Measuring Globalization Beyond Economics

A challenging task to say the least, scholars at KOF Swiss Economic Institute have created their Index of Globalization 2008, which seeks to quantify not only economic globalization, but social and political globalization as well.  Using data for 122 countries over the period 1970-2005, the index utilizes sub-indices and variables such as:

• economic flows and restrictions to measure economic globalization;
• personal contact, information flows, and cultural proximity to gauge social globalization;and
• embassies in country and membership in international organizations to assess political globalization.

According to rankings, Belgium rates as the most globalized country overall, and western European nations in general occupy most of the top 20 places.  Of note are the rankings of the U.S.: overall, it ranks 22nd, yet in terms of economic globalization, it places 61st, behind countries like Indonesia, Kuwait, and El Salvador.  For social globalization, it only rates 24th, but it is the second most politically globalized country, behind only France.  While some of the indicator variables used to build the Index may be imprecise (e.g. number of McDonald’s restaurants and Ikea stores per capita to measure cultural proximity), the effort to concretely measure the multiple dimensions of globalization is both commendable and useful nonetheless.

Hat Tip: Dani Rodrik’s weblog