World economy. The concept and stages of development of the world economy

The world economy is a complex system. The entire set of national economies is fastened by the movement of goods, services and factors of production. On this basis, international economic relations arise between countries, i.e. economic relations between residents and non-residents.

The concept and subjects of the world economy

In domestic and foreign literature there are various approaches to the definition of the concept "world economy". The most important of them are:

1) the world economy - a set of national economies, connected to each other by the system of international division of labor. This definition is based on the concept of the world economy as the sum of national economies;

2) the world economy - the world system of industrial and financial relations. This approach reflects the main components of the world economy - the sphere of real production and the sphere of circulation;

3) world economy - a set of national-state and non-state structures, as well as their interactions based on the international division of labor and political contacts. In this interpretation, the world economy is a single economic space (megaeconomy), in which the subjects of economic relations are: the national economies of the countries of the world; the subjects of world business are transnational corporations and their alliances; institutions of the world economy - international economic organizations.

National economies of the world - the most important subjects of the world economy. In the world there are more than 180 states. Among a significant number of states with various indicators of economic development, it is customary to single out different groups of countries classified by essential features.

Transnational corporations (TNCs) are the largest companies in the world, which are international in scope, but have national capital in the home country.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century in the world there were approximately 70 thousand TNCs and 850 thousand of their branches. About 50 thousand parent companies are located in developed countries. TNK accounts for about 50% of world production and 2/3 of the world’s foreign trade. The capitalization of each of the world's largest TNCs, located in the top ten, is several hundred billion dollars.

Among the features of modern TNCs are the enormous size of TNCs, which are represented by giant industrial and financial complexes with a turnover of several billion dollars, as well as the role of TNCs, which is determined by the importance of industries where corporate interests are concentrated. These are advanced knowledge-intensive manufacturing industries, closely related to scientific and technological progress: automotive, electronic, chemical, pharmaceutical, etc.

International economic organizations are the institutions of the world economy, whose role has especially increased in recent decades. Most international economic organizations are non-state, there are about 3,000. These include such well-known organizations as the WTO, the IMF, the OECD, etc. Another group of organizations is interstate, about 400 of them. Among them are the EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, etc.

Stages of development of the world economy

The world economy began to take shape long ago. It all started with world trade, which is a collection of foreign trade of all countries of the world. At the earliest stages of human history, entire nations could come into direct contact with each other. Such contacts arose during migrations, mass flight from natural disasters, with power sections of territories, exchanges.

The inhabitants of the first state in the world (Egypt), even 5 thousand years ago, traded with neighboring tribes, buying wood, metals, and cattle from them in exchange for handicraft products and agriculture. They also organized expeditions for the economic development of new lands. At the same time, the tribes living in Russia exchanged goods with neighboring tribes.

Merchants began to connect to international trade in goods. Phoenician and Greek merchants not only sold goods throughout the Mediterranean, but also provided services for the transport of goods and foreign passengers.

The region of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, together with the adjoining countries of Western Asia, became the region of the world where the core of the world economy originated in deep antiquity. Gradually, he was joined by other economic regions of the world - first South Asia, then South-Eastern and Eastern Asia, Russia, America, Australia and Oceania, areas of Tropical Africa.

A great contribution to the development of world trade in goods and services was made by the active expansion of market relations, the great geographical discoveries of the XV-XVII centuries, the emergence in the XIX century of the machine industry and modern means of transport and communications.

The expeditions of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Yermak pushed the limits of the world market many times, adding new regions to it. Economic ties with these regions strengthened after the start of mass factory production of finished products in the XIX century. first in Western Europe, and then in North America, Russia and Japan. These were simple and cheap consumer goods. Steamships, railways, and telegraph contributed to their sales. As a result, by the end of the XIX century. formed the global market for goods and services.

At the same time, the movement of factors of production (capital, labor, entrepreneurial skills, technology) intensified in the world. The flows of economic resources went in one direction - from the most developed countries to the less developed ones. British, French, Belgian, Dutch and German capital was a noticeable element of capital accumulation in America and Russia, emigrants from Europe mastered the expanses of North America, South Africa, Australia.

Then the process of moving economic resources became more complex: capital, entrepreneurial abilities and technology began not only to import, but also to export medium-developed countries, and underdeveloped countries actively participated in the export of labor. As a result, the international movement of factors of production becomes reciprocal.

After the world economy was formed at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, it has undergone significant changes. In the process of evolution of the modern world economy there are several stages:

1) the end of XIX - before the First World War. This is the stage of increasing the openness of the world economy. The raw material orientation of world trade prevailed. However, the share of exports grew steadily;

2) the period between the First and Second World Wars. It was characterized by instability and crises that accompanied the development of the world economy. The trend towards autonomy of national economies and protectionism, as well as the decline in the role of exports, has intensified;

3) the period of 1950–70s of the twentieth century. The stage is characterized by the emergence of integration groupings (EU, CMEA), the process of transnationalization, the active movement of technology, entrepreneurial skills and capital, the global market for loan capital has been restored. Socialist and developing states began to lay claim to a special role in the world economy.

4) the period - 1980-90-ies. Developed countries are moving into the era of post-industrialization, many developing countries are overcoming the economic lag (China and NIS), the former socialist countries are switching to a market economy.

5) the end of the twentieth - the beginning of the twenty-first century - the current stage in the formation of the world economy. It is distinguished by an increased degree of exploration of geographic space, the formation of international productive forces, the strengthening of economic interaction and interdependence. The entry of the world economy into a new stage of development is accompanied by the intensification of cooperation between countries in the economic sphere.

World Economy Indicators

To analyze the economic situation of the world economy, a system of indicators characterizing the state and dynamics of the modern world economy is used. The most important of them are:

1) the national wealth of the country as a whole and per capita. National wealth is the aggregate of the accumulated resources of a country, reduced by the value of its financial obligations.

Growth rates of world GDP,%

Source - CIA World Factbook

Other indicators of the development of the world economy

Development indicators of the leading countries of the world

In world practice, it is customary to include elements such as productive assets, non-productive assets (land, houses and used natural resources), major intangible assets (intellectual property) and financial assets (money, gold, securities, etc.) into national wealth. .

2) gross domestic product (GDP) - the market value of final goods and services produced in the country for the year is one of the most frequently used indicators of the world economy. GDP per capita is the most important indicator of the world economy, usually calculated in US dollars. The GDP growth rate is also estimated as the most important indicator of a country's economic growth, most often on average over the year. Indicator 3-4% - the normal rate of economic growth of the country. The GDP growth rate of 6–10% per year is high;

3) indicators of the country's participation in international economic relations. They are diverse. Among them, there is such a frequently used indicator as foreign trade quota - the percentage ratio of the sum of exports and imports to GDP. Another indicator is the foreign trade turnover per capita calculated as the average value of a country's exports per citizen of a given country.

Modern world economy

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the world economy acquires a new quality, the most important form and at the same time a new stage in the internationalization of whose economic life becomes globalization. According to IMF experts, this phenomenon is a growing economic interdependence of countries around the world as a result of the increasing volume and diversity of international transactions in goods, services and global capital flows, as well as the ever faster and wider diffusion of technology. Thus, globalization is a process of movement towards the world economic, financial, informational and humanitarian space, causing overcoming state barriers to the movement of information, capital, goods, services and the increasing role of supranational institutions of economic regulation.

The main driving forces of the globalization process are the deepening of the international division of labor and the information revolution. The degree of openness and interdependence of national economies is sharply increasing. Global economic processes become dominant, and the center of gravity of entrepreneurial strategy moves from the national to the supranational level. The national state is gradually losing the ability to effectively use traditional levers of macroeconomic regulation (import barriers, export subsidies, the national currency rate, the central bank refinancing rate) and is forced to focus in its economic policy on global trends.

At present, the logic of evolution has led the world economy from the internationalization of exchange to the internationalization of capital and production. In the course of competition between countries, a system of international division of labor has emerged, which is reflected in the sustainable production of goods and services in individual countries over and above their domestic needs for the international market, and is based on international specialization and international cooperation.

Another important trend in the development of the modern world economy has become the economic convergence and interaction of countries at the regional level. International economic integration is a process of economic and political unification of countries based on the development of deep stable relationships and the division of labor between individual national economies. The highest form of interstate economic integration is an economic and monetary union. Integration processes are most developed in Western Europe (EU) and North America (North American Free Trade Association - NAFTA).

In addition to integration associations, associations of countries-producers and exporters of raw materials, free economic zones occupy a rather prominent place in the interaction processes in the economic sphere of individual states. Thus, the global economic relations, manifested in the internationalization of production and integration, have led to the strengthening of the interconnection of individual national economies, the formation of the integrity of the world economy.