Contemporary globalization and its impact on economically advanced and developing countries

Abstract

Based on a series of indices and models calculated by the author, the article shows that the contemporary second major wave of globalization, substantially more extensive than the first (from the last third of the nineteenth to the early twentieth century), has had a major but contradictory impact on the economic development of advanced countries and, even more so, of developing countries. It has enabled some of the latter, including China and India, to carry out rational institutional and economic reforms and gain ground in the world economy at the expense of Western countries and Japan. However, globalization has also energized market forces and significantly aggravated economic, financial and socio-political instability around the world.