Economic Globalisation

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Economic globalisation refers to the free flow of goods, services and labour between nations (IMF 2008). According to the World Bank (Soubbotina 2014), nations are grouped into two categories, developing and developed, based on their global economic strength, education, employment, healthcare, sustainability and government. The World Bank focuses on the economic growth of a nation because they believe that this, coupled with strong government leadership, plays an important role in alleviating poverty and inequality within it’s borders (Soubbotina 2014). It can be argued that economic globalisation has had some benefit for developing nations; even in terms of the amount of aid and financial assistance they receive. However, the issue of whether economic globalisation has alleviated poverty and inequality in the developing world is very much in doubt.
With countries such as China experiencing significant gains in the economic market, achieved greatly through an influx of foreign direct investments (FDIs) as overseas companies search for cheaper labour, the issue of whether a stronger economy has alleviated poverty and inequality amongst it’s citizens remains in question. Sub-Saharan Africa represents a large percentage of the poorest nations on the planet (Mathunhu 2011). Due to a number of issues including political corruption, geographic difficulties and a recent reliance on foreign aid, Africa has been adversely affected by economic globalisation. Whilst research from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund shows increases in the average minimum wage globally, suggesting improved living conditions for people around the world, those who study the effects of economic globalisation on a more intimate level, argue that this in...

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... behind the nation’s economic success. In China, the influence of foreign direct investors puts pressure on the local businesses to provide cheaper and faster services. This then filters down to the workers whose rights are then restricted to ensure cheaper factory costs.
The difficulty with studies into the levels of poverty and inequality within a country and on a global scale is the ideologies of the organisations conducting them that can . As such, it is difficult to paint a truly unbiased picture of the current state of global poverty and inequality. What is possible however is to at least garner an idea of the extent of these issues and start working towards alleviating their effects. Ultimately, the issue of poverty and inequality is not simply an issue for those countries affected. Instead, it is an issue that the world, as a global market, needs to address.

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