Main Characteristics, Similarities and Differences of the Two Waves of Globalization

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What are the main characteristics, similarities and differences of the two waves of globalization? What aspects of the first wave of globalization do BAIROCH and KOZUL-WRIGHT define as myths? The globalization is usually defined as the arising of the interdependence between countries and people. On this paper, we focus on the economic part of these risings of interdependence. We first should locate the two waves within the time. The first wave of globalization is considered to start from 1970 and to ends in 1929 because of the economic crises. Therefore, the period between 1913 and 1929 stay peculiar because of the First World War. The second wave, the current period of globalization starts from around 1970 to nowadays. These periods share some characteristics that make them alike in some important ways. The two waves of globalization are both characterized by an increasing in international trade and in capital flows. Both globalizations also had a notable increasing effect on worldwide growth. During the first wave, a low tariff barriers policy was driven. Improving in long distance transportation and improving in communication occurred as well. It was the combination of these three important features that stimulated the export growth and the trade flow. The same characteristics can be seen for the second wave. WTO tries to lower the obstacles to international trade like tariff barriers. Improving in long distance transportation and in communication are also seen, with the phone network development for example or more recently internet that allows improving in communication and information (it also spread to financial sphere and made of it a more and more important feature our economic time). For instance, the spread of containers facilitate a lot goods’ transportation. Both waves induced immiserization, they enlarged the gap between the extremes. We can
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