places.

75. G. P. Fairbrother , Qualitative and quantitative approaches to comparative education, in Bray , Adamson , and Mason (Eds.), Comparative education research (pp. 39–62).

76. L. Jackson (2015), Comparing race, class, and gender, in Bray , Adamson , and Mason (Eds.), Comparative education research (pp. 195–220).

77. M. Bray , B. Adamson , and M. Mason (2015), Different models, different emphases, different insights, in Bray , Adamson , and Mason (Eds.), Comparative education research , 421.

78. See, for instance, H. Tange and S. Miller (2015), Opening the mind? Geographies of knowledge and curricular practices, Higher Education , 1–15.

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✍️Essay on Globalisation: Samples in 100, 150 and 200 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 25, 2023

Globalisation means the combination of economies and societies with the help of information, ideas, technology, finance, goods, services, and people. It is a process where multinational companies work on their international standing and conduct operations internationally or overseas. Over the years, Globalisation has had a profound impact on various aspects of society. Today we will be discussing what globalisation is and how it came into existence with the essay on globalisation listed below.

Table of Contents

• 1 How Globalisation Came Into Existence?
• 2 Essay on Globalisation in 100 Words
• 3 Essay on Globalisation in 150 Words
• 4 Essay on Globalisation in 200 Words

How Globalisation Came Into Existence?

For all those unaware, the concepts of globalisation first emerged in the 20th century. Here are some of the key events which led to the development of globalisation in today’s digital world.

• The ancient Silk Route as well as the maritime routes led to the exchange of goods, ideas and culture in several countries. Although these were just trade routes, but later became important centres for cultural exchange.
• Other than this, the European colonial expansion which took place from the 15th to the 20th century led to the setting up of global markets where both knowledge and people were transferred to several developing countries. 
• The evolution and exchange of mass media, cinema and the internet further led to the widespread dissemination of cultures and ideas.

Also Read: Essay on the Importance of the English Language for Students

Essay on Globalisation in 100 Words

Globalization, the interconnectedness of nations through trade, technology, and cultural exchange, has reshaped the world. It has enabled the free flow of goods and information, fostering economic growth and cultural diversity. However, it also raises challenges such as income inequality and cultural homogenization. 

In a globalized world, businesses expand internationally, but local industries can suffer. Moreover, while globalization promotes shared knowledge, it can erode local traditions. Striking a balance between the benefits and drawbacks of globalization is essential to ensure a more equitable and culturally diverse global community, where economies thrive without leaving anyone behind.

Also Read: Essay on Save Environment: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words

Essay on Globalisation in 150 Words

Globalization is the process of increasing interconnectedness and interdependence among countries, economies, and cultures. It has transformed the world in various ways.

Economically, globalization has facilitated the flow of goods, services, and capital across borders. This has boosted economic growth and reduced poverty in many developing nations. However, it has also led to income inequality and job displacement in some regions.

Culturally, globalization has resulted in the spread of ideas, values, and cultural products worldwide. While this fosters cultural exchange and diversity, it also raises concerns about cultural homogenization.

Technologically, globalization has been driven by advances in communication and transportation. The internet and smartphones have connected people across the globe, allowing for rapid information dissemination and collaboration.

In conclusion, globalization is a complex phenomenon with both benefits and challenges. It has reshaped the world, bringing people closer together, but also highlighting the need for responsible governance and policies to address its downsides.

Also Read: Essay on Unity in Diversity in 100 to 200 Words

Essay on Globalisation in 200 Words

Globalization, a multifaceted phenomenon, has reshaped the world over the past few decades. It involves the interconnectedness of economies, cultures, and societies across the globe. In this essay, we will briefly discuss its key aspects and impacts.

Economically, globalization has led to increased international trade and investment. It has allowed companies to expand operations globally, leading to economic growth in many countries. However, it has also resulted in income inequality and job displacement in some regions.

Culturally, globalization has facilitated the exchange of ideas, values, and traditions. This has led to a more diverse and interconnected world where cultures blend, but it can also challenge local traditions and languages.

Socially, globalization has improved access to information and technology. It has connected people across borders, enabling global activism and awareness of worldwide issues. Nonetheless, it has also created challenges like cybercrime and privacy concerns.

In conclusion, globalization is a double-edged sword. It offers economic opportunities, cultural exchange, and global connectivity, but it also brings about disparities, cultural tensions, and new global challenges. To navigate this complex landscape, the world must strive for responsible globalization that balances the interests of all stakeholders and promotes inclusivity and sustainability.

Related Articles

The movement of goods, technologies, information, and jobs between countries is referred to as globalisation. 

Globalization as a phenomenon began with the earliest human migratory routes, or with Genghis Khan’s invasions, or travel across the Silk Road.

Globalisation allows wealthy nations to access cheaper labour and resources, while also providing opportunity for developing and underdeveloped nations with the jobs and investment capital they require.

For more information on such interesting topics, visit our essay-writing page and follow Leverage Edu ! 

Malvika Chawla

Malvika is a content writer cum news freak who comes with a strong background in Journalism and has worked with renowned news websites such as News 9 and The Financial Express to name a few. When not writing, she can be found bringing life to the canvasses by painting on them.

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• Globalisation Essay

Essay on Globalisation

Globalization means the integration of economies and societies through the flow of information, ideas, technology, goods, services, capital, finance, and people. The true meaning of Globalization in a broad sense is connecting in all areas of human life. It is the process by which other companies or organizations enhance their international reputation or start operating internationally. 

Globalization began thousands of years ago when people and companies bought and sold in distant lands. In the Middle Ages, Central Asia was connected to China and Europe via the famous Silk Road. After World War II and the last two decades, governments of many countries have adopted free-market economies. They have greatly increased their own production potential and created countless new opportunities for international trade and investment. New routes and means to transport goods have been discovered, which has allowed the people to expand their business easily and efficiently. 

The government has reduced all trade barriers and concluded new international agreements to promote trade in goods, services and investment. This profitable action has created opportunities for international trade. In foreign markets, companies with these new opportunities set up new factories and establish production and marketing relationships with foreign partners. Hence, Globalization is defined as an international industrial and financial enterprise.

Overview of Globalization

Globalization means the assimilation of economics and societies through the flow of information, ideas, technologies, goods, services, capital, finance, and people. The real meaning of Globalization in a broad sense is connectivity in all aspects of human life. It is the process where the businesses or other organizations expand international authority or start operating on an international scale.

How the Existence of Globalization Came Into Being?

Globalization had started many thousands of years ago when people and corporations were buying and selling across lands at great distances. In the middle age, Central Asia connected with China and Europe through the famed Silk Road. After the Second World War II and during the last two decades, the governments of many countries have adopted free-market economic systems. They increased their own productive potential immensely and created innumerable new opportunities for international trade and investment.

The governments have reduced all barriers to commerce and established new international agreements to promote trade in goods, services and investments. These beneficial measures gave rise to opportunities for global trade. With these new opportunities in the foreign markets, corporations established new factories and started production and marketing alliances with foreign partners. Hence, Globalization is defined as an international industrial and financial business structure.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The frontiers of the state with increased confidence in the market economy and renewed policies in the private capital and resources, a process of structural adjustment spurred by the studies and with the support of the World Bank and other international organizations have started in many of the developing countries. Globalization has also brought in new opportunities to developing countries. Greater access to developed country markets and technology transfer has promised to improve their productivity and higher standards. 

At the same time, Globalization has also created challenges like growing inequality across and within nations, instability in the financial market and environmental deterioration. Globalization is a fascinating exhibition that can be understood as a global system of competition and connectivity. It has created tough competition among countries and global corporations.

Impact of Globalization in India

The British Colonial rule had destroyed the self-sufficient economy of India and left India to be the poorest Independent country. Our first Prime Minister gave preference to a mixed economy to boost the economic condition of the country. Public sectors were set up along with the private enterprises, but because of the socialistic model of the economy, the new strategy did not produce profitable results. Due to this, a number of public sectors became sick and the growth rates of production began to fall. 

During that time, the poverty of the people in India was increasing at an alarming rate and because of low domestic savings and acute balance of payment crisis, there was no adequate capital for investment. During that time of crisis, Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao introduced the policy of liberalization, privatization to overcome the financial situation. 

India opened up to Globalization after the economic policy of 1991 came into force. Mounting debts and pressure from the International Monetary Fund drove the nation to go global. The process of Globalization has been an integral part of the recent economic growth of India. Globalization has played a very significant role in the growth of export, leading to the expansion of the job market in India. One of the major sectors of Globalization in India has been in the growth of outsourced IT and Business Process Outsourcing services. There has been an incredible increase in the number of skilled professionals in India employed by domestic and foreign companies to cater service to the customers globally, especially in the USA and Europe. 

There was not a doubt that Globalization in India brought a monumental change in the living standards of the people. People in India realized many benefits from Globalization. The establishment of multinational companies generating billions of jobs and access to umpteen numbers of brands and an increase in the forex reserves of the country took India to a higher platform globally. Despite this monumental change in the economy of the country, India also faced the challenges of severe competition from the foreign market and the domestic producers started fearing marginalization and pulverization because of the better quality products produced by the foreign producers.

Globalization had both desirable and undesirable consequences for India and the world. Even though it has accelerated progress in some countries, it has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor.

The impact of Globalization has been both positive and negative on the entire world, but we can surely hope for more advancement in the global economy due to this process.

FAQs on Globalisation Essay

1. How Did Globalization Help India to Improve the Economic Conditions?

Globalization generated umpteen employment opportunities for the people of India by establishing multinational companies. The policy of liberalization and privatization invited foreign traders to do business with India. This has increased the inflow of men, money, material, labor, technology, etc., from foreign countries to India. People have access to foreign brands and the living standards have improved drastically.

2. How is Globalization a Threat to Domestic Producers?

The domestic producers fear marginalization and pulverization because of the entry of foreign and better quality products.

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Globalization?

With increasing confidence in market economies and new policies on private capital and resources, many developing countries are beginning to adapt to developments with the support of the World Bank and other international institutions involved in research and development. Globalization also offers new opportunities for developing countries. Greater access to markets in developed countries and the transfer of technology will increase their productivity and demand.

At the same time, Globalization has created challenges such as increasing inequality between and within countries, instability of financial markets and environmental degradation. Globalization is an interesting exhibition that can also be seen as a system of competition and international relations. This has created intense competition between countries and international companies. 

4. What do you mean by Globalization?

Globalization means the integration of economies and societies through the flow of information, ideas, technology, goods, services, capital, finance, and people. The true meaning of Globalization in a broad sense is a connectedness in all areas of human life. It is the process by which other companies or organizations enhance their international reputation or start operating internationally. Globalization has its own benefits and drawbacks. We can learn more about Globalization and how to write an essay on it in detail on the Vedantu website, which has all the necessary materials that students need in order to write an essay on Globalization. 

5. How can Globalization help India improve its economic situation?

In our present times, Globalization has been a boon to many people as it not only allows companies to expand their business but also makes things accessible for everyone. In a simple sense, we can say that it helps in connecting people with the world. Globalization has created many job opportunities in India through the creation of multinational companies. Policies of liberalization and privatization have encouraged foreign traders to trade with India. This has increased the number of people, money, materials, labor, technology and so on—inflows from abroad to India. People have access to foreign brands and the standard of living has improved significantly.

6. How does Globalization threaten domestic producers?

Domestic producers are afraid of marginalization and due to the entry of foreign and better quality products into the market. Globalization can be associated with increasing income and wealth inequality. Many of the world's poorest people lack access to basic technologies and public goods. They are excluded from treatment. Some critics of globalization point to the loss of economic and cultural diversity as international multinational giants and brands dominate domestic markets in many countries. Globalization can hinder competition if international companies with dominant brands and high technology gain a foothold in key markets, be it telecommunications, the automotive industry, and so on.

7. What are the main industries that have grown tremendously because of Globalization?

The integration of national economies into the global economy is one of the most important developments of the last century. This process of integration, often referred to as Globalization, has manifested itself in a tremendous increase in cross-border trade.

The outsourcing business has grown exponentially due to Globalization. The main industries resulting from Globalization are trade and commerce. Automobile companies, clothing manufacturers and transportation, are the three main industries taken over as a result of Globalization.

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Globalisation and Inequality (Revision Essay Plan)

Last updated 1 May 2018

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Here is an answer to the following question: "Evaluate the extent to which globalisation inevitably leads to a rise in income inequality in one or more countries of your choice."

Essay On Globalisation And Inequality (Download a pdf version of this essay)

Globalisation is a process through which countries, businesses and people become more inter-connected and inter-dependent via an increase in trade in goods and services, cross-border investment and labour migration from one nation to another. Income and wealth inequality can be measured in various ways including the Gini coefficient and the Palma Ratio. The latter is a good indicator of the depth of inequality since it tracks incomes flowing to the top ten percent of households and divides by the incomes for the bottom forty percent. In South Africa, that figure is 7.1 whereas for Germany the Palma Ratio is just over 3.

One way globalisation can increase inequality is through the effects of increasing specialisation and trade. A rise in trade-to-GDP ratios signifies an increase in the volume and value of trade between countries and regions. Although trade based on comparative advantage has the potential to stimulate economic growth and lift per capita incomes, it can also lead to a rise in relative poverty. For example, if a country can now import cheaper steel from elsewhere, then there will be a contraction in domestic supply and a fall in employment and real incomes in that industry. This can lead to higher rates of structural unemployment and a decline in real living standards. Real wages come under downward pressure and inequality can increase. We see this in regions of the UK for example where de-industrialisation has taken place leading to much higher rates of long-term unemployment and a worsening of economic and social deprivation. In the United States, the share of national income claimed by the top 1% of the population climbed from 11% in 1980 to 20% in 2014, compared to just 13% for the entire bottom half of the population. 

However, one could argue that the benefits of globalisation can be used to offset this. If trade generates faster GDP growth, then the government will see an increase in tax revenues which might then be used to fund capital investment in public goods and merit goods and services including finance for re-training programmes and improvements to infrastructure in economically-depressed areas. Much depends on whether a government has sufficient resources and political will to implement an active regional and industrial policy to improve employment prospects for those negatively affected by globalisation.

Globalisation might also increase inequality because it usually leads to higher profits for multinational corporations such as Apple, Google and Facebook which feed into generous pay-outs for senior executives and increasing dividends for shareholders. Multinationals matter - they generate 10 percent of the world’s annual GDP and more than 50 percent of the value of world trade. One of the hot political and economic issues of the age has been the ability of businesses operating in more than one country (a transitional company) to use shadow pricing and other forms of legal tax avoidance to reduce their liability to pay tax and thereby increase the return to those with an equity stake. Because of tax avoidance, national governments do not generate the revenues needed to pay for public services and welfare systems - both of which can have a progressive effect on the final distribution of income. The UK government has estimated that, in 2017, multinational businesses managed to avoid paying nearly £6 billion in tax revenues. Oxfam estimates that tax avoidance costs developing countries $170 billion a year whereas $100 billion could provide an education for 124 million children and pay for healthcare services that could prevent the deaths of at least six million children annually.

In evaluation, there are steps that governments can take to increase their tax take. This can range from introducing country-by-country financial reporting so that it becomes clearer where the profits are being made, to introducing restrictions on interest rates charges from one subsidiary of a TNC to another. There are also moves to reduce the amount of intra-company loans made by TNCs which can shift profits to countries with lower corporation tax. In the US, they have introduced a one-off tax on the off-shore cash held by US businesses after it was found that US companies had built up almost $2.6tn in untaxed cash held offshore. Developing countries can also improve their governance so that multi-nationals investing pay a proper rent for the ownership of land and are less vulnerable to corruption from elected officials.

A third way in which globalisation can create increased inequality is by increasing the demand for and returns to higher-skilled work and lowering the expected earnings of people in relatively low-skill and low-knowledge occupations. One of the driving forces of foreign direct investment is that resources tend to flow where the unit cost of production is lowest. This is the case with light manufacturing for example where a lot of investment is flowing to countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Indonesia. FDI creates more formal employment and incomes for people employed in these sectors but perhaps at the expense of similar workers in higher-income countries whose skills are no longer in such demand. They are therefore at greater risk of unemployment and persistent relative poverty; many have been pushed into poorly paid jobs in services linked to the Gig Economy. People affected often feel that they have been left behind by the forces of globalisation and their votes may have been a factor behind the Brexit outcome and the election of Trump who has adopted a “protectionist approach” to trade policy since becoming President.

That said, it could be argued that it is technological progress – which has raised demand for skilled workers relative to unskilled workers – rather than trade and globalisation which has had most impact on these workers. Often the people who lose jobs as a result of technology are not the ones who get the new ones and the result can be hysteresis in the labour market with deep pockets of long-term unemployment and hit relative poverty. Automation threatens many jobs - ranging from fork-lift drivers to workers in farming and production lines. The onus is on government to implement and fund the right supply-side policies designed to improve the human capital of people affected including lifting investment in human capital and entrepreneurship.

Final reasoned comment

In conclusion, it is not inevitable that globalisation increases inequality of income and wealth. We have seen big changes in the workforce and in earnings between different groups but in my view, these are not solely the consequence of globalisation. One paradox of globalisation is that it has probably reduced inequality between countries but increased it within nations. What matters is how governments respond to the challenge of improving access to knowledge and skills and in making sure that the benefits from cross-border trade and investment provide enough tax revenues to pay for high quality and affordable public services. In this way, more of the positives from globalisation can be turned into a ‘public good’ rather than a ‘public bad’.

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4 Effects of Globalization on the Environment

• 15 Apr 2021

Globalization —defined in the online course Global Business as the increased flow of goods, services, capital, people, and ideas across international boundaries—has brought many changes in its wake.

While globalization can positively and negatively impact society, its effect on the environment is primarily negative. Here’s a breakdown of how globalization impacts society and the environment and what business leaders can do to reduce these negative consequences.

How Does Globalization Affect Society?

The world has become more connected than ever before through the increase in technological advancements and economic integrations. Advanced economies are formed as domestic businesses transform into international ones and further contribute to the spread of technology around the world.

There are several benefits of globalization , such as increased international trade and cooperation and less international aggression. Social globalization —the sharing of ideas and information between countries—has led to innovation in the medical, technological, and environmental preservation industries.

Additionally, globalization has improved the quality of life in several developing nations. This includes implementing efficient transportation systems and ensuring accessibility to services such as education and healthcare.

However, globalization can also have negative effects on society, such as increased income inequality and substandard working conditions in developing countries that produce goods for wealthier nations. Income inequality is directly related to globalization as it further increases the gap between more advanced and developing areas of a nation. As a result, it can also increase the risk of societal violence.

Along with its societal effects, globalization has a lasting impact on the environment—and typically not a positive one.

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What Are the Effects of Globalization on the Environment?

1. Increased Transport of Goods

One of the primary results of globalization is that it opens businesses up to new markets in which they can sell goods and source labor, raw materials, and components.

Both of these realities mean finished products travel farther now than ever before—potentially halfway around the globe. In the past, products were more likely to be produced, sold, and consumed locally. This increased transport of goods can impact the environment in several ways, including:

• Increased emissions: The farther a product travels, the more fuel is consumed, and a greater level of greenhouse gas emissions is produced. According to a report by the International Transport Forum , CO2 emissions from transport will increase 16 percent by 2050. These emissions contribute to pollution, climate change , and ocean acidification around the world and have been shown to significantly impact biodiversity.
• Habitat destruction: Transportation—especially when land-based—requires infrastructure like roads and bridges. The development of such infrastructure can lead to issues including habitat loss and pollution. The more ships that travel by sea, the greater the chances for major oil spills or leaks that damage the delicate marine environment.
• Invasive species: Every shipping container and vessel presents an opportunity for a living organism—from plants to animals to fungus—to hitch a ride to a new location where it can become invasive and grow without checks and balances that might be present in its natural environment.

2. Economic Specialization

One often-overlooked side effect of globalization is that it allows nations and geographical regions to focus on their economic strengths while relying on trading partners for goods they don’t produce themselves. This economic specialization often boosts productivity and efficiency.

Unfortunately, overspecialization can threaten forest health and lead to serious environmental issues, often in the form of habitat loss, deforestation, or natural resource overuse. A few examples include:

• Illegal deforestation in Brazil due to an increase in the country’s cattle ranching operations, which requires significant land for grazing
• Overfishing in coastal areas that include Southeast Asia, which has significantly contributed to reduced fish populations and oceanic pollution
• Overdependence on cash crops, such as coffee, cacao, and various fruits, which has contributed to habitat loss, especially in tropical climates

It’s worth considering that globalization has allowed some nations to specialize in producing various energy commodities, such as oil, natural gas, and timber. Nations that depend on energy sales to fund a large portion of their national budgets, along with those that note “energy security” as a priority, are more likely to take intervening actions in the market in the form of subsidies or laws that make transitioning to renewable energy more difficult.

The main byproduct of these energy sources comes in the form of greenhouse gas emissions, which significantly contribute to global warming and climate change.

3. Decreased Biodiversity

Increased greenhouse gas emissions, ocean acidification, deforestation (and other forms of habitat loss or destruction), climate change, and the introduction of invasive species all work to reduce biodiversity around the globe.

According to the World Wildlife Fund’s recent Living Planet Report , the population sizes of all organisms—including mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles—have decreased 68 percent since 1970. Latin America and Africa—two rapidly developing regions important to global trade—have seen disproportionate levels of biodiversity loss, especially among environmentally sensitive fish, reptiles, and amphibians.

While this decrease in biodiversity has many causes, it’s widely believed that the issues listed above have contributed in part.

4. Increased Awareness

While many of globalization’s environmental effects have been negative, its increase has heightened environmental awareness worldwide.

Greater connectivity and higher rates of international travel have made it easier than ever for individuals to see the effects of deforestation, habitat loss, and climate change on the environment. This, in turn, has contributed to new laws, regulations, and processes that limit negative effects.

Globalization as a Threat and an Opportunity

Globalization has allowed society to enjoy many benefits, including increased global cooperation, reduced risk of global conflict, and lower prices for goods and commodities. Unfortunately, it’s also led to serious negative effects on the environment.

Since it isn’t feasible for globalization to end or reverse, it’s likely the situation will worsen until nations, governing bodies, and other organizations are compelled to implement laws and regulations that limit negative effects.

Businesses and industries that operate globally have an incentive to take whatever voluntary actions they can to reduce the potential for negative consequences. Doing so can not only provide an organization greater control over its initiatives, but also a powerful marketing and communication tool .

Some ways businesses address climate change include:

• Transitioning to renewable energy sources
• Choosing greener infrastructures or equipment
• Reducing energy consumption
• Creating credible climate transition plans
• Raising awareness among employees

In addition, investing in renewable energy and packaging, embracing responsible land-use management, and shifting goods production to move closer to the end customer are all viable options that businesses can and should consider. The challenge lies in balancing a desire to embrace corporate social responsibility with the need to turn a profit and run a successful business.

Are you interested in breaking into a global market? Sharpen your knowledge of the international business world with our four-week Global Business course. In addition, explore our Business and Climate Change course to help your organization adapt to and embrace business risks and opportunities created by climate change, as well as our other online courses related to business in society .

This post was updated on February 28, 2024. It was originally published on April 15, 2021.

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• Essay On Globalisation

Globalisation Essay

500+ words essay on globalisation.

Globalisation can be defined as a process of integration of the Indian economy with the world economy. Globalisation has been taking place for the past hundred years, but it has sped up enormously over the last half-century. It has increased the production and exchange of goods and services. Globalisation is a positive outcome of privatisation and liberalisation. Globalisation is primarily an economic process of interaction and integration associated with social and cultural aspects. It is said to be an outcome of different policies to transform the world towards greater interdependence and integration. To explain, in other words, Globalisation is a concept or method of interaction and union among people, corporations, and governments universally.

The top five types of globalisation are:

1. Cultural globalisation

2. Economic globalisation

3. Technological globalisation

4. Political globalisation

5. Financial globalisation

Impact of Globalisation on the Indian Economy

After urbanisation and globalisation, we can witness a drastic change in the Indian economy. The government-administered and established economic policies are imperative in planning income, investment, savings, and employment. These economic policies directly influence while framing the basic outline of the Indian economy.

Indian society is critically impacted by cross-culture due to globalisation, and it brought changes in different aspects of the country in terms of political, cultural, economic and social.

However, the main factor is economic unification which contributes maximum to a country’s economy into an international economy.

Advantages of Globalisation

Labour access: Due to globalisation, nations can now access a broader labour pool. If there is any shortage of knowledgeable workers in any developing nation, they can import labour from other countries. On the other hand, wealthier countries get an opportunity to outsource their low-skill work to developing nations with a low cost of living to reduce the cost of goods sold and move those savings to the customers.

High standard of living: After Globalisation, the Indian economy and the standard of living have increased. The change can be observed in the purchasing behaviour of an individual, especially those associated with foreign companies. Hence, most cities are upgraded with a better standard of living and business development.

Resource Access : The primary reason for trade is to gain access to the resources of other countries. It would have been impossible to produce or manufacture luxurious goods if the flow of resources across countries was not permissible—for example, Smartphones.

Impact of Globalisation

Globalisation in terms of economy is associated with the development of capitalism. The introduction of Globalisation has developed economic freedom and increased the living standard worldwide. It has also fastened up the process of offshoring and outsourcing. Due to outsourcing, transnational companies got an opportunity to exploit medium and small-sized enterprises intensively at a low price worldwide. As a kind of economic venture, outsourcing has increased, in recent times, because of the increase in quick methods of communication, especially the growth of information technology (IT).

Privatization of public utilities and goods, such as security, health, etc., are also impacted by Globalisation. Other goods, such as medicines or seeds, are considered economic goods and have been integrated into recent trade agreements.

This essay on Globalisation will help students to understand the concept more accurately. Students can also visit our BYJU’S website to get more CBSE Essays , question papers, sample papers, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions on Globalisation Essay

What are the benefits of globalisation.

Globalisation gives countries access to foreign cultures and technological innovation from more advanced countries. It provides improved living standards to people. The global exposure it gives has resulted in the emergence of new talent in multiple fields.

What are the main elements of globalisation?

Principle elements of globalisation are international trade, foreign investment, capital market flows, labour migration, and diffusion of technology.

What are the different types of globalisation?

Political, economic and cultural globalisation are the main types of globalisation.

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Current Trends in Global Higher Education and their Impact

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This paper provides an outline of the main trends in global higher education, considering how they impact tertiary institutions in general and our own professional positions and practices in particular.

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Principle 3 Essay

< Main ILO website

Introduction

Methods and data, 1.1. isco data on occupations and tasks, 1.2. prompt design and sequence, assessment of the predictions, robustness tests and the bounds for analysis, 3.1. automation vs augmentation: distribution of scores across tasks and occupations, exposed occupations as a share of employment: global and income-based estimates, 4.1. augmentation vs automation: ilo microdata, 4.2. augmentation vs automation: global estimate, 4.3. the big unknown, managing the transition: policies to address automation, augmentation and the growing digital divide, 5.1 mitigating the negative effects of automation, 5.2 ensuring job quality under augmentation, 5.3 addressing the digital divide, appendix 1. countries with missing isco-08 4-digit data: estimation procedure, acknowledgements and use of gpt.

See all ILO working papers

Generative AI and jobs: A global analysis of potential effects on job quantity and quality

(no footnote loaded)

Paweł Gmyrek

Janine Berg

David Bescond

This study presents a global analysis of the potential exposure of occupations and tasks to Generative AI, and specifically to Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPTs), and the possible implications of such exposure for job quantity and quality. It uses the GPT-4 model to estimate task-level scores of potential exposure and then estimates potential employment effects at the global level as well as by country income group. Despite representing an upper-bound estimate of exposure, we find that only the broad occupation of clerical work is highly exposed to the technology with 24 per cent of clerical tasks considered highly exposed and an additional 58 percent with medium-level exposure. For the other occupational groups, the greatest share of highly exposed tasks oscillates between 1 and 4 per cent, and medium exposed tasks do not exceed 25 per cent. As a result, the most important impact of the technology is likely to be of augmenting work – automating some tasks within an occupation while leaving time for other duties – as opposed to fully automating occupations.

The potential employment effects, whether augmenting or automating, vary widely across country income groups, due to different occupational structures. In low-income countries, only 0.4 per cent of total employment is potentially exposed to automation effects, whereas in high-income countries the share rises to 5.5 percent. The effects are highly gendered, with more than double the share of women potentially affected by automation. The greater impact is from augmentation, which has the potential to affect 10.4 percent of employment in low-income countries and 13.4 percent of employment in high-income countries. However, such effects do not consider infrastructure constraints, which will impede the possibility for use in lower-income countries and likely increase the productivity gap.

We stress that the primary value of this analysis is not the precise estimates, but rather the insights that the overall distribution of such scores provides about the nature of possible changes. Such insights can encourage governments and social partners to proactively design policies that support orderly, fair, and consultative transitions, rather than dealing with change in a reactive manner. Moreover, the likely ramifications on job quality might be of greater consequence than the quantitative impacts, both with respect to the new jobs created because of the technology, but also the potential effects on work intensity and autonomy when the technology is integrated into the workplace. For this reason, we also emphasize the need for social dialogue and regulation to support quality employment.

Each new wave of technological progress intensifies debates on automation and jobs. Current debates on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and jobs recall those of the early 1900s with the introduction of the moving assembly line, or even those of the 1950s and 1960s, which followed the introduction of the early mainframe computers. While there have been some nods to the alienation that technology can bring by standardizing and controlling work processes, in most cases, the debates have centred on two opposing viewpoints: the optimists, who view new technology as the means to relieve workers from the most arduous tasks, and the pessimists, who raise alarm about the imminent threat to jobs and the risk of mass unemployment.

What has changed in debates on technology and workers, however, is the types of workers affected. While the advances in technology in the early, mid and even late-1900s were primarily focused on manual workers, technological development since the 2010s, in particular the rapid progress of Machine Learning (ML), has centred on the ability of computers to perform non-routine, cognitive tasks, and by consequence potentially affect white-collar or knowledge workers. In addition, these technological advancements have occurred in the context of much stronger interconnectedness of economies across the globe, leading to a potentially larger exposure than location-based, factory-level applications. Yet despite these developments, to an average worker, even in the most highly developed countries, the potential implications of AI have, until recently, remained largely abstract.

The launch of ChatGPT marked an important advance in the public’s exposure to AI tools. In this new wave of technological transformation, machine learning models have started to leave the labs and begin interacting with the public, demonstrating their strengths and weaknesses in daily use. The chat function dramatically shortened the distance between AI and the end user, simultaneously providing a platform for a wide range of custom-made applications and innovations. Given these significant advancements, it is not surprising that concerns over potential job loss have resurged.

While it is impossible to predict how generative AI will further develop, the current capabilities and future potential of this technology are central to discussions of its impact on jobs. Sceptics tend to believe that these machines are nothing more than “stochastic parrots” – powerful text summarizers, incapable of “learning” and producing original content, with little future for general purpose use and unsustainable computing costs (Bender et al. 2021) . On the other hand, more recent technical literature focused on testing the limits of the latest models suggests an increasing capability to carry out “ novel and difficult tasks that span mathematics, coding, vision, medicine, law, psychology and more ”, and a general ability to produce responses exhibiting some forms of early “reasoning” (Bubeck et al. 2023) . Some assessments go as far as suggesting that machine learning models, especially those based on large neural networks used by Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT, see Text Box 1), might have the potential to eventually become a general-purpose technology (Goldfarb, Taska, and Teodoridis 2023; Eloundou et al. 2023) . 1 This would have multiplier effects on the economy and labour markets, as new products and services would likely spring from this technological platform.

As social scientists, we are not in position to take sides in these technical debates. Instead, we focus on the already demonstrated capabilities of GPT-4, including custom-made chatbots with retrieval of private content (such as collections documents, e-mails and other material), natural language processing functions of content extraction, preparation of summaries, automated content generation, semantic text searches and broader semantic analysis based on text embeddings. Large Language Models (LLMs) can also be combined with other ML models, such as speech-to-text and text-to-speech generation, potentially expanding their interaction with different types of human tasks. Finally, the potential of interacting with live web content through custom agents and plugins, as well as the multimodal (not exclusive to text, but also capable of reading and generating image) character of GPT-4 makes it likely that this type of technology will expand into new areas, thereby increasing its impact on labour.

Departing from these observations, this study seeks to add the global perspective to the already lively debate on possible changes that may result in the labour markets as a consequence of the recent advent of generative AI. We stress the focus of our work on the concepts of “exposure” and “potential”, which does not imply automation, but rather lists occupations and associated employment figures for jobs that are more likely to be affected by GPT-4 and similar technologies in the coming years. The objective of this exercise is not to derive headline figures, but rather to analyse the direction of possible changes in order to facilitate the design of appropriate policy responses, including the possible consequences on job quality.

The analysis is based on 4-digit occupational classifications and their corresponding tasks in the ISCO-08 standard. It uses the GPT-4 model to estimate occupational and task-level scores of exposure to GPT technology and subsequently links these scores to official ILO statistics to derive global employment estimates. We also apply embedding-based text analysis and semantic clustering algorithms to provide a better understanding of the types of tasks that have a high automation potential and discuss how the automating and augmenting effects will strongly depend on a range of additional factors and specific country context.

We discuss the results of this analysis in the broader context of labour market transformations. We put particular focus on the current disparities in digital access across countries of different income levels, the potential for this new wave of technological transformation to aggravate such disparities, and the ensuing consequences on productivity and income. We also give consideration to jobs with highest automation and augmentation potential and discuss gender-specific differences. The analysis does not take into account the new jobs that will be created to accompany the technological advancement. Twenty years ago, there were no social media managers, thirty years ago there were few web designers, and no amount of data modelling would have rendered a priori predictions concerning a vast array of other occupations that have emerged in the past decades. As demonstrated by Autor et al. (2022), some 60 per cent of employment in 2018 in the United States was in jobs that did not exist in the 1940s.

Indeed, the main value of studies such as this one is not in the precise estimates, but rather in understanding the possible direction of change. Such insights are necessary for proactively designing policies that can support orderly, fair, and consultative transitions, rather than dealing with change in a reactive manner. For this reason, we also emphasize the potential effects of technological change on working conditions and job quality and the need for workplace consultation and regulation to support the creation of quality employment and to manage transitions in the labour market.

We hope that this research will contribute to needed policy debates on digital transformation in the world of work. While the analysis outlines potential implications for different occupational categories, the outcomes of the technological transition are not pre-determined. It is humans that are behind the decision to incorporate such technologies and it is humans that need to guide the transition process. It is our hope that this information can support the development of policies needed to manage these changes for the benefit of current and future societies. We intend to use this broad global study as an opening to more in-depth analyses at country level, with a particular focus on developing countries.

Text Box 1: What are GPTs?

There are two principal approaches to the analysis of automation of occupations (Georgieff and Hyee 2021) . The first is to use data on job vacancies to understand how demand for specific skills evolves over time. Most studies using this approach harness data from online recruitment platforms (Cammeraat and Squicciarini 2021; Acemoglu et al. 2022) to measure the frequency of references to AI (or to any other technology of interest) in the text of the job description. These references are then used as a proxy for the demand for specific skills and, by its extension, a proxy for the rate of technological adoption at the enterprise level. This approach works well in countries with a high online presence in recruitment, though it does not always capture the industries affected as a result of subcontracting. The approach, however, is less well suited for a global study covering countries with less online presence, as most vacancies are not advertised on online platforms but recruited through other means of communication (Georgieff and Hyee 2021) .

The second approach is to focus on occupational structures, with the idea of estimating the automation potential of tasks or skills that make up a given job. The advantage of this method is that such occupational classifications can easily be linked to official labour market statistics, which is of particular importance for understanding global, regional and income-based differentials. This strand of literature is rich, but frequently misunderstood, especially when it comes to communicating its findings to the public, as media interpretations tend to blur the distinction between automation potential and actual deployment in the workplace. For example, Frey and Osborne’s (2013, 2017) influential study has been cited over 12,000 times, often for different types of doomsday pronouncements, even though the authors were clear about the distinction between potential and predicted effects. A range of studies follow this research tradition, attempting to calculate different types of occupational automation scores in OECD countries (Brynjolfsson, Mitchell, and Rock 2018; Felten, Raj, and Seamans 2018; Felten, Raj, and Seamans 2019; Acemoglu and Restrepo 2020; Fossen and Sorgner 2022) or even combining occupational and job posting data (Georgieff and Hyee 2021) . Some authors have also taken up the challenge of producing better estimates for developing countries (Balliester and Elsheikhi 2018), often by trying to link detailed occupational data and automation scores from the US with less structured datasets available for lower-income countries (Aly 2020; Carbonero et al. 2023).

Calculating occupational scores typically involves development of a rubric, which defines a scoring method based on pre-established criteria to capture possible impacts from the technology of interest. The rubric is then applied to occupations or occupational tasks, to generate task- or occupation-specific scores. One of the challenges of this approach emerges in covering a wide range of technologies. While some tasks could be very well suited for automation with a particular type of AI (for example, routine non-cognitive tasks in a factory setting), the same technology could be completely useless in other areas that require cognitive abilities. Attempting to cover the wide range of systems that currently fall into the AI category would require squeezing the assessments into one matrix of overall technological capabilities.

In this study, we focus exclusively on LLMs with similar capabilities as the latest GPT models. We build upon the method recently demonstrated by Eloundou et al. (2023) , and replicated by Eisfeldt et al. (2023) , which relies on the use of sequential API calls to GPT-4 model for the purpose of estimating task and occupational-level automation scores concerning this particular technology. We observe that their study demonstrates an astonishing proximity of GPT-4 predictions to the judgements made by a group of AI experts (albeit with a hard-to-determine level of possible bias on the human side). Applying a similar approach to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) , we conduct some 25,000 high frequency API calls, fine-tuned at the level of occupational definitions, job titles, tasks and country income classifications. We combine the resulting score matrix with what has long been the comparative advantage of the International Labour Organization (ILO): the ability to translate expert knowledge about occupations into global, regional and country-level employment estimates.

The current ISCO-08 relies on a hierarchical structure, reflected in a system of digits. The highest 1-digit level covers 10 different types of occupational groups that can be further broken down into lower-level sub-groups, each time represented by an increasing number of digits. The most detailed, 4-digit level captures 436 occupations (See Table 1).

While the publicly available ILO statistics are at the 2-digit ISCO-08 level, the ILO holds a wealth of additional information from labour force surveys (LFS) and other national surveys in the ILO Harmonized Microdata collection. Its statistical repository contains microdata on employment at the 4-digit ISCO level for some 73 countries, and 3-digit employment data for over 117 countries. This gives us access to a sizeable repository of harmonized survey data that can be used to analyse labour market information in a wide range of countries, including the detailed distributions of employment across occupations. The internal processing of LFS data also captures additional parameters of interest, such as variations in job titles that belong to each ISCO 4-digit category across different countries. As of 2023, there are some 7,500 jobs titles mapped to ISCO at 4-digits, which we also use as a robustness test for our analysis (see Section 3).

Table 1. ISCO-08 Structure of occupations and tasks used in the study

To build the principal data frame of tasks and occupations, we use as our foundation Part III of the official ISCO-08 documentation, which provides detailed definition and description of tasks for each of the 436 ISCO-08 4-digit occupations (ILO 2023b) . These tasks are devised with a global perspective and used to describe similar occupations that can be identified in LFS, other household surveys and censuses, and other non-statistical sources, such as data derived from administrative records. This means that they are designed to provide a common denominator for the variability of tasks under a given occupation. The number of ISCO-08 tasks assigned to each occupation can vary anywhere from 4 to 14. The data frame with a full list of ISCO-08 occupations and tasks constitutes the starting point of our estimations.

We develop a Python script that uses the OpenAI library to loop over the ISCO-08 task structure and conduct a series of sequential API calls to the GPT-4 model, using a range of prompts that we fine-tune for specific queries. Before predicting task-level scores, we run several initial tests of the GPT-4 model on the overall ISCO dataset, to determine its capacity for processing detailed occupational information. As a first step, we use the GPT-4 model to generate an international definition for each of the ISCO 4-digit codes, and to mark the level of skills required for each job, according to the same classification as used in ISCO-08 (1 for low level skills, 4 for the highest). We design the first GPT-4 API prompt, as follows: 2

{“role”: “system”, “content”: “You are a skills specialist 3 . You will provide job definitions based on a job title and ISCO code. Follow instructions closely.”},

{“role”: “user”, “content”: “Look at this ISCO code and job title and provide an international standard definition of this job: ” + “Do not provide any other content, just the definition of some 100 words that describes what the job is about and which level of ISCO skills it requires (1-4).” + “ISCO code: ” + str(ISCO_08) + “Job Title: ” + str(Title)}

By comparing the result with official ISCO-08 definitions, we examine the model’s “understanding” of the ISCO-08 structure. We observe that the generated definitions are largely consistent with ISCO-08 and often contain more detailed information, which could potentially be a helpful feature in complementing some of the definitions so far created by humans specialized in this domain.

As the next step, we move our tests to the level of tasks. It is likely that the training data of GPT-4 included publicly available information from the O*NET occupations and their corresponding tasks, as well as the European Skills, Competencies and Occupations (ESCO) and ISCO occupational classifications at the 4-digit level, as the model demonstrates familiarity with the details of these different systems. Yet beyond simply reciting the content of these databases, GPT-4 seems able to engage in more complex exchanges and develop logical links between different types of occupational classifications and tasks – a surprising and useful ability that has been documented in other domains of application (Bubeck et al. 2023) . 4

We therefore adjust the prompt and request GPT-4 to generate a set of 10 typical tasks for each of the 436 ISCO-08 4-digit occupations, which we append to the main data frame alongside the official ISCO-08 tasks and definitions. Generating a uniform set of tasks across all occupations provides some analytical benefits. First, considering that GPT-4 has detailed ISCO-08 information already in its training data, the ten-task requirement helps to avoid a situation where the responses simply mirror what GPT-4 already knows about ISCO-08, but rather pushes the model to provide its “own” perception of tasks that belong to each occupation. Second, in the next step of prediction, a uniform set of tasks allows us to compute mean occupational automation scores based on a more statistically balanced list across all ISCO-08 occupations and compare the result to scores based on a varied number of tasks per occupation in the official ISCO-08 documentation.

Table 2. Sample of tasks and definitions from ISCO and predicted by GPT-4

Table 3. Sample of task-level scores (high-income country context)

As the final step in the data generation process, we run another set of sequential API calls at the level of individual tasks. We request GPT-4 to generate a score between 0 and 1, representing potential automation with GPT-based technology for each task in the ISCO task collection and in the GPT-generated set of tasks. We provide the occupation’s ISCO 4-digit code, specify whether the job is located in a high-income or a low-income country and ask the model to justify its decision. After several rounds of fine-tuning, we settled on the following prompt:

{“role”: “system”, “content”: “You are a skills and AI specialist. ” + “You will provide a score of potential automation with GPT technology for a given task. Follow instructions closely.”},

{“role”: “user”, “content”: “Look at this job task: ” + str(Tasks_GPT) + “It is related to ISCO code: ” + str(ISCO_08) + “Provide a score of potential automation of this task with GPT technology, given that the job is located in a high[low] income country: ” + “The score should range 0-1. Provide a score in one line, and a justification in next line. Do not provide any other commentary, only the score and justification. ” + “Do not give any ranges just one score for each task.”}

This exercise results in an ISCO-08 4-digit level data frame, with automation scores predicted for each ISCO-08 tasks and for GPT-predicted tasks, with separate scores for low- and high-income countries. Each of the task-level scores is accompanied with a short justification generated by GPT-4. Table 3 shows the results for primary school teachers (ISCO-08 2341) in a high-income country.

We approach our predicted task-level scores with scepticism. However, following a manual review, at a large scale of 3,123 tasks across all ISCO-08 occupations, we find no evidence of bias in one direction: highly automatable tasks such as typing consistently get a high score (above 0.7), whereas tasks requiring manual dexterity consistently get low scores. Moreover, GPT-4 provides a reasonable written explanation of differences across the scores attributed to similar categories (Table 3).

We conduct an additional test of scoring consistency across tasks (whether the model predicts similar level of scores for different types of tasks across multiple runs, based on the same input) and score variability at task level (the range of scores predicted for the same task across multiple runs, based on the same input) by making 100 predictions for 5 tasks randomly selected from all tasks on ISCO-08 list. We then calculate the mean score and standard deviation (SD) for each of the tasks, as shown in Table 4. The scores are highly consistent across different types of tasks, with SDs not exceeding 0.05. This is likely because the random element in scoring is lower than what it would be in the case of scoring by human respondents, who typically struggle with score uncertainty (e.g. whether a score of 0.2 would be more adequate than 0.15 or 0.25) and tend to have greater variability of opinions.

Table 4. Test of score consistency (100 task-level predictions)

As a parallel robustness test, we use a slightly modified prompt to generate occupational-level scores for over 7,500 job titles that can be found in different national labour force surveys, and which aggregate to the 436 ISCO 4-digit occupations. These jobs do not have detailed tasks, but a comparison of occupation level scores with the mean occupational scores generated based on detailed tasks reveals a proximity across the board. In other words, whether we rely on individual tasks that aggregate to occupations or a much larger pool of job titles to generate predictions, GPT-4 is consistent in the way it scores automation potential.

This obviously has to do with its training data, both in terms of originally ingested textual sources and further human-based fine-tuning of the model. Given the similarity of GPT-4 scores with human-based scoring by AI experts on task-level questions, demonstrated in Eloundou et al. (2023), we believe that our exercise is likely to be estimating the upper bound of the exposure to GPT. This is explained by multiple reasons.

First, as recently shown by Karger et al. (2023) , tech experts tend to overstate technological capacities and risks in questions concerning broader applications. We believe this is also likely to be true when it comes to full-scale deployment of GPT technology at the workplace, in particular at a level that would allow for full elimination of the human component. This is well illustrated in earlier automation studies, which often assigned high scores of displacement potential to routine tasks and even entire occupations, including in garment production. In practice, however, the work continues to be performed by humans due to the challenges of handling highly pliable fabrics and the complexity of skills and dexterity involved in the stitching process (de Mattos et al. 2020) . Because of GPT’s tech-oriented training data and trainers’ profiles, as well as the literature on automation that most certainly was part of its training data, GPT is likely to reflect techno-optimism and overstate some task-level scores. GPT-generated scores also do not account for job-level task variation, which can lower occupational-level scores (Arntz et al., 2017) . Second, our prompts to GPT focus on technical feasibility and ignore important determinants of technological diffusion, including the feasibility of adoption in a given environment which is dependent on constraints such as access to electricity and internet in countries with lower income, or local market dynamics, such as relative cost of labour to technology, level of digital literacy or access to finance. Third, despite having generated score predictions from prompts specifying whether the job is in a low- or a high-income country, we find that the difference between the two is too small to justify the use of both datasets. Therefore, for purposes of this initial analysis, we use the high-income country scores, with the understanding that the this further contributes to estimating the upper bound of global exposure, since technological deployment faces additional barriers in lower-income countries. Nevertheless, this theoretical approximation facilitates an initial global picture of the potential impact on occupations across the globe, for which more detailed and contextualized studies will be needed.

Since the tasks in ISCO-08 documentation and those generated by GPT-4 do not correspond directly, we cannot compare the values of automation scores at the individual task level in the two data sets. Instead, we focus on the occupation level and examine the similarity of the occupational scores, calculated as an arithmetic mean of the task-level scores for each ISCO-08 4-digit occupation. We find that, in general, scores based on tasks previously generated by GPT tend to be higher than those attributed to tasks coming directly from ISCO-08. We attribute this differential to the more refined character of ISCO-08 tasks, as opposed to the some of the more generic tasks generated by GPT. In other words, confronted with a higher complexity of tasks captured in the ISCO-08 documentation, GPT-4 seems to attribute lower automation scores, when compared to its own collection of tasks, for which it tends to be more generous with automation potential. We treat the scores related to ISCO-08 tasks as the basis for further analysis, since they are directly linked to an international standard and associated ILO employment statistics.

Since ISCO-08 documentation does not provide any tasks for the first major group of “Armed Forces Occupations”, we use GPT-predicted tasks and scores to include this category in further analysis. In addition, ISCO-08 does not provide tasks for occupations with codes 1439 (Services Managers Not Elsewhere Classified), 3139 (Process Control Technicians Not Elsewhere Classified), 3435 (Other Artistic and Cultural Associate Professionals), 5249 (Sales Workers Not Elsewhere Classified), 7319 (Handicraft Workers Not Elsewhere Classified) and 8189 (Stationary Plant and Machine Operators Not Elsewhere Classified), which also explains the missing points on ISCO-08 tasks in Figure 1 in the following section. As the catch-all character of these few occupations does not permit the assignation of specific tasks, we drop them from the final analysis.

Finally, a classic challenge in analysing occupational tasks concerns attributing the share of time needed to execute the individual tasks in a given occupation (Carbonero et al. 2023) . Time distribution likely varies in different country contexts, but unfortunately, the labour force and other survey data do not provide enough information to make country-level distinctions. The problem of attributing time weights across task-level scores is not exclusive to our attempts and typically appears in the construction of composite indicators related to technology and occupations (e.g. Autor and Dorn 2013; Brynjolfsson, Mitchell, and Rock 2018) . One of the reasons why many studies on automation focus on the USA is that the level of detail in the O*NET data facilitates such estimations. For our case, we opt for the most straightforward solution especially given the global focus, which is to apply equal weights to each task-level sub-component or each occupation.

To further address any potential score imprecision, we establish generous margins for classifications in the calculations that follow, focusing on the extremes of the scoring scale, and interpret most results at a higher level of aggregate ISCO-08 1-digit categories.

Given the range of the estimated index (0-1), we consider scores below 0.25 as representing very low exposure and those between 0.25 and 0.5 as low exposure. Medium exposure is captured in scores with the range of 0.5-0.75, while tasks with scores above 0.75 are considered as highly exposed. The same cut-off points are applied to the occupation-level scores, calculated as a mean score of the tasks that belong to each occupation.

Figure 1 presents the breakdown, with the two upper limits of exposure marked with horizontal lines: 0.5 for medium exposure and 0.75 for high exposure. The grey area between the dotted lines represents the distance between the scores for each occupation based on ISCO-08 and GPT-predicted tasks. This illustration reveals a consistency among the scoring based on ISCO-08 and GPT-generated tasks, with highest exposure found amongst clerical support workers, followed by technicians and associate professionals, and by professionals. While these occupations have no official common category, they are broadly associated with “knowledge work” (Berg and Gmyrek 2023) .

Figure 1. Mean automation scores by occupation, based on ISCO and GPT tasks

In addition, the broad category of managers, which for the most part falls underneath the 0.5 cut-off, nonetheless approximates the line of medium exposure. The results for service and sales workers are more mixed, with some occupations surpassing the threshold but most others falling below. Plant and machine operators and assemblers, elementary occupations, craft and related trades workers and skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers have more limited exposure.

What drives these results? To answer this question, we apply machine learning techniques to the analysis of ISCO-08 tasks that have been classified as having a high level of exposure. First, we group and sort all tasks with the highest exposure scores and use the OpenAI Ada model to assign embeddings for each task through sequential task-level API calls. 6 We then perform semantic clustering of the tasks, based on the K-Means algorithm and a visual inspection of results, which suggests five principal thematic clusters. Once the clusters have been attributed, we engineer another set of API calls to GPT-4 and request the model to provide the common semantic denominator for each thematic cluster. Table 4 presents the result of this exercise, with the corresponding tasks in each cluster and their individual scores.

Table 4: Tasks with high automation potential clustered into thematic groups*

As the next step, we calculate the share of tasks with high and medium exposure in each ISCO 1-digit grouping. Figure 2 reveals in stark terms the degree of exposure among clerical support workers, among whom some 24 per cent of all tasks fall into the highly exposed category. If we also account for tasks with medium-level exposure (58 per cent of all tasks), a full 82 per cent of clerical job tasks are exposed at an above-average level. This stands in contrast to the other occupational groups, in which the highest share of highly exposed tasks oscillates between 1 and 4 per cent, and where the medium-exposed tasks do not exceed 25 percent. 7 Even assuming large margins of error, the result is still striking.

Figure 2. Tasks with medium and high GPT-exposure, by occupational category (ISCO 1-digit)

In this next section, we analyse how the exposure to GPT-like technology could potentially affect occupations. Will the technology replace most tasks within an occupation, provoking job loss? Or could it be used to automate the more routine tasks, leaving time for more gratifying activities?

To probe these questions, we turn to the analysis of the distribution of tasks for each of the 4-digit ISCO-08 occupations. Figure 3 provides a visual representation of task scores for the ISCO 1-digit group of managers and clerical support workers. It shows that for the manager category, most occupations have a task-level score distribution somewhere on both sides of the medium exposure line of 0.5, with more tasks falling into low-level exposure. In contrast, for clerical support workers, many occupations have an entire task distribution that falls to the right of the medium exposure threshold of 0.5.

Figure 3. Box plot of task-level scores by ISCO 4d, grouped by ISCO 1d

To determine whether the technology has a greater potential for automation or augmentation across all ISCO-08 4-digit occupations, we use a method similar to Carbonero et al. (2023) . Considering an occupation as a collection of tasks with different levels of exposure to a particular technology, we focus on two principal parameters of the task scores distribution: (i) the mean score for a given occupation, and (ii) its standard deviation (SD). Jobs with a high mean score and a low standard deviation fall into the category of high automation potential, as the majority of the occupation’s tasks have high exposure scores. Jobs with a high augmentation potential are at the other extreme as they have a low occupation-level mean score, but a high standard deviation of the task scores. These jobs are composed of some tasks that are difficult to automate, and others that can be automated more easily. In such cases, technology is likely to have an augmenting effect, taking away some of the more exposed tasks, but still requiring the human element for the overall performance of the job (Table 5).

Table 5: Grouping of occupations based on task-level scores

To ensure a clear separation of the occupations with high augmentation and automation potential, we apply a simple formula focussed on the extremes of this distribution. Let µ i and σ i denote the mean and standard deviation of the task-level scores for a given occupation i, respectively. We define an occupation to have "Augmentation potential" if the following conditions are satisfied:

0.4 > µ i and µ i + σ i > 0.5 (1.1)

Similarly, an occupation is said to have "automation potential" if it fulfils these criteria:

µ i > 0.6 and µ i - σ i > 0.5 (1.2)

Figure 4 provides two visual representations of this grouping: the top panel pools all occupational scores into one sample, while the bottom panel provides a more detailed breakdown by occupational category at ISCO-08 1-digit level. The blue trend line illustrates the relationship between the two plotted variables: the occupation-level mean on the horizontal axis and the SD of task-level scores on the vertical axis. Close to the start of the axes, mean scores and SD grow simultaneously, but the scores in this group have a low overall mean and hence low exposure. As the SD begins to plateau in the middle section around 0.2, the mean scores reach the levels closer to 0.5, meaning that the sum of these two components starts to significantly exceed the middle exposure threshold of 0.5. As the SD begins to drop to some 0.1, the occupational scores arrive at the level of 0.6 and higher, meaning that the difference between the mean and the SD would still put such scores well above the middle exposure limit of 0.5.

Figure 4. Augmentation vs automation potential at occupational level

Based on these definitions, we produce two separate lists of occupations, one with a high automation potential and one with a high augmentation potential. Figure 5 lists occupations that not only have a high mean score across their tasks, but which also have a low SD, suggesting that the tasks’ scores do not move far from the overall mean. This means that such jobs are mostly composed of tasks that could eventually be automated, provided that other conditions are in place.

Figure 5. Occupations with high automation potential

Figure 6, in turn, presents the occupations that have a low mean score and a high SD, with the sum of the mean and the SD reaching above the limit of medium exposure. Such jobs are most likely to experience an augmenting effect of GPT technologies, while still retaining an important human component.

Figure 6. Occupations with high augmentation potential

Now that we know which occupations have the greatest potential for automation and augmentation from generative AI technology with similar properties as GPT, we can proceed with deriving employment estimates globally and by country income groups. To do this, we use the ILO Harmonized Microdata collection, which enables extracting detailed country-level employment information. We use microdata for 59 countries that report 4-digit microdata in ISCO-08 format: 8 low-income countries (LIC), 24 lower-middle-income countries (LMIC), 19 upper-middle-income countries (UMIC) and 8 high-income countries. We take the latest year available for each country and calculate the share of each occupation belonging to our automation and augmentation categories in the total employment in that country, with further disaggregation by sex. Subsequently, we construct income-group profiles, by calculating the weighted mean of those automation and augmentation shares within each income group, as visualized in Figure 7a. 8

Figure 7a. Automation vs augmentation potential: shares of total employment, microdata for 59 countries

Several elements stand out in this comparison. First, occupations with high augmentation potential constitute a significantly larger share of the total employment in each income group than the jobs with high automation potential. In the LMICs, such jobs have the highest share of the employment distribution, with 14.4 per cent of total employment classified in this category. Second, augmentation-related jobs have a fairly equal gender distribution, with the shares of such jobs being held by men visibly higher only in the LMICs.

Contrasting with that, occupations with high automation potential show significant differences across income groupings of countries and the visible trend is that they increase their share in the overall employment together with the countries' income levels. In the LICs, only some 0.4 per cent of total employment falls into this category, whereas in the HICs the share of such occupations rises to 5.5 per cent. In addition, the share of female participation in these occupations also grows with countries' income levels, and in the HICs it is more than double the male share of total employment.

This effect becomes even more apparent if we present the jobs with high automation and augmentation potential as a share of total employment for each sex. As demonstrated in Figure 7b, in high-income countries, jobs with high automation potential constitute 8.5 per cent of female employment, compared to 3.9 per cent of male employment. In addition, the share of jobs with high augmentation potential is visibly higher among women than among men in all income groups.

Figure 7b. Automation vs augmentation potential: shares of total employment in each sex (ILO microdata)

Our next step is to expand this initial estimation to the global level, with the same type of income-based country groupings. For this, we benchmark to the ILO modelled estimates data series, which includes employment estimates for 189 countries (ILO 2023a) .

One of the main challenges of producing this type of global employment figure concerns the sample representativeness for each income group. Since only 59 countries report occupational data disaggregated at the 4-digit level of ISCO-08, data for other countries needs to be estimated. Fortunately, the availability of country microdata increases significantly at lower-digit ISCO-08 levels. We thus exploit this greater data availability and move up the cascading structure of ISCO-08 system with each stage of estimations (see Table 6).

Table 6: Microdata coverage by levels ISCO-08: number of countries

We start by calculating the share of jobs in categories of automation and augmentation potential in total employment for each of the 59 countries with available 4-digit data. We then calculate the weighted mean for each income group, as previously done for Figure 7. As the next step, we calculate for these countries the share of these isolated jobs in the total jobs covered by a higher-digit category, in this case ISCO-08 at 3-digit level. Subsequently, we calculate the weighted mean of these shares at ISCO-08 3-digit for each of the income groups and apply these to estimate the number of jobs in the countries for which we have ISCO-08 3-digit data, but for which ISCO 4-digit data was missing. We then repeat an analogical procedure moving up the data coverage ladder, that is, from ISCO 3-digit to 2-digit and, finally, from 2-digit to 1-digit. At this level we arrive at an estimation that relies on data available for 141 countries, which ensures a broad coverage of data points from ILO’s repository (Figure 8). The final batch of 48 countries still missing at this point is estimated using the same method, thereby aligning our calculations with the total employment figures in the official global employment estimates of the ILO for 2021, available for 189 countries. 9

Figure 8. Country coverage based on the level of digits in ISCO-08 (ILO data) 10

Figure 9a. Global estimates: jobs with augmentation and automation potential as share of total employment

Given the data limitations, the exact numbers presented in Figure 9a should be read as an indication of a general trend, based on the best employment estimate that can be produced at the global level for a selection of 4-digit ISCO-08 occupations. More importantly, the global estimate confirms the trends already observed based on the analysis of microdata for 59 countries (Figures 7a-b). Specifically, it confirms that the number of jobs in the augmentation category is significantly higher than the number of jobs that have a high automation potential. Calculating the global figures leads to an adjustment in the ranking of income groups in the augmentation category, with UMICs and HICs having the largest share of employment with high augmentation potential (13.5 and 13.4 per cent respectively) and the LICs having the lowest share (10.4 per cent). This means that, once the size and employment distribution aspects of individual countries are considered in the estimate, globally, the share of jobs potentially exposed to automation with generative AI of similar properties as the current GPT technology grows with income, but so does the share of jobs that have a high potential of experiencing augmenting effects. In other words, wealthier countries are likely to face both more disruptive effects in the technological transition and higher net gains from the process. We discuss these differential effects in more detail in section 6.1.

The global estimates also confirm the strong gender effect observed in the microdata (Figure 7b). When we disaggregate the estimate to shares of female and male employment (Figure 9b), we observe that 3.7 per cent of all female employment in the world is in jobs that are potentially automatable with generative AI technology, compared with only 1.4 per cent of male employment. In high-income countries, the share of potentially affected female jobs is 7.8 per cent, more than double the 2.9 per cent of male jobs for that income group. At the same time, the share of jobs with high augmentation potential is also greater among female than male jobs across all income groups. This suggests that any form of technological transition would have a strongly gendered effect, with a badly managed process disproportionately harming women, and a well-managed transition potentially creating important opportunities in terms of women’s empowerment.

Figure 9b. Automation vs augmentation potential: shares of total employment for each sex (global estimate)

To further illustrate the origins of these discrepancies, it is helpful to consider a 4-digit breakdown of the occupational structures across country groups. Figure 10 presents a selection of ISCO 4-digit occupations with high automation potential, based on the mean share of each occupation in total employment, for each income group. While the low number of responses underpinning some of the bars would not qualify this breakdown as statistically representative, it still provides useful insight into the overall differences in the employment structures of countries with different income levels.

Figure 10. Occupations with high automation potential, by ISCO 4-digit and income group

We can observe that the general trend is for the share of clerical occupations to grow with income, which explains the disproportionately higher potential automation effects in wealthier economies. For example, jobs of secretaries, accounting and bookkeeping clerks, or bank tellers and cashiers enjoy a nearly linear relationship between the country’s income and the share of employment they take. This clearly reflects the general trend of the last decade, which saw many call centre and client service jobs outsourced to locations outside high-income countries. In addition, as previously discussed, such jobs are disproportionately held by women and this pattern remains visible across occupations even at the very detailed breakdown to ISCO-08 4-digits. There are, however, a few notable exceptions to this rule. For example, occupations of contact centre salespersons and data entry clerks are relatively more present in the middle-income countries than in the high-income countries, while the jobs of application programmers are strongly dominated by men.

The breakdown of occupations into high automation and augmentation potential provided a helpful framework to discuss the extremes of scores’ distribution, thereby minimizing the risk of statistical overlaps between the two groups. Nevertheless, this left an important group of occupations, located between the automation and augmentation out of focus of the discussion. We refer to these jobs, illustrated in Figure 11a-b with green points, as “the big unknown”, since our framework and data do not allow for a clear-cut classification of this group. In general, such jobs have a high occupational mean score, and a high variance of tasks-level scores, which means that their exposure to GPT technology can have varied and idiosyncratic effects. Depending on the technological progress of generative AI, as well as the applications built on top of the technology, some of the tasks might become more automatable, while new tasks could emerge in these professions, pushing them closer to the augmentation or automation cluster or, the more likely scenario, having them evolve into new occupations. While we refrain from speculating on the direction of this evolution, we find it important to quantify the share of employment belonging to this group.

Figure 11a. The “Big Unknown”: occupations between augmentation and automation potential

Figure 11b. The “Big Unknown”: share of total employment, by income group (global estimate)

As illustrated in Figure 11b, these occupations constitute a nontrivial share of the global employment, with some 8.6 per cent and 281 million workers falling into this category. While in the low-income and middle-income countries such jobs are to a larger extent held by men, in UMICs and HICs, women dominate this share of total employment.

The estimates presented in the preceding section suggest that the recent progress in machine learning, in particular developments around LLMs, is likely to have disruptive effects on labour markets, with larger effects in high-income countries and specific occupational groups. Still much remains unknown with respect to the progress and limitations of this and similar technologies, which will ultimately determine its overall impact. Taking GPT’s current capabilities at face value and applying it to the distribution of labour markets around the world gives us an indicative picture that suggests greater potential for job augmentation as opposed to automation. This finding represents a continuum with previous waves of technological progress, despite recurring bouts of anxiety (Autor 2015 , Cherry 2020) .

Nevertheless, policies are needed to manage the transition of those workers affected by automation, in addition to managing the potential effects on job quality for those workers affected by augmentation. Indeed, both scenarios require building and strengthening systems of social dialogue, including workplace consultation. Policy attention is also needed for those countries that lack the requisite physical infrastructure and skills to benefit from the new technology.

The analysis revealed that higher-income countries will experience the greatest effects from automation as a result of the important share of share of clerical and para-professional jobs in the occupational distribution. Middle- and low-income countries will be less exposed, though certain occupations that are potentially exposed to automation, such as call centre work 11 , figure prominently in some of these countries, particularly India and the Philippines, which dominate the world’s call centre industry. In the Philippines, a half million people were employed in call centres in 2016, of whom 53 percent were women (DOLE, 2018). 12

The challenges, and consequences, of such adjustments should not be underestimated. For example, a study of the effects of automation on Dutch workers during 2010-2016, found that workers made redundant as a result of automation experienced a 5-year cumulative wage income loss of 9 per cent of an annual wage (Bessen et al., 2019). The losses were only partially offset by various benefits systems, despite the relatively robust Dutch unemployment insurance system. Workers experiencing such effects in countries with less developed insurance systems and which lack job training and job placement services, or where there are high levels of unemployment, are more vulnerable.

Consultation and negotiation between employers and workers is critical for managing the transition process as it encourages redeployment and training over job loss. The ILO’s Employment Protection Convention (No. 158, 1982) includes provisions on the termination of employment for technological reasons. It advocates, particularly in cases of collective dismissals, special procedural requirements including consultations of the employer with workers’ representatives, notifications to the competent authorities, undertaking measures to avert or minimize terminations and to mitigate their effects, and establishing criteria for selection for termination and priority of rehiring. The aim of such requirements is to minimize the negative externalities from dismissal, especially when collective, as well as to better internalize the cost of such dismissals and support an orderly process that balances the needs of workers, employers, and societies at large (Aleksnyska and Muller, 2020) . Social dialogue is also useful for designing and instituting social protection and skills development programmes that can help mitigate the negative effects of automation.

One issue that will require specific attention is the gendered effects of the automation. As Figure 9 showed, the potential exposure to automation disproportionately affects the share of women’s employment by more than two-fold in high-income countries (7.9 per cent vs 2.9 per cent) and upper-middle-income countries (2.7 per cent v 1.3 per cent). Concentrated job losses in female-dominated occupations could threaten advances made in the past decades in increasing women’s labour market participation.

The care economy, comprising both health care and education, traditionally employs a greater share of women, yet these are also sectors that suffer from underinvestment. According to the ILO (Addati et al. 2018) , achieving the SDG targets would more than double employment in these sectors from 206 million in 2015 to 475 million in 2030. In addition, some care occupations, such as in long-term care, whose demand is projected to increase substantially in the next decades due to ageing populations, are often characterised by poor working conditions. Meeting the demand for workers in this sector and improving their job quality so that they are a decent source of employment, would be a means to not only provide a potential source of decent work for displaced workers, but would also help meet societies’ need for more care work. Shifting to these opportunities, however, will require greater investment in the sectors, in addition to training and income support during the transition.

Another source of policy intervention is to ensure quality of the new jobs created as a result of technological change. The development of AI relies on tagging and repetitive feedback done by humans, in what is known as “microtask” work (Irani 2015; Tubaro, Casilli, and Coville 2020) . For LLMs in particular, human workers train, mould and evaluate the systems through “reinforcement learning”, in order to ensure the safety of such systems as well as improve accuracy (Xu et al., 2023) . While no global figures exist on the number of microtask workers, estimates from the mid-2010s suggested 9 million workers from across the globe (Kuek et al. 2015) . This figure has most certainly grown since then and is likely to continue to expand, as new and often small players enter the market of LLMs. A recently leaked note from Google’s engineers noted that “the barrier to entry for [LLM] training and experimentation has dropped from the total output of a major research organization to one person, an evening, and a beefy laptop ” (Patel and Ahmad 2023) . This dramatic decrease in the cost and ease of entry to the LLM market points to an increase in demand for domain-specific labelled datasets curated by microtask workers.

Much microtask work has been conducted on digital labour platforms, either through crowdsourcing websites or though businesses processing firms that directly hire workers. Microtask jobs mediated through crowdsourcing platforms, are paid by the task and regulated by civil contracts, meaning that the workers have none of the labour protections or social security benefits that come with the employment relationship. The poor working conditions of much platform work prompted ILO constituents to agree to a two-year standard setting discussion beginning on 2025 with a view to crafting an international labour standard on decent work in the platform economy that can guide national regulation (ILO 2023d) .

Technology can also affect job quality in its application at the workplace. While the technology can allow the more routine tasks that one does to be automated, potentially leaving time for more engaging work, it can also be implemented in a way that limits workers agency or accelerates work intensity. Concerns over AIs integration at the workplace has focused on the growth of algorithmic management, essentially work settings in which “ human jobs are assigned, optimized, and evaluated through algorithms and tracked data ” (Lee et al. 2015) . Algorithmic management is a defining feature of digital labour platforms, but it is also pervasive in offline industries such as the warehousing and logistics sectors. In warehouses an automated, “voice-picking” system directs warehouse staff to pick certain products in the warehouse, while using data collection to monitor workers and set the pace of work (Matopoulos 2011) . Besides lacking autonomy to organize their work or set its pace, workers also have little ability to provide feedback or discuss with management about the organization of work (Wood, 2021) . The integration of generative AI into other fields such as banking, insurance, social services, and customer service more broadly may have similar effect.

Technological advancements are often felt more immediately at the workplace level and are usually best addressed at the workplace. As a result, whether the effect of technology on working conditions is positive or negative depends in large part on the voice that workers have in the design, implementation and use of technology. Having such voice relies in turn on the opportunities for worker participation and dialogue. This can take place either through formalized settings, such as works councils or guidance provided in collective bargaining agreements, or less formally, in workplaces where there is a high degree of employee engagement, such as in organizational structures that support teamwork, problem-solving and decentralized decision-making (ILO 2023c) . Studies on Europe have shown that it is the countries with stronger and more cooperative forms of workplace consultation, essentially the Nordic countries, followed by Germany, where workers are more open to technological adoption at the workplace. Yet even in Denmark, focus group discussions with workers on digital integration reveal a desire for greater attention to the implementation and organization of technology at the workplace so as to better meet the needs of end users (Refslund and Borello, 2023).

In addition to consultation at the workplace, there is also need for laws that regulate AI’s application at the workplace. To date, much of the discussion on regulation of AI has ignored its possible effects on working conditions (Moore 2023) . Where there has been discussion, the focus has overwhelmingly been on voluntary standards of AI ethics, ignoring the uneven power relations inherent in working relationships (Cole et al. 2022) . AI tools may aggravate power relations at the workplace, especially if workers cannot have access to the data used to survey their activities, if there are no mechanisms in place to assess the ex-post use of the technology in the workplace, or if decisions on dismissal are taken without proper recourse to conflict resolution mechanisms. Adams-Prassl et al. (2023) advocate for a prohibition of worker monitoring and data collection outside of work (temporally or geographically) or in contexts where it poses risks to human dignity or the exercise of fundamental rights, in addition to other limitations. The design and application of such regulations is best crafted through tripartite systems, in which workers’, employers’ and governments representatives engage with equal voice. The negotiations should build on existing tripartite consultation mechanisms and structures and use the already existing labour rights and norms as the point of departure. Giving the quickly evolving nature of AI and its iterative learning process, mechanisms for ex-post evaluation and tripartite governance need to be built into the regulation.

A potentially more significant consequence of a wider adoption of generative AI products could be an increased divergence in productivity between the high- and low-income countries. Larger shares of jobs falling into the augmentation category suggest that, at least in near future, generative AI systems similar to GPT are more likely to become productivity tools, supporting and speeding up the execution of some tasks within certain occupations. The digital divide will influence how the benefits of such productivity tools are distributed among societies and countries, with high-income countries and privileged groups likely to reap the biggest rewards.

Low-income countries, in particular, are at risk of falling behind. While up to 13 per cent of employment in these countries is found in the potential augmentation category, in practice potential benefits of GPT technologies are likely to be limited, as the lack of reliable infrastructure will constrain its application. To begin with, such technology is dependent on access and cost of broadband connectivity, as well as electricity. In 2022, one-third of the global population, corresponding to some 2.7 billion people, still did not have access to the internet (Figure 11) . Among the two-thirds that do have access, many would not be able to use GPT technologies due to the limitations in the quality of their connection or the cost of the service. Even more fundamental than the internet, reliable electricity provision is often a challenge. According to the World Bank Enterprise Survey, 49 percent of registered firms in developing countries experienced electrical outages, averaging 4.5 days per month and lasting 4 hours on average. 13

Figure 11. Share of population not using the internet 14

Figure 12. A classic growth path: income and occupational diversification

On the other hand, with the right conditions in place, a new wave of technology could fuel growth opportunities. In the past, technological advancements have spurred new and successful industries in many developing countries. One such example is the M-Pesa money service, which relied on the diffusion of mobile telephones in Kenya. The service, in turn, increased financial inclusion thus helping to propel the growth of SMEs and led to creation of a network of 110,000 agents, 40 times the number of bank ATMs in Kenya (Buku and Meredith 2012; de Soyres et al. 2018) . Similarly, a study of the diffusion of 3G coverage in Rwanda between 2002 and 2019 found that increased mobile internet coverage was positively associated with the employment growth, increasing both skilled and unskilled occupations (Caldarola et al. 2022) . Hjort and Poulsen (2019) also find positive employment effects, from the arrival of internet in 12 African countries, albeit with a slight bias towards skilled occupations. These gains are attributed to increases in productivity and growth of markets that followed increased connectivity.

Among the developing countries, further distinction needs to be made. While middle-income countries, are more exposed to the automating effects of GPT technologies, their digital infrastructure and skilled workforce can also be an asset for spawning the growth of complementary industries. Although India and the Philippines are at risk of losing some call centre work, their dominance in business process outsourcing may provide the needed foundation for the development of new industries.

In this paper, we attempted to quantify some of the potential effects of generative AI on occupations from a global perspective. Our study provided a global estimate of the number of jobs in the categories that are most exposed to technologies with similar capabilities as GPT-4, by relying on the international standard of ISCO-08 and linking the task-level scores to employment distributions reflected in official ILO statistics. We subsequently discussed the consequences of these findings in the context of differential impacts that can be expected depending on countries’ income levels. We also highlighted the possible consequences for job quality, in order to draw attention to this important effect on the world of work that has too often been ignored in discussions of digital technologies’ impact on labour.

The analysis was based on the top threshold of current technological possibilities and relied on three bold assumptions. First, we assumed that the tasks, for which automation scores were estimated, would be executed in the context of a high-income country. This ignores the more limited potential for deployment in lower-income countries, where the necessary infrastructure is typically of lower standard, unreliable and often more expensive, and where lower skill and wage levels make the costs of technological adoption relatively high. Second, we relied on GPT-4 to predict the scores, which is likely to reflect an apex of technological optimism when it comes to ease of deployment, that in practice is difficult to operationalize. Third, without being able to make reliable predictions on future technological progress, we focused on the potential of task automation as of today, without speculating on the numbers of new jobs that might emerge. This approach might have been expected to generate alarming estimates of net job loss – but it did not. Rather, our global estimates point to a future in which work is transformed, but still very much in existence.

Our findings largely align with the evolving body of academic literature concerning previous waves of technological transformations, but some of the trends we identify are new as a result of our exclusive focus on LLMs, and GPT more specifically. While early studies of potential AI adoption identified low-skill, repetitive and routine jobs as those with the highest potential of automation (e.g., McKinsey 2016; Frey and Osborne 2017) , in which a computer-based system could be coupled with a machine to replace a human in manual production jobs (Autor 2015; Acemoglu and Restrepo 2020) , more recent literature has highlighted the ability of Machine Learning systems to improve their performance in non-routine tasks (Brynjolfsson et al., 2018; Ernst et al., 2019; Webb 2019; Lane and Saint-Martin 2021) . We argue that the emergence of GPT reinforces this shifting picture, due to its refined ability to perform cognitive tasks, such as analysing text, drafting documents and messages, or searching through private repositories and the web for additional information. As a consequence, our study indicates that – at least in the short run – this new wave of automation will focus on a different group of workers, typically associated with “knowledge work” (Surawski 2019) .

The occupational group with the highest share of tasks exposed to GPT technology are the clerical jobs, where the majority of tasks fall at least into medium-level exposure, and about a quarter of tasks are highly exposed to potential automation. As a result of technological progress, many such jobs might never emerge in developing countries, where they traditionally served as a vehicle for increasing female employment. For other types of “knowledge work”, exposure is only partial, suggesting a stronger augmentation potential and productivity benefits, rather than job displacement.

These findings align with some of the most recent literature on generative AI systems with a global focus. A recent study by McKinsey (2023) points to a similar group of “knowledge work” occupations and tasks as having the highest level of exposure, though with a significantly higher suggested level of displacement. WEF’s global survey, focussed on large enterprises, also lists clerical and administrative jobs among occupations with fastest expected declines (WEF 2023) . Estimates provided by Goldman Sachs (2023) suggest a slightly higher level of potential automation than our calculations, but with the general conclusion aligning with our main finding that “most jobs and industries are only partially exposed to automation and are thus more likely to be complemented rather than substituted by AI”.

The more moderate effects observed in our estimations stem from several factors. First, we rely on ISCO-08 as the source of tasks and occupations, which is more adequate for a study with a global character than the US-oriented O*NET database. Second, the application of ILO’s country-level employment statistics adds important nuance to the actual number of jobs that exists in those categories, bringing out income-based differences that affect the final employment effects at the global level. Third, we do not attempt to make predictions on the evolution of the technology. While the growing capabilities of generative AI and the range of secondary applications that can be built on top of this technology are likely to increase the numbers of jobs in both the augmentation and automation categories identified in our paper, our analysis suggests that the general contours of transformation identified in this study will remain valid for the coming years.

Ultimately, we argue that in the realm of work, generative AI is neither inherently good nor bad, and that its socioeconomic impacts will largely depend on how its diffusion is managed. The questions of power balance, voice of the workers affected by labour market adjustments, respect for existing norms and rights, and adequate use of national social protection and skills training systems will be crucial elements for managing AI’s deployment in the workplace. Without proper policies in place, there is a risk that only some of the well-positioned countries and market participants will be able to harness the benefits of the transition, while the costs to affected workers could be brutal. Therefore, for policy makers, our study should not read as a calming voice, but rather as a call for harnessing policy to address the technological changes that are upon us.

To illustrate our estimation method, we use the example of jobs identified as having high automation potential. For an income group IG, denote the total employment as T IG . The total employment in each income group is the sum of the total jobs J i in all the countries i that belong to the income group IG:

T I G =   ∑ i   ∈ I G J i

For each country i, denote A i as the number of jobs with high automation potential and J i as the total number of jobs. The share of automation jobs S i is then calculated as:

S i =   A i J i

The weight W i for each country i in income group IG is defined as the share of the country's employment in the total employment of that income group:

W i =   J i T I G

The weighted mean M IG for each income group IG is then the sum of the product of the weights W i and the automation job shares S i for all countries i in income group IG:

M I G =   ∑ i   ∈ I G W i S i

For each ISCO-08 3-digit category d, in country i where 4-digit ISCO-08 data exists, the total number of jobs J3 di is given by:

J 3 d i = ∑ k ∈ D 3 d i J 4 k i

where J4 ki is the total number of jobs in the 4-digit category k that falls under the 3-digit category d in that country. The share S3 di of automation jobs in 4-digit category d to the total jobs in the corresponding 3-digit category d in country i is given by:

S 3 d i = A d i J 3 d i

where A di is the number of automation jobs in the 4-digit category d, and J3 di is the total number of jobs in the 3-digit category d in country i.

At the next step, each 3-digit share S3 di is weighted by the total employment E i in the country i relative to the total employment E IG in the income group IG. The weighted mean WMS IG for income group IG is then calculated as:

W M S I G = ∑ i ∈ I G E i * S 3 d i ∑ i ∈ I G E i

For each country i with missing 4-digit data but available 3-digit data, the estimated number of automation jobs A i can then be calculated using the weighted mean share WMS IG of the corresponding income group and the total employment E i in country i:

A i = W M S I G * E i

We then repeat an analogical procedure moving up the data coverage ladder, that is, from ISCO 3-digit to 2-digit, from 2-digit to 1-digit, and finally to global coverage.

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We acknowledge support from several colleagues at the ILO. We are particularly grateful to Bálint Náfrádi and Sergei Soares for their comments on the content and their independent review of our calculations. We thank Lara Badre, who provided a clean mapping of different ISCO levels to detailed tasks as well as a mapping of over 7,500 job titles found in Labour Force Surveys (LFS) to ISCO 4-digit. Lara also gave us numerous useful suggestions regarding the ISCO system and conducted some spot checks of the predicted job definitions and tasks. We are grateful to Steve Kapsos, for his suggestions on the methodology for calculating the global employment estimates, to Daniel Samaan, who shared his expert knowledge on different types of occupational scores, to David Kucera for his helpful comments on the final draft, and to several colleagues in the ILO’s Research Department for their constructive feedback during initial internal presentations of this work.

GPT-4 API was used to generate alternative occupational definitions, tasks and task-level scores, as discussed in the text. We placed some 25,000 API requests to GPT-4 and used Ada model to generate task-level embeddings for 7,482 tasks. We used GPT-4 API to summarize the content of these task clusters. We also used ChatGPT to generate the list of abbreviations based on our final text. OpenAI provided us with a research credit in API tokens with a total value of US$ 1,000, out of which some US$ 600 have been used for this research. We are grateful to Elizabeth Proehl and Pamela Mishkin from OpenAI for their openness about the methods applied in Eloundou et al. (2023), for responding to our request for GPT-4 API access, and for the research credit of GPT tokens.

The authors of this text are full time staff of the ILO, with no affiliation to OpenAI and no vested interest in that regard. GPT was not used to generate the main text of this article, which is fully of our own authorship, along with any mistakes.

Paweł Gmyrek is Senior Researcher in the Research Department of the ILO.

Janine Berg is Senior Economist in the Research Department of the ILO.

David Bescond works on data science initiatives in the ILO Department of Statistics.

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ISBN: 9789220395394

https://doi.org/10.54394/FHEM8239

The three main characteristics of general-purpose technologies are pervasiveness, ability to continue improving over time, and ability to spawn further innovation (Jovanovic and Rousseau, 2005).

The prompt in the example is used as part of ChatCompletion.create() function in OpenAI Python library.

We use a "skills and AI specialist" for the system role, which is understood by GPT-4 as “someone who has in-depth knowledge of artificial intelligence technologies, such as machine learning, deep learning, and AI architectures like GPT. They understand how AI systems work, what they are capable of, and the limitations they have. Moreover, they can assess the skills required for certain jobs or tasks and evaluate the potential for these tasks to be automated by AI. They could provide insights into the extent to which AI might be able to replace or augment human roles in various fields, as well as advise on how people might need to adapt or acquire new skills to remain competitive in an increasingly automated job market.”

We observe that some functionalities of the model could potentially be used to support specialized discussions on updating the standard classifications. For example, semantic clustering and content summarization could be used to extract core tasks from a multitude of currently unprocessed country-level inputs, which is a tedious and overwhelming task for humans.

The full list of ISCO 4-digit descriptions by ISCO and GPT is available from the authors.

Embeddings are a vectoral high-dimensional representation of the text, generated by an LLM. Standard Ada embeddings have 1536 dimensions.

Armed forces are absent from the figure, since they do not have any tasks scored at the level of medium and high exposure.

We rely on weighted means as our instrument of choice for the most balanced approach to country-level differences withing groups (see Appendix for detailed formulas). To ensure that the results are not affected by extreme differences in the distribution of values within groups, we also test calculations based on weighted-median. Since the results are stable and very similar in both cases, we keep the weighted mean as the main calculation method.

See Appendix for details.

Total refers to countries and income groupings used in ILO modelled estimates ( https://ilostat.ilo.org/resources/concepts-and-definitions/classification-country-groupings/ ).

(4222) contact centre information clerks, (4227) survey and market research interviewers, (5244) customer contact salesperson

In 2023, the ITBPA (IT and Business Processing Association) of the Philippines stated that the sector employed 1.5 million full-time equivalent employees in 2022 (ITBPA, 2023).

https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data/exploretopics/infrastructure

Authors’ calculations based on available country data for the most recent year (ITU 2023) . Map created with

Datawrapper. The boundaries shown, designations used, and any other information shown does not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the International Labour Organization.

Benefits of Globalisation Essay

The introduction, some fundamentals on globalisation.

It is impossible to imagine the modern world without such phenomenon as globalisation. Generally, there are many definitions, which cover the term; although the most appropriate one is mostly related to the filed of economy and business.

Thus, globalisation is considered to be a process “by which the world economy is fast becoming a single independent system” (Angiello & Laguerre, 2004). There is a wide range of viewpoints on globalisation: some scientists associate the process with negative outcomes; while others support the opposite opinion and speak about a variety of opportunities globalisation offers.

The thesis statement

The issue of globalisation can be regarded rather ambiguously. For this reason, it seems to be obvious that the international process should be analysed both – from the positive and negative perspectives. A detailed analysis of the consequences globalisation brings about can help clarify whether the phenomenon is considered to be a major driving force of the world economy; or it just generates significant negative effects.

The benefits of globalisation

Some historians are of the opinion that the international process leads to the so-called social inequality; for instance, they consider the gap between rich and poor societies as one of the negative consequences globalisation brought about.

However, in my opinion, it is wrong to compare different societies according to the levels of their prosperity, as the kind of comparison reminds me of comparing round items to square ones.

It should be noted that if societies are ready to accept the international trade, the outcomes will positively affect national incomes; although societies are to practice a wide range of approaches, but not to follow a regular way. In other words, there is a strong need to balance the many competing goals in order to succeed.

A competitive advantage is recognised to be one of the most important variables the benefits of trade depend upon. It is proven that the international process helps countries gain higher incomes.

Thus, in the early nineties a special investigation was conducted; according to the results of the investigation it became evident that rich countries’ GDP increased by 2% annually. That is to say, as far as more globalised countries seemed to undergo a higher increase in GDP per year, less glonalised countires underwent the opposite situation: they experienced economic downfall.

Another negative approach in relation to globalisation is associated with child labour. In poor countries, children are forced to work, as their labour is considered to be the only appropriate way to survive. Rich countries have a wide range of social services and can provide their children with medical care, education, etc. Such benefits are possible partly due to the international process.

However, as far as poor countries can be regarded as less globalised countries, it becomes evident that child labour has nothing in common with globalisation. It cannot be applied to the international influences. The same can be said about the female children’s prostitution in the developing countries.

On the other hand, it must be noted that those poor countries, which domestic conditions (political, social, economical, etc.) are more favourable, have more chances to reduce poverty through globalisation (Srinivasan, 2002).

Generally, one can probably notice that countries have different approaches to globalisation. For instance, China’s attitude to the international process differs from the Western attitude to the concept of the international influence. However, more globalised countries’ higher incomes just prove that globalisation must not be practiced the exact same way.

The issue of globalisation from different perspectives: a brief overview

When discussing the effects of globalisation from the perspectives of the general buyer, one can probably notice that due to the process people are provided with much more goods and services.

Furthermore, the international process affects the pricing policy; for this reason, in most cases the opening price is determined by markets which operate in a global environment. Globalisation gives individuals an opportunity to become familiar with a number of other cultures and experiences.

Most of consumers associate the term with certain radical changes. Of course, the international process affects consumer law in a variety of ways.

Thus, Ronaldo Macedo (2002) points out that the major influences of globalisation on regulation and consumer law involve “changes in the production process and consumption market; transformation from a consumer goods society to a consumer service society, change in the contractual consumer practices and the growth of relational contracts, etc.” (p. 3).

Of course, the influences of globalisation within the perspectives of the general consumer are not limited by the above-mentioned changes. The global economic growth is considered to be a new form of world capitalism; that is why it affects buying attitude in a direct way.

Higher levels of production became possible due to the international process; although such changes in the production process require more financial expenditures. The offer of the standartised goods can be regarded as one of the most common effects the form of the modern capitalism brought about.

Flexible forms of production allow producing goods with unique qualities: as far as buying attitude marks up, higher levels of profitability occur. The flexible form of goods production is a modern industrial technique, which tends to satisfy a variety of consumers’ requirements.

On the other hand, it must be pointed out that the new techniques of production give an opportunity not only to increase the productive capacity, but also to respond to a wide range of alterations in the globalised market in a fast way.

The economic dualism as one of the consequences of globalisation gives an opportunity to combine different consumer markets. Thus, mass consumers along with highly sophisticated ones can satisfy their needs.

When speaking about the effects of globalisation from the perspectives of the company, it becomes evident that the international process can be regarded as the key to competitive advantage.

Of course, the extremely high demands of the modern business world are complicated by globalisation; however, on the other hand, nobody will deny the fact that new business practices appear, technological growth allows reducing the costs of transportation, exchanging of information, etc. Thus, globalisation can be also regarded as a beneficial process in relation to organisations.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the modern business world is deeply interested in globalisation. Thus, capital owners accept globalisation as a business process, which allows making more money. For this reason, the main purpose of a variety of decisions capital owners take is to affect cultural, social and economic approaches of other stakeholders, in favour of the international process.

Most of workers consider the process of globalisation from negative perspectives on the basis of several reasons. Thus, one is to keep in mind that it is workers’ low salary, which is recognised to be one of the major reasons of anti-globalisation positions.

For instance, “a designer jacket may sell for $190 in New York while the worker overseas gets paid 60 cents an hour” (“The Benefits of Globalisation”, n.d.). So, it seems to be evident that there is cheap labour cost, which workers may accept as abnormal.

Despite the fact that globalisation is associated with poverty in developing countries, one is to keep in mind that the supporters of the opinion are totally unfamiliar with the basic points of the international economy; the criticism of the phenomenon is probably related to certain political and economic aspects, but millions of workers go through hardship because of a wide range of domestic problems rather than international influences.

In other words, workers’ ignorance of the issue of globalisation is one of the key reasons of their non-acceptance of the phenomenon.

Most of environmentalists do not consider globalisation as a threat to the environment. On the contrary, the economic stagnation is associated with much more risks as compared with global economic growth.

Moreover, it seems to be evident that global environmental quality improvement is impossible without globalisation processes, as making long-term improvements depends upon the increased income.

Of course, the environment of poor countries is in danger, as there are no resources to implement certain environmental reforms. The fact that globalisation is needed to protect the environment is recognised to be undisputable, as global environmental protection depends upon a variety of economic activities.

Some economists are of the opinion that institutional improvements along with economic growth are needed to resolve a number of contradictions on environmental issues (Mendelsohn, 2003).

The impact of globalisation on domestic policies: a classic example with air pollution

When discussing the impact of globalisation on domestic policies, it is necessary to state that the question is considered to be rather ambiguous.

On the one hand, there is a viewpoint that national policies are greatly determined by the international process; on the other hand, some scientists suppose that globalisation causes no positive or negative outcomes in relation to internal affairs.

Keeping in mind that the global trends can be not only supported, but also neglected by national politics, anti-globalisation activists argue that the global economic growth cannot impact on the national outcomes.

To my mind, anti-globalisation activists’ position is wrong, as the case with environmental pollution shows us how globalisation affects domestic policies. Thus, everybody will accept the fact that environmental problems are of global concern.

For instance, the global character of air pollution is recognised to be “a very suitable indicator for measuring the impact of globalization on national politics” (Jahn 2002).

When analysing the emissions in the OECD-countries, it becomes obvious that national variables are more essential as compared with the international ones; although it should be noted that a variety of international trends are involved into domestic policies.

Despite the fact that national factors seem to be more significant, “a clear positive trend between EU membership and reduction of NOx and CO2 emissions” (Jahn 2002) can be observed. Thus, one can make a conclusion that international factors along with national ones affect domestic policies.

Still, the effect of globalisation on national policy outcomes cannot be rejected, as the investigation, which was conducted on the air-emissions of NOx, CO2, etc. showed the importance of international trends.

When comparing positive and negative attitudes to globalisation, one can probably notice that there are more benefits than harms the global economic growth brings about. Thus, when discussing globalisation from the perspectives of general consumers, environmentalists, workers, and companies, it was proven that the international process offers a variety of opportunities to all parties.

Moreover, the fact that globalisation affects national incomes is also considered to be of great importance, as the fact can be regarded as a proof that the international process is really a major driving force of the modern business world.

The most important argument in favour of globalisation is that “it facilitates an efficient global allocation of savings by channelling financial resources to their most productive uses, thereby increasing economic growth and welfare around the world” (Alfaro et al., 2006).

Of course, there are many other scientists, who consider the international economic integration is a negative way; however, they are unable to argue their viewpoints in a proper way. The international process seems to encourage a wide range of policies that affect people’s life.

It serves the interests of the modern world and facilitates taking decisions. In our days, it is impossible to imagine social, cultural and economic progress without globalisation. It allows greater financial freedom, and therefore, advances people’s living conditions.

Globalisation can be regarded as a natural aspect of capitalism. Competitive advantage the international process stimulates and promotes brings many desirable circumstances to both – the public sphere and the private one. Numerous financial advantages lead to improved financial policies; thus, one can conclude that globalisation contributes to a national prosperity.

Alfaro, L., Kalemli-Ozcan, S., & Volosovych, V. (2006). Capital Flows in a Globalised World: The Role of Policies and Institutions. Hbs.edu . Web.

Angiello, R., & Laguerre, P. (2004). Why Study International Business: The Importance of Globalisation. Bergen.edu. Web.

Jahn, D. (2002). The Impact of Globalisation on Comparative Analysis. Arizona.edu. Web.

Macedo, R. (2002). Globalisation, Regulation and Consumer Law. Yale Law School. Web.

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Srinivasan, T. (2002). Globalisation: Is It Good or Bad? Stanford.edu . Web.

The Benefits of Globalisation. Radford.edu . Web.

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EDITORIAL article

This article is part of the research topic.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Dermatology Patients: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis

Editorial: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Dermatology Patients: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis Provisionally Accepted

• 1 Department of Dermatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, China
• 2 Furong Laboratory, China
• 3 National Engineering Research Center of Personalized Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technology, China
• 4 Hunan Key Laboratory of Skin Cancer and Psoriasis, Hunan Engineering Research Center of Skin Health and Disease, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, China
• 5 National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed a profound impact on the global healthcare systems, including the field of dermatology [1,2]. The causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, primarily targets the respiratory system and compromises the immune system, which can trigger immune-related skin disorders or aggravate pre-existing skin conditions [3][4][5]. Concurrently, the pandemic has reshaped medical practice and patient behaviors worldwide, leading to a notable reduction in dermatology admissions and extended hospital stays for severe cases due to concerns about hospitalization and associated treatment [6,7].Moreover, vaccination against COVID-19 have been associated with dermatological manifestations, including dermatomyositis and new or recurrent immune-related skin diseases [8][9][10][11]. This editorial introduces a collection of seven papers that delve into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines on the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of dermatological conditions.In a conprehensive retrospective study, Kalanj et al. analyzed the total number of hospitalized patients with skin diseases, as well as those who underwent conservative treatment and surgical interventions, comparing periods before and during the COVID-19 pandemic [12]. Their findings highlight a significant reduction in hospitalizations and surgical procedures (with the exception of breast reconstruction) during the pandemic. This reduction is largely attributable to the state-enacted pandemic prevention and control measures, including social distancing, travel restrictions, and partial or complete lockdowns. Apostu et al. conducted a retrospective cohort study focusing on the number of diagnosed melanoma patients before and after the pandemic, as well as the age, gender, histological characteristics of confirmed cases [13]. They observed a substantial decline in the incidence of new melanoma cases following the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the study found that patients diagnosed with melanoma during the pandemic were older and exhibited more severe prognostic features, such as higher Breslow indexes, increased mitotic counts, and greater ulceration and thickness. These findings suggest that the pandemic has not deterred patients with more aggressive forms of melanoma from seeking treatment, despite the overall decrease in healthcare engagement. This discovery serves as a reminder for dermatology clinicians to inquire about patients' recent vaccination history when treating patients with AIBDs. Similarly, Ghanaapisheh et al. noted a possible association between COVID-19 vaccinations, especially mRNA vaccines, and the occurrence of bullous pemphigoid (BP) [16]. Notably, the majority of BP patients remain unaffected by COVID-19 vaccinations and even those experiencing worsening conditions typically do not face severe side effects, highlighting the evidence-based safety of vaccines. Olszewska et al.'s reviewed the potential link between COVID-19 vaccination and primary cutaneous lymphoma (CL) [17]. Their analysis of data from 24 patients across various studies indicates that primary cutaneous CD30-positive lymphoproliferative disorders are the most prevalent type of CL following COVID-19 vaccination. Ghanaapisheh et al. also highlighted the potential risk of mRNA vaccine induced-CL [16]. Therefore, researchers specifically advise patients with a history of lymphoproliferative diseases to monitor their health closely post-COVID19 vaccination and to remain vigilant for any signs of disease progression. spontaneous urticaria (CSU) [18], observing a significant increase in the median Urticaria Activity Score post-vaccination compared to pre-vaccination levels. Their study also documented cases where individuals developed vascular edema and allergic reactions subsequent to receiving the vaccine. These findings emphasize the potential side effects associated with COVID-19 vaccines. Dermatologists are therefore urged to remain vigilant and consider the possibility of new or recurring immune-related skin conditions in patients who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.In summary, this research topic outlines the multifaceted effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the occurrence, development, diagnosis, and treatment of various skin diseases.Firstly, there has been a notable decline in the total number of hospitalized patients with skin diseases and in surgical patients, which provides valuable data for hospitals looking to optimize their service system structure. Secondly, there appears to be an increase in the aggressiveness of melanoma during the pandemic, likely due to delays in diagnosis and treatment. Thirdly, the use of biological agents targeting IL-17 and IL-23 has proven more effective than those targeting TNF-α during pandemic, for reasons yet to be determined.Finally, there is a suggested link between COVID-19 vaccination and the onset of autoimmune bullous diseases, chronic spontaneous urticaria, or primary skin lymphoma.Exploring the potential mechanisms behind these associations could enhance our understanding of the development and progression of these conditions.

Keywords: COVID-19, Dermatology, diagnosis, Treatment, prognosis

Received: 17 Apr 2024; Accepted: 22 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Deng, Huang, Guo and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Mx. Guangtong Deng, Department of Dermatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China

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