After a description of the new forms of globalization currently shaping our world, and of their possible spatial effects, the book highlights which European regions have in the past succeeded in taking advantage of globalization trends and identifies the major reasons for their success. The book also offers a prospective analysis utilizing scenarios based on different assumptions of how globalization trends will develop, identifying the regional winners and losers for each scenario. The analysis greatly benefits from a unique database which contains, among others, data on FDI by sector and professions at the regional Nuts-2 level for all 27 EU countries. A time-span of more than 10 years is covered, and scenarios are developed for the future development up to 2020.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.

Globalization and Development draws upon the experiences of the Latin American and Caribbean region to provide a multidimensional assessment of the globalization process from the perspective of developing countries. Based on a study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), this book gives a historical overview of economic development in the region and presents both an economic and noneconomic agenda that addresses disparity, respects diversity, and fosters complementarity among regional, national, and international institutions. For orders originating outside of North America, please visit the World Bank website for a list of distributors and geographic discounts at http://publications.worldbank.org/howtoorder or e-mail [email protected].

Cross-border regions are newly emerging social spaces stretching across national borders. Globalization makes national borders more permeable and leads to a rearrangement of economic and political interactions. This is particularly pronounced within supra-regional blocs featuring specific internal border regimes. The ensuing opportunities are increasingly seized to create border-spanning discourses and institutions. This is illustrated in the book by a range of experts analyzing cross-border regions in Europe, America, East Asia and Africa.

This paper analyzes the evolution of the degree of global cyclical interdependence over the period 1960-2005. We categorize the 106 countries in our sample into three groups-industrial countries, emerging markets, and other developing economies. Using a dynamic factor model, we then decompose macroeconomic fluctuations in key macroeconomic aggregates-output, consumption, and investment-into different factors. These are: (i) a global factor, which picks up fluctuations that are common across all variables and countries; (ii) three group-specific factors, which capture fluctuations that are common to all variables and all countries within each group of countries; (iii) country factors, which are common across all aggregates in a given country; and (iv) idiosyncratic factors specific to each time series. Our main result is that, during the period of globalization (1985-2005), there has been some convergence of business cycle fluctuations among the group of industrial economies and among the group of emerging market economies. Surprisingly, there has been a concomitant decline in the relative importance of the global factor. In other words, there is evidence of business cycle convergence within each of these two groups of countries but divergence (or decoupling) between them.

'Global trends and local effects have been almost ubiquitous since the 1980s. However, few, like this book, have successfully examined the local effects of global trends and processes. Each of this book's ten chapters provides an empirically based analysis that illuminates the local effects driven by global forces.' – Roger Stough, George Mason University, US This timely book investigates the challenges that emerge for local economies when faced with the new globalization trends that characterize today's world economy. In this instance, globalization is interpreted as a process of internationalization of production and markets which can take various forms – such as increasing international trade or increasing foreign direct investments – all of which give rise to the growing integration and interdependency of European economies with regard to the other main world economies. the expert contributors use a fresh perspective in their analysis of globalization trends, emphasizing recent changes and providing an up-to-date picture of current developments in both foreign investments and the consequent migration of human capital. Qualitative rather than quantitative trends in human capital and financial capital flows are taken into account, with a particular focus on their impacts on regional growth perspectives. Highlighting the European economy's strengths and weaknesses in facing the challenges of the new globalization trends, this book will provide a stimulating read for a wide-ranging audience encompassing scholars of regional science, regional economics, economic and regional geography, international economics and international business.