Chapter 3: Global Economy: GNI, Trade, Manufacturing, FDI

INTRODUCTION

For millennia when philosophers fonder about the planet and the possible paths of the evolution of human society, they list inhabitable land, people living as families and dams and then various forms of economic activities necessary to sustain their existence. These descriptions are found in the writing of Plato and Aristotle more than two thousand years ago, as they are true of Ibn Khaldun who wrote a little less than a thousand years ago. The key sectors of the economy described in these perennial writings are also not all that different from the basic contours of contemporary reality. They constitute Agricultural production, manufacturing, Service of Various kinds and trading. The complexity and the volumes of all these activities have changed beyond recognition, but the essential characteristics of the various types of the economy remain as they were.

For the purposes of this Global Barometer of Facts and Opinions, we will focus on Five types of economic activities, namely, Gross National Income, Sectoral distribution with a focus on the ‘manufacturing’ sector by way of example, volumes of Trade including both exports and imports, Foreign Direct investments (FDI), in which express trends on the globalization of economic activity and Research and Development (R&D) expenditures which reflect the historic shift from investments in agriculture as the leading edge of the economic leadership to investments in scientific and technological research, R + D, expenditures in the current times.

The World Bank Development indicators dataset provides data on ________ indicators of economic activity. However, for the purpose of the G & G Global Barometer, we have chosen only ________ indicators. Our objective is limited to using the Barometer as a teaching tool for students and teachers, and as a research guide for researchers, who might reach out to the World Bank Development Indicators dataset when they need information beyond their five indicators.

Below we more to the Examples Section of this Chapter, and then to the Glossary Section which provides definitions of each of the indicators used in our Examples section

EXAMPLES

Example # 1: Gross National Income (GNI)

Query 1: Can we find out the shifts in the inter-continental share of Gross National Income of nation-states in the post-colonial period, say beginning in 1960 and bringing us up-to-date in say 2020?

Table # 1 Percent share of Gross National Income (in USD at purchasing power parity (PPP) measuring system)

Query 2: Can we compare the inter-Continental shares of GNI in the long history, millennial perspective over the period of the last two thousand years?

Query 3: Per Capita GNI: Can we look at the trend graph of per capita GNI for ten regions of the world during the period 1980 to the recent, say 2020.

Table # 2 GNI per capita value in USD at PPP (Purchasing power parity)

Example # 2: Trade Values

Query 1: (Total Value of Trade): Can we find out the total value of trade, including both exports and imports, for various nations of the world; and look at the 10 continental regions of the world? Could you tell us the dollar value (USD at PPP) as well as percent share in total global trade? Please rank the order from high value to low.

Table # 3 Total trade (Exports Plus Imports)

Value of Ten regions of the world

Query 2: (Trade Data of Value of Trade): Can we now see how the share of various regions of the world has shifted, say, since 1990?

Table # 4 Percent share in world trade

Example # 3: Value of Manufacturing Sector

Query 1: Can we know the total value added of the Manufacturing Sector across the globe and summarize whether the share of Manufacturing sector has undergone a change during, say, the low thirty years.

Table # 5 Percent of share in worldwide manufacturing value

Example # 4: Value of FDI in USD

Query 1: Please give the Net flow of FDI (flow minus outflow) for the following economic zone of the world. These special regional groupings have been constructed due to the nature of the subject: North America plus Western Europe (Zone#1), Northeast Asia, Region # 10: Southeast (zones 3); Rest of the world (zones 4).

Table # 6 Value of Net FDI

Example # 4: Annual R & D Expenditure

Query 1: Can you provide an estimated value of expenditure (in USD, PPP) on R & D for the G-20 countries. Rank order in value terms.

Table # 7 G20 Countries Research and Development Expenditure