Some Consequences of Globalization for Developing Countries

Globalization improves the prospects for developing countries (DCs) to catch up economically with industrialized countries. Depending on economic policies with respect to openness and factor accumulation, globalization may increase capital and technology flows to DCs, thereby generating a higher rate of income growth than would be possible in a less integrated world economy. Nevertheless, many observers draw an overly pessimistic picture of the perspectives of DCs in the era of globalization, mainly for three reasons. First, DC membership in institutionalized regional integration schemes such as in Europe and North America is sometimes considered to be a necessary precondition for economic success. Second, a low level of interfirm technology cooperation between rich and poor countries is feared to delink DCs from technological progress. Third, a relatively high concentration of foreign direct investment flows on a few advanced DC hosts is said to limit the development prospects for the majority of DCs. The paper shows that such concerns are largely unfounded