1 . The essence of the concept of "World Economy".
WORLD ECONOMY - the economy of all countries of the world community, considered taking into account inter-country economic relationships and interactions. This is a set of national economies united by various types of world economic ide.
The world economy as a science (or academic discipline) is part of the theory of a market economy that studies the patterns of economic interaction between different states in the field of international exchange of goods and services, the movement of factors of production relations.
The world economy is a set of national economies of the countries of the world, interconnected by mobile factors of production. This is a worldwide, global, geo-economic space in which goods, services, and capital circulate freely in the interests of increasing the efficiency of material production.
world economy- a set of national economies of the countries of the world, interconnected by mobile factors of production. This is a worldwide, global, geo-economic space in which goods, services, and capital circulate freely in the interests of increasing the efficiency of material production.
The characteristic features of the modern world economy are as follows:
Development of the international movement of factors of production, primarily in the form of export-import of capital, labor and technology;
The growth on this basis of international forms of production at enterprises located in several countries, primarily within the framework of transnational corporations;
The economic policy of states, which provides for the support of the international movement of goods and factors of production on a bilateral and multilateral basis;
The emergence of an open economy within many states and interstate associations.
2. Natural resource potential of the world economy
Natural resources are the primary source, the starting base for the economies of all countries at all stages of their development. There are two types of natural resources: renewable and non-renewable. Renewable resources can be used periodically and in an amount that does not deplete their cash for future consumption. Renewable natural resources include land, sea, rivers, solar heat and energy, etc. Forests, wildlife and fish stocks can also be examples of renewable resources. If logging and fishing are carried out moderately and rationally, then nature itself will take care of their reproduction. Non-renewable resources include those that are used once and are not reproduced by nature itself. Such resources include coal, oil, gas, etc.
Natural resources have two important economic dimensions - stock size and flow. The size of the stock of each resource is determined by the very nature and intensity of the previous use. The flows of natural resources depend on the level of their annual consumption. Human needs determine this flow, and depending on them, natural resources can be consumed quickly, slowly, or not used at all.
Labor force as an active part of the population - second important component. The higher its proportion in the composition of the population, the greater the productive potential of the national economy.
The size of the employed (active) labor force depends on many economic, social and demographic factors. In terms of the share of employed, developing countries are significantly inferior to developed countries, and the number of hours worked per week is much higher in developing countries.
The rapid growth of the population in developing countries, the low share of its active part, significantly slows down, even lowers the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which dooms the ongoing efforts for economic development to failure. All attempts to solve the problems of economic growth in developing countries on their own are doomed to failure. The solution of the issue is possible only within the framework of the world economy, in which each country will find its own food in the MRI system.
What population size should be considered optimal from an economic point of view, and what are the criteria for such optimality? Since the per capita income depends on the population, the optimal amount is the amount that maximizes per capita income .
Human resources and the movement of the population as a whole is engaged demography- a science that, on the basis of social, economic, biological, geographical factors, explores the patterns that occur in the structure, dynamics, as well as the distribution and movement of the population. On the basis of this, a population policy is developed, forecast estimates are made of changes in the country's population of the country, region and within the framework of the world economy as a whole.
An integral part of the demographic processes in the global economy are the processes of urbanization . Urbanization - This is a multilateral socio-economic, demographic and geographical process occurring on the basis of historically established forms of social and territorial division of labor. In the narrow sense of the word, this is the growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the proportion of the urban population in a country, region, and world.
With a fixed level of technology, land and capital, too small a population does not provide adequate scope either for the maximum effect of the division of labor, or for the full realization of the effect of scale in the production of national industry.
Problems of big cities: a significant geographic mismatch between jobs and the labor force in the suburbs and the city center, which requires the creation of an efficient transport system; environmental pollution.
Fossil resources. Their deposits have a different degree of exploration and a different degree of assessment accuracy. In foreign countries, the following classification is applied. According to the degree of exploration, explored reserves are divided into reliable and probable. There is also a category of possible reserves. In general, the study of the bowels is still insufficient. The proportion of proven reserves for certain types of minerals sometimes amounts to several percent of geological reserves. Mineral reserves vary by country.
Influence of the natural resource potential of the state on the development of the national economy and its integration into the IER.
To understand this issue, it is necessary to get acquainted with the essence of the so-called . "Dutch Syndrome". Many countries rich in raw materials are subject to its influence, incl. and Russia. essence "Dutch Syndrome" is that the presence of a large number of various minerals does not at all guarantee a country's prosperity, and under certain conditions even harms its economy, and vice versa. As a rule, a stable inflow of export earnings from the fuel and energy complex or other primary industries (sectors) leads to the fact that the country ceases to pay attention to the development of its manufacturing industry, preferring to purchase imported equipment and finished products.
In Russia, this disease began to develop in the 70s. This was due to a jump in oil prices and the discovery of new oil fields in Western Siberia (Samotlor and others). Soviet industry, during this period, produced mostly non-competitive products. In addition, the USSR had no export orientation and came into contact with the outside world exclusively through the supply of raw materials and fuel. High-tech equipment was purchased for export proceeds, and most of it was not accepted by the economy, because. the system that existed at that time was not focused on innovation. Strange as it may seem, radical reforms only exacerbated the situation. The reformers, guided by the Darwinian principle of natural selection (everything that is viable should survive, and that which is not viable, will die), pushed the domestic economy not to renewal, but to primitivization. It has become even more focused on fuel and raw material exports.
An example of the opposite approach is the experience of Western Europe, Japan, the USA and the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs). The first three, faced with a fuel and raw material crisis in the 70s, concentrated on the development of energy-saving technologies and reduced energy consumption by 30% over 30 years. The second (NIS) took advantage of the transfer of labor-intensive industries from developed countries to developing countries, which began in the 60s, and began to fill a niche in the market for consumer goods and household appliances.
The main difference between the experience of the raw-material countries of Southeast Asia and Russia is that they, albeit with a twenty-year delay, nevertheless placed emphasis on the development of the manufacturing industry.
Thus it is possible to do conclusion, that the presence of minerals is an important condition for the country's integration into the IER, however, if the stake is placed only on them, this inevitably leads to a weakening of the country's position in terms of the competitiveness of its exports, because. stable income can only be provided export of manufactured products . The experience of the countries of Southeast Asia shows that economic success can also be associated with the quality of the labor force. Confucianism left the most important qualities to these countries: discipline, learning, diligence, patriotism.
3. Classification of countries according to the level of socio-economic development
Not all countries (and there are about two hundred of them) are equally involved in the world economy. From the point of view of their level of development and socio-economic organization of production and the complex structure of the world economy, the center and the periphery are quite clearly visible.
The center is a relatively small group of industrialized countries (24 states), which account for almost 55% of world GDP and 71% of world exports.
The periphery includes mainly developing countries. With all their diversity, a number of common features can be distinguished:
The multistructural nature of the economy with a predominance of non-market relations and non-economic levers of organizing the economy;
Low level of development of productive forces, backwardness of industry and agriculture;
Raw material specialization.
NEW INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES - a group of developing countries that have reached, by the end of the 20th century. a significant economic upsurge, which, in terms of basic socio-economic indicators, approached economically developed countries, such as Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, etc.
A country's activity in world trade is measured using indicators such as:
a) export quota, i.e. the ratio of the volume of exported goods and services to GDP/GNP; at the industry level, this is the share of all goods and services exported by the industry in their total volume;
b) import quota- an indicator that characterizes the volume of imports of a certain product, established in accordance with the needs for it and the volumes of its own production. It is the ratio of a country's gross imports to its GDP. It shows how much imports make up of GDP;
in) foreign trade quota is the ratio of a country's foreign trade turnover to its GDP. It shows the total volume of external trade turnover of a given country with a partner country or with the entire world community, i.e. serves to measure the level of development of foreign economic relations of a given country.
b) export structure , those. the ratio or specific gravity of exported goods by type and degree of their processing. The structure of exports makes it possible to highlight the raw material or machine-technical orientation of exports, the country's role in international industry specialization;
in) import structure, the ratio of volumes of raw materials imported into the country and finished products. This indicator most clearly shows the dependence of the country's economy on the external market and the level of development of the sectors of the national economy;
d) the comparative ratio of the country's share in world production of GDP / GNP and its share in world trade. So, if the country's share in the world production of any type of product is 10%, and its share in world trade in this product is 1-2%, then this means that the goods produced do not correspond to the world quality level as a result of the low development of this industry.
4. The international division of labor and its significance for the development of the world economy
INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOR - specialization of countries in the production of certain types of goods, for the manufacture of which the country has cheaper resources and preferable conditions compared to other countries. With such specialization, the needs of countries are satisfied not only by their own production, but also through international trade. This is the specialization of individual countries in the production of certain goods and services in order to sell them in other countries.
MRI is a system or method of organizing interdependent production, in which enterprises of different countries specialize in the manufacture of certain goods and services, and then exchange them.
The first factor has to do with natural benefits. These include reserves of natural resources, specific climatic conditions.
Other factors are related to acquired benefits. Thus, an excess of machinery and equipment relative to other resources stimulates specialization in the production of capital-intensive products. Countries that invest heavily in public education and knowledge production gain a comparative advantage in the production of high-tech and knowledge-intensive products.
The main motive for MRI for all countries of the world, regardless of social and economic differences, is their desire for economic benefits.
Intra-industry, which expresses the concentration of efforts of enterprises from different countries that are part of an industry on the production of certain items and the exchange of these items between them.
Within its framework, it is necessary to distinguish between single-species, multi-species and all-species subject intra-industry specialization.
Intersectoral, which means the division of labor between different branches of the same kind of production (industry, agriculture, etc.).
Intergeneric, this is the division of labor between the types of production - industry and agriculture, industry and construction, etc. national economic I in its economic content, it corresponds to the interregional form of the division of labor within the country and represents the division of activities between countries on the scale of their complete national economies.
5. The process of internationalization of the modern world economy
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF ECONOMY - formation, development of economic relations with other countries; processes of economic rapprochement, manifested in the growth of international trade and other forms of international economic cooperation, the growth of intercountry financial flows, labor migration. There are internationalization of production, capital, trade, science. One of the important forms of internationalization of the economy is the emergence and development of transnational corporations. The economic basis of the modern world economy is the internationalization of production - the development of such organizational and economic forms that link the production of some countries with the consumption of its results in others.
Internationalization of business activities- this is the strengthening of the interconnection and interdependence of the economies of individual countries, the influence of international economic relations on national economies, the participation of countries in the world economy.
In its development, the internationalization of the economy has passed a series of stages . Initially, it was an international economic cooperation: it affected, first of all, the sphere of circulation and was associated with the emergence of international trade (the end of the 18th - the beginning of the 20th century). At the end of the 19th century, the international movement of capital is gaining momentum. International economic cooperation means the development of stable economic ties between countries and peoples, the expansion of the reproduction process beyond national borders.
The next stage was international economic integration, objectively due to the deepening of the international division of labor, the internationalization of capital, the global nature of scientific and technological progress and the increase in the degree of openness of national economies and freedom of trade. Integration translated from Latin (integratio) means the connection of individual parts into a common, whole, united.
International economic integration- convergence and mutual adaptation of national economies, their inclusion in a single reproduction process on an international scale. This is a process of economic interaction between countries, leading to convergence of economic mechanisms, taking the form of interstate agreements and coordinated by interstate bodies.
Economic integration, in particular, is expressed in :
Cooperation between the national economies of different countries and their complete or partial unification;
Elimination of barriers in the movement of goods, services, capital, labor between these countries;
Convergence of the markets of each of the individual countries in order to form one single (common) market;
Erasing differences between economic entities belonging to different states;
The absence of any form of discrimination against foreign partners in each of the national economies, etc.
By the end XX in. practically all civilized countries participate in various international economic organizations. For example, by 1996, 183 countries were members of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 180 states were members of the World Bank (WB), about 150 countries are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), over 100 countries are members of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs. It is important to note that international law does not prevent the simultaneous participation of any country in several international economic organizations.
Although practically all states of the globe take part in the world integration process, the degree of participation of each of them in this process is not the same. Some of them are at the lowest stages of economic integration, while others, having reached the highest limits of international economic relations today, are expanding interstate cooperation to the level of military and political spheres.
Integration prerequisites are as follows:
Proximity of levels of economic development and degree of market maturity of integrating countries
The geographical proximity of the integrating countries, the presence in most cases of a common border and historically established economic ties.
The commonality of economic and other problems facing countries in the field of development, financing, economic regulation, political cooperation, etc.
demo effect.
"Domino effect".
Goals of integration
Taking advantage of economies of scale .
Creation of a favorable foreign policy environment .
Solving the problems of trade policy.
Promoting economic restructuring .
Support for young national industries .
Stages of integration
On the first level , when the countries are just taking the first steps towards mutual rapprochement, they conclude preferential trade agreements (Table 12.1). Such agreements can be signed either on a bilateral basis between individual states, or between an already existing integration group and a separate country or group of countries. According to them, countries provide more favorable treatment to each other than they provide to third countries.
On the second level integration countries are moving to creation free trade zones , which no longer provides for a simple reduction, but the complete abolition of customs tariffs in mutual trade while maintaining national customs tariffs in relations with third countries.
Third level integration linked to education customs union(TS)- the agreed cancellation by the group of national customs tariffs and the introduction of a common customs tariff and a unified system of non-tariff regulation of trade in relation to third countries. The customs union provides for duty-free intra-integration trade in goods and services and complete freedom of their movement within the region. Usually, a customs union requires the creation of an already more developed system of interstate bodies coordinating the implementation of a coordinated foreign trade policy. Most often they take the form of periodic meetings of ministers leading the relevant departments, which in their work rely on a permanent interstate secretariat.
When the integration process reaches fourth level - common market (OR) - integrating countries agree on the freedom of movement not only of goods and services, but also of factors of production - capital and labor.
Finally, on the fifth the highest level of integration turns into economic union(ES), which, along with the common customs tariff and freedom of movement of goods and factors of production, also provides for the coordination of macroeconomic policy and the unification of legislation in key areas - currency, budget, and money. At this stage, there is a need for bodies endowed not only with the ability to coordinate actions and monitor economic development, but also to make operational decisions on behalf of the group as a whole. Governments agree to give up part of their functions and thereby concede part of state sovereignty in favor of supranational bodies. Such interstate bodies with supranational functions are empowered to make decisions on matters relating to the organization without the consent of the governments of the member countries. Within the EU, this is the EU Commission.
It is fundamentally possible that there is sixth level integration - political union (PU) , which would provide for the transfer by national governments of most of their functions in relations with third countries to supranational bodies.
9.Globalization of the world economy
ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION - strengthening of interconnections, interactions and interdependence of economies, economic systems of different countries of the world; The globalization of the world economy can also be characterized as an increase in the interdependence and mutual influence of various spheres and processes of the world economy, which is expressed in the gradual transformation of the world economy into a single market for goods, services, capital, labor and knowledge.
The process of globalization covers different areas of the world economy, namely:
· external, international, world trade in goods, services, technologies, objects of intellectual property;
international movement of factors of production (labor, capital, information);
· international financial-credit and currency transactions (gratuitous financing and assistance, credits and loans of subjects of international economic relations, transactions with securities, special financial mechanisms and instruments, currency transactions);
· production, scientific and technical, technological, engineering and information cooperation.
Economic globalization is the process of accumulation of structural shifts and the gradual formation of an organically integral world economy
The main prerequisites (driving forces) that determine the process of globalization are:
1. Production, scientific, technical and technological:
a sharp increase in the scale of production;
· the rapid dissemination of knowledge as a result of scientific or other types of intellectual interchange;
2. Organizational:
· international forms of implementation of production and economic activities (TNCs): organizational forms, the scope of which go beyond national boundaries, acquire an international character, contributing to the formation of a single market space;
· exit of non-governmental organizations to the multinational or world level. A new global role began to be played by such international organizations as the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, etc.;
3. Economic:
· the introduction by international economic organizations of uniform criteria for macroeconomic policy, the unification of requirements for tax, regional, agrarian, antimonopoly policy, employment policy, etc.;
· Strengthening the trend towards unification and standardization. 4. Informational:
a radical change in the means of business communication, the exchange of industrial, scientific, technical, economic, financial information
· the formation of systems that allow one center to manage production located in different countries, creating opportunities for prompt, timely and effective solution of production, scientific, technical, commercial problems no worse than within individual countries.
5. Political:
· weakening the rigidity of state borders, facilitating the freedom of movement of citizens, goods and services, capital;
· the end of the Cold War, overcoming political differences between East and West.
6. Social and cultural:
· weakening the role of habits and traditions, social ties and customs, overcoming national limitations, which increases the mobility of people in territorial, spiritual and psychological terms, promotes international migration;
· Manifestation of the trend towards the formation of globalized "homogeneous" mass media, art, pop culture.
Overcoming boundaries in education through the development of distance learning;
Globalization processes are most often welcomed in developed countries and cause serious concern in the developing world. The degree of positive impact of globalization processes on the economy of individual countries depends on the place they occupy in the world economy; in fact, rich countries or individuals receive the bulk of the benefits.
The unfair distribution of the benefits of globalization gives rise to the threat of conflicts at the regional, national and international levels.
As problems that can potentially cause negative consequences from globalization processes in all countries, we can name:
deindustrialization of the economy,
Attempts to undermine national sovereignty, i.e. transfer of control over the economy of individual countries from sovereign governments to other hands, including the most powerful states, multinational or global corporations and international organizations.
Rising unemployment.
Potential global instability due to the interdependence of national economies at the global level.
10. Subjects of world economic relations
The subjects of world economic relations are private (individual) persons and organizations (legal entities) engaged in the implementation of international economic transactions.
From the standpoint of the national economy, the subjects are divided into residents and non-residents.
Residents are business entities permanently located on the territory of a given country, regardless of their national (state) affiliation.
Non-residents - economic entities permanently located in the territory of a foreign state, even if they are citizens of this country, but permanently residing abroad, or branches of economic units of this country located outside it.
In addition to organizations directly involved in foreign economic activity, supranational international institutions are beginning to play an increasingly active role in the global economy. They are represented by international economic institutions engaged in organizing and coordinating world economic relations. The tasks of these organizations are the creation of "rules of the game" for the normal functioning of the world economy and control over the practical implementation of world economic relations.
The priority of international law in operations on the world market does not mean the complete internationalization of the foreign economic activity of the state and the replacement of its foreign economic institutions by the activities of international economic organizations.
The duty of any state is to defend national economic interests, including through foreign economic activity. Therefore, in modern conditions, the state itself determines its foreign economic policy. To implement it, each country develops its own national legislation on foreign economic activity. For example, for Russia, the federal laws “On State Regulation of Foreign Trade Activity” are fundamental. .
Direct regulation of foreign economic activity in each country is carried out by special institutions. In Russia, such institutions include: the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, the Ministry for Cooperation with the CIS, the Customs Committee, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vneshtorgbank, etc.
These state organizations register foreign institutional units in the country, regulate exports and imports through the issuance of licenses, quotas and the establishment of customs tariffs, facilitate the signing of interstate agreements, the promotion of domestic residents into economic unions and the world economy as a whole.
The states participating in the world economic process, organizing and regulating international economic relations directly within the country, can also influence world economic relations as a whole. This kind of influence is realized in many ways, primarily by using the right of the participants in one or another international economic organization to develop and correct the rules of the intra-union “game”.
In addition, it should be noted that the states participating in the world economic process, especially the most economically developed and wealthy, have both direct and indirect opportunities to influence world economic relations, regulating them in their national interests.
Direct Regulator is protectionism, with the help of which this or that state or union, in its own interests, provides advantages in the export and import of goods, services and capital.
Indirect regulation states can carry out world economic relations through their private firms (especially banks) and transnational companies (TNCs).
Thus, modern states, organizing their national economy for broad participation in the world economic process, at the same time actively organize and regulate the entire complex of world economic relations. This process allows countries not only to defend their economic interests in the international arena, but at the same time to improve and develop the world economy and international economic relations.
11. Classical theories of world trade.
Mercantilists, in fact, proposed the enrichment of some countries at the expense of others, but their merit lies in the fact that they first drew attention to the problems of foreign trade, emphasized its importance for the economic development of countries, described and justified a certain ratio of export and import costs, i.e. . laid the foundation for the balance of payments.
Adam Smith noted that the wealth of a nation depends not so much on the amount of gold it accumulates, but on its ability to produce final goods and leave. He also developed the first classical theory of foreign trade - theory of absolute advantage.
ABSOLUTE ADVANTAGE - the ability of a state, region, company, arising as a result of geographical location, successful location, resource potential, other favorable conditions, to produce goods with minimal production and distribution costs in comparison with other countries, regions, firms that produce the same or similar goods. Thanks to this advantage, it is possible to sell your product on the market at a lower price and bypass competitors. A. Smith argued that those countries that actively participate in the international division of labor will receive the greatest benefit. A country that has certain advantages in the production of a product should specialize in its release for delivery to other countries.
Theory of Absolute Advantage- countries export those goods that they produce at lower cost (in the production of which they have an absolute advantage), and import those goods that are produced by other countries at lower costs (in the production of which their trading partners have an advantage).
This statement of A. Smith was supplemented by David Ricardo, creating theory of comparative benefits .
COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES - lower costs of one producer compared to the costs of another, which allows you to divide the output between them in favor of the first producer to obtain greater returns, benefits. Comparative advantages are most characteristic of different countries and are manifested in international trade.
Theory of comparative advantage - the producers of a country specialize in the production of those goods which they can produce at a relatively lower cost than in other countries, then trade will be mutually beneficial for both countries, regardless of whether production in one of them is absolutely more efficient than in the other.
Ricardo proved that foreign trade brings additional benefits even to countries with highly efficient economies.
in the 20-30s of our century to the creation Heckscher-Ohlin theories .
Heckscher-Ohlin theorem - each country exports those factor-intensive goods for the production of which it has relatively excess factors of production, and imports those goods for the production of which it experiences a relative shortage of factors of production.
In this theory, the factors that determine the international division of labor are already associated not only with the natural conditions of production in the country, but with the realities that have arisen in the process of development of production. The theory proceeded from the fact that the historical and natural conditions of development of individual countries predetermined the unevenness in providing them with labor resources and capital. Therefore, different factor intensity and factor saturation determines the specialization of the country in the production of certain goods.
Factor intensity is the ratio of the costs of various factors of production for the production of a particular product
Factor saturation is the relative endowment of the country with factors of production .
Factor price equalization theorem (Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson theorem) - international trade leads to the equalization of absolute and relative prices for homogeneous factors of production in trading countries
In 1947, the American economist Wassily Leontiev, studying the structure of US exports and imports, found that more labor-intensive goods were exported and capital-intensive goods were imported. V. Leontiev's research showed the opposite, and his result became known as Leontief's paradox .
Leontief's paradox- The Heckscher-Ohlin theory of the ratio of factors of production is not confirmed in practice: labor-surplus countries export capital-intensive products, while capital-surplus countries export labor-intensive ones.
An attempt to take into account the influence of the scientific and technological revolution in international trade led to the creation neotechnological theories foreign trade. Their supporters try to explain the emergence of foreign trade relations not by the availability of factors of production, as the neoclassicists did, but by the costs of research and development, the level of average wages and the proportion of skilled labor. This school explains the emergence of advantages by a monopoly on individual discoveries and new technologies, which makes it possible to dominate both the production of these goods and their sale on the world market until these technologies are mastered by other countries.
technology gap theory , the foundations of which were laid by the English economist M. Posner in the early 60s. Posner suggested that if one of the developed countries, as a result of some discovery, has a fundamentally new technology or a new product, then this product will be in demand even in countries with the same resource endowment. Then, as a result of the predominant position of one country, a technological gap arises between countries.
This model was developed by another American economist, Raymond Vernon, who in 1966 published an article describing the product life cycle model, which can be considered both as an independent theory of international trade and as a theory that develops the theory of comparative endowment with factors of production. But, unlike her, she explores the comparative advantage of countries not static but dynamic.
International trade is based on differences in relative prices of goods that arise due to different endowments of countries with specific factors of production, with factors specific to the export sector developing, and factors specific to the sector competing with imports decreasing.
Theory of the firm associated with the strengthening of the role of individual firms and corporations in international trade. AT Ultimately, it is not the nation that always gets comparative advantage, but the individual firm that exports the product. In the course of research, it turned out that technologically complex products are created by a separate company based on the needs and demand that exist within the country. Only after the expansion of production and saturation of the domestic market, the firm can enter the foreign market. But in order to sell your products, you need to find a buyer country, in which the demand structure in the domestic market would be as close as possible to the demand structure of the exporting country. This explains the possibility of trade transactions between countries at the same level of economic development, in particular between developed industrial countries. This position was first substantiated by the American economist E. Linder.
A peculiar generalization of the modern development of the theories of foreign trade is theory of international competitiveness of the nation , developed by the American researcher M. Porter. He came to the conclusion that the place of each country and its specific producers in the world market depends on four main conditions: the quantity and quality of various factors of production, demand conditions in the domestic market, the presence of related and service industries, the strategy of the firm and internal competition.
12. Modern theories of international trade
All theories of international trade in one way or another pay attention to the formation of equilibrium prices in the world market and the distribution of income.
Neoclassical theories considered the problem of income as one of the key ones. Theory Heckscher - Olina argued that the owners of relatively excess factors of production receive additional profits from foreign trade, while the owners of relatively insufficient factors lose.
The theory of specific factors of production substantiates the proposition on the growth of income of the owner of a specific factor used in export productions, and, accordingly, on the reduction in income of the owners of a specific factor used in industries. competing with imports.
In the process of trade between countries, prices for goods sold and bought can change. How will the income of the owners of factors of production change in this case? The answer to this question was given in a study by American economists P. Samuelson and F. Stolper. They suggested that in a particular country two types of goods are produced: one is labor intensive, and the other requires a large amount of land to produce.
Stolper - Samuelson theorem - as a result of rising prices in the world market, the prices of the factor of production that is relatively more intensively used in the production of the first good rise, and the prices of the factor of production that are used relatively intensively in the second production decrease. Moreover, as a rule, the increase or decrease in the price of factors of production occurs to a greater extent than the change in the prices of goods.
English economist T.M. Rybchinsky drew attention to the fact that the rapid development of some industries often leads to a reduction in production in others. In his work, he proceeded from the same conditions as Stolper and Samuelson, except for one thing: he considered the prices of goods to be unchanged.
Rybchinsky's theorem- an increasing supply of one of the factors of production leads to a disproportionately greater percentage increase in production and income in the industry for which this factor is used relatively more intensively, and to a reduction in production and income in the industry in which this factor is used relatively less intensively. From the point of view of international trade, Rybchinsky's theorem says that the expansion of export production due to the increase in supply of a relatively intensive factor will lead to a reduction in other industries, which will force the country to increase imports of goods that are in short supply. An increase in the supply of factors for the development of other industries will accelerate their development and reduce imports.
The distribution of benefits from foreign trade between individual countries depends largely on how domestic prices change under the influence of foreign trade. Of the two countries, the country where prices have changed the most usually wins. This so-called benefit distribution rule, which says that the benefits of foreign trade are distributed in direct proportion to price changes in both countries.
13. Supply and demand in international trade
export resources currency funds- vehicles, warehouses, means of communication, etc. Settlements for foreign trade operations are made by banking organizations, and the country's insurance business insures transportation and cargo.
Export import - trade balance foreign trade turnover .
At the lowest level of the market there is a trade in products of ferrous metallurgy, construction materials, textiles, garments, footwear and other products of light industry. On the Middle level trade in machine tools, vehicles, rubber and plastic products, products of basic chemistry and woodworking. On the highest level aerospace equipment, automated office equipment, information technology, electronics, pharmaceutical products, precision and measuring instruments, electrical equipment are sold. The markets of the last level are the most promising and develop at a much faster pace than other markets.
Quality goods are always more expensive and available only to countries with high per capita incomes. Lower quality goods are bought by countries with low per capita income. This predetermines the fact that countries with the same incomes have approximately the same structure of demand for finished products, and coinciding demand predetermines the most intensive exchange of finished goods between these countries.
14. Types of foreign trade policy
Foreign trade policy
Freedom of trade
Protectionism
The development of protectionist tendencies makes it possible to single out several forms of protectionism:
Selective - directed against individual countries or individual goods;
Sectoral - protects certain industries, primarily agriculture, within the framework of agrarian protectionism;
Collective - carried out by associations of countries in relation to countries that are not members of them;
Hidden - carried out by methods of domestic economic policy.
Protectionism as a theory of foreign economic behavior was established in XIX in. in competition with free trade (the theory and practice of free trade). The results of free trade between countries with different levels of economic development were especially fiercely criticized by supporters of protectionism. It was believed that the developed countries were primarily interested in free trade, but it hindered the creation of a national industry in relatively backward states.
In a developing national economy, protectionist measures are needed for protecting only new industries that have emerged as a result of scientific and technological progress from the competition of efficient foreign firms that have been operating on the world market for quite a long time. It was under the protection of protectionism that the formation and development of the national economy of modern developed countries took place.
During periods of serious aggravation of relations between states and increased international tension, protectionist measures are used to preserve the security of the state, which is facilitated by the production on its territory of all necessary, vital products.
Despite the clearly positive influence of protectionist measures on the development of the national economy and international trade, this method of regulating foreign trade relations has its opponents. As a rule, they distinguish the following arguments against protectionism .
1) protectionism is not beneficial from the point of view of national production, because it destroys the spirit of competition, develops privileges, entails the sclerosis of the economy;
2) it harms the interests of the consumer, because under conditions of customs bans, the selling prices of protected goods are rising. The consumer suffers from this;
3) he is a threat to international peace, because ignites inter-ethnic rivalry, weakens the bonds of interdependence between countries, the fruitful atmosphere of MRI and economic cooperation
4) protectionism is inherent in a certain illogicality - in pursuit of the goal of achieving a positive trade balance, protectionism restrains import operations, international partners also begin to act, as a result of which the volume of export operations is curtailed. This leads not to a positive balance, but to an imbalance.
5) in the conditions of protectionism, the sectors of the national economy protected by its barriers lose their incentives for development, since the mechanisms of competition fade, and the desire for progress and innovation is destroyed by the opportunities to maintain the achieved incomes and monopoly privileges.
6) protectionism has a certain multiplier effect- the technological interconnection between industries leads to the fact that when protectionist protection is introduced for some industries of the technological chain, it is immediately required by industries technologically related to the protected ones.
7) under protectionism, the national economy may not fully use the advantages of international specialization - restrictions on cheaper imported goods do not allow them to be imported into the country.
Freedom of trade- a policy of minimal state intervention in foreign trade, which develops on the basis of free market forces of supply and demand. In this case, the latter is carried out and developed in accordance with the international division of labor and the modern version of the theory of comparative advantage. It is believed that such a policy leads to the most efficient distribution of resources on a global scale and to the maximization of world income. Despite the fact that the theory of free trade is quite convincing and attracts with many advantages, the policy of non-intervention of the state in international trade is practiced very carefully.
Positive aspects are already visible in the criticism of protectionism. Freedom of trade:
1) allows the distribution of products in accordance with the law on comparative production costs and entails an international specialization beneficial to all;
2) facilitates the development of competition and maintains the spirit of innovation not only among national producers, but also in relations with other countries;
3) allows you to expand the market. It leads to the development of mass production, and consequently to lower prices as a result of falling production costs, which is beneficial for the consumer. In addition, the risk of shortages associated with the tight localization of production and markets is reduced.
15. Foreign trade policy of states, its economic instruments
Foreign trade policy is a set of measures used by the state to regulate trade relations and relations with other countries. Although these measures are aimed at trade, they cannot but affect the direct producers and consumers within the country.
Depending on the extent of state intervention in international trade, there are protectionist and free trade policies .
Freedom of trade- a policy of minimal state intervention in foreign trade, which develops on the basis of free market forces of supply and demand.
Protectionism- state policy of protecting the domestic market from foreign competition through the use of tariff and non-tariff instruments of trade policy. This is the theory and practice of regulating foreign trade, aimed at protecting the subjects of the national economy from foreign competition.
FOREIGN TRADE POLICY- part of the state foreign economic policy, export and import policy, the impact on foreign trade through taxes, subsidies and direct restrictions on imports and exports.
The main task of the state in the field of international trade- help exporters to export as much of their products as possible, making their products more competitive in the international market, and limit imports, making foreign products less competitive in the domestic market.
Instruments of state regulation of international trade are divided into tariff- those based on the use of a customs tariff, and non-tariff- all other methods. The latter are divided into quantitative methods and methods of covert protectionism.
customs tariff defined:
An instrument of trade policy and state regulation of the domestic market of the country in its interaction with the world market;
A set of customs duty rates applied to goods transported across the border, systematized in accordance with the commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity;
The specific rate of customs duty payable on the importation or exportation of a certain product into the customs territory of a country. In this case, the concept of a customs tariff completely coincides with the concept of a customs duty.
Import duty (tariff ) - This is the fee for bringing goods into the country. In this case, the price of imported goods on the domestic market rises above the world price. Since the value of the tariff on imports is added to the world price. Tariffs protect domestic producers in import-substituting industries, but domestic consumers lose out
In this situation, domestic producers have the opportunity to expand production, since they do not pay the tariff, and therefore, the "golden equality" of marginal cost and marginal income is achieved by domestic firms with a larger output of goods that are optimal for them.
Types of customs duties .
customs duty- a mandatory fee collected by the customs authorities when importing or exporting goods and which is a condition for import or export. Customs duties comply three main functions :
- fiscal, which applies to both import and export duties, since they are one of the items in the revenue side of the state budget;
- protectionist (defensive) ), related to import duties, since with their help the state protects local producers from unwanted foreign competition;
- balancing, which refers to export duties established to prevent the unwanted export of goods whose domestic prices are, for one reason or another, below world prices.
Classification of customs duties. By way of collection:
- ad valorem- are charged as a percentage of the customs value of taxable goods (for example, 20% of the customs value);
- specific- charged in the prescribed amount per unit of taxable goods ($10 per 1 ton);
- combined- combine both named types of customs taxation (20% of the customs value, but not more than 10 dollars per 1 ton).
According to the object of taxation:
- imported- duties that are imposed on imported goods when they are released for free circulation in the domestic market of the country. They are used to protect national producers.
- export- duties that are imposed on export goods when they are released outside the customs territory of the state;
- transit- duties that are imposed on goods transported through the territory of a given country in transit. They are used extremely rarely, mainly as a means of a trade war;
The nature:
- seasonal- duties that are applied for the operational regulation of international trade in seasonal products. First of all, agricultural. The validity period does not exceed several months;
- anti-dumping- duties that are applied in case of importation into the country of goods at a price lower than their normal price in the exporting country, if such import damages the national producers of such goods or hinders the organization and expansion of the national production of such goods;
- compensatory- duties imposed on the import of those goods in the production of which subsidies were used directly or indirectly, if their import causes damage to national producers of such goods.
Origin:
- autonomous- duties imposed on the basis of unilateral decisions of the state authorities of the country;
- conventional (contractual)- duties established on the basis of a bilateral or multilateral agreement, such as GATT or customs union agreements;
- preferential- duties at lower rates than the customary tariff generally in force, which are imposed on the basis of multilateral agreements on goods originating in developing countries. Their purpose is to support the economic development of these countries by expanding their exports.
By bet type:
- permanent- the customs tariff, the rates of which are set by the state authorities at a time and cannot be changed depending on the circumstances. The vast majority of countries in the world have fixed rate tariffs;
- variables- customs tariff, the rates of which may be changed in cases established by state authorities (when the level of world or domestic prices, the level of state subsidies changes). They are rarely used, for example, in Western Europe within the framework of a single agricultural policy.
By way of calculation:
- nominal- tariff rates specified in the customs tariff. They can only give a very general idea of the level of customs taxation to which a country is subjecting its imports and exports;
- efficient- the actual level of customs duties on final goods, calculated taking into account the level of duties imposed on import units and parts of these goods.
Optimal tariff rate- the level of the tariff, which ensures the maximization of the level of national economic well-being. The optimal tariff has the following main features that must be taken into account when implementing the state foreign economic policy:
The optimal tariff rate is always positive and lies between 0 and the prohibitive tariff rate;
It is always relatively small and inversely proportional to the elasticity of imports;
An optimal tariff leads to an economic gain for one country, but to a loss for the international economy as a whole.
tariff quota . This is a kind of variable customs duties, the rates of which depend on the volume of imports of goods: when importing within certain quantities, it is taxed at the basic intra-quota tariff rate, when a certain volume is exceeded, imports are taxed at a higher super-quota rate.
In addition to tariff methods of state regulation of international trade, governments widely use non-tariff methods - quantitative, hidden and financial. Most of them, unlike customs tariffs, are poorly quantifiable and therefore poorly reflected in statistics. It is this characteristic of non-tariff methods that enables governments to use some or a combination of them to achieve their trade policy objectives.
One of the following indices is commonly used to measure non-tariff methods:
- frequency index- an index showing the share of tariff positions covered by non-tariff restrictions;
- trade coverage index- shows the value share of exports or imports covered by non-tariff restrictions.
- price impact index- the ratio of the world market price and the domestic price of a product whose import or export is subject to non-tariff restrictions.
The government more often prefers non-tariff methods, because politically, they are considered more acceptable because they are not an additional tax burden for the population. In addition, they are more convenient to achieve the desired result. Finally, non-tariff restrictions are almost not regulated by international agreements, and using them governments feel freer than when introducing tariff restrictions, which are regulated by the WTO.
Quantitative restrictions- an administrative form of non-tariff state regulation of trade turnover, which determines the quantity and range of goods allowed for export or import. They can be applied by decision of the government of one country or on the basis of agreements coordinating trade in a particular product.
character.
Quota- a quantitative non-tariff measure to restrict the export or import of goods by a certain amount or amount for a certain period of time. By direction their quota actions are divided into:
Export - are introduced either in accordance with international stabilization agreements that establish the share of each country in the total export of a certain product, or by the country's government to prevent the export of goods that are in short supply on the domestic market;
Import - introduced by the national government to protect local producers, achieve a balanced trade balance, regulate supply and demand in the domestic market, as well as in response to the discriminatory trade policies of other states.
By reach quotas are divided into:
Global - are set for the export and import of a certain product for a certain period of time, regardless of which country it is exported from. Their meaning is to ensure the necessary level of domestic consumption;
Individual - set within the global quota quota of each country that exports or imports goods. They are established on the basis of bilateral agreements that give the main advantages in exports or imports to those countries with which there are close mutual political, economic or other interests.
Closely related to quotas is another type of state regulation of foreign economic activity, called licensing. Licensing - regulation of foreign economic activity through permits issued by government agencies for the export or import of goods in established quantities for a certain period of time. It can be an integral part of the quota process or be an independent regulatory tool. In the first case, the license is only a document confirming the right to import or export goods within the received quota. In the second case the license takes on a number of specific forms (single, general, global, automatic). Licenses are distributed using the following mechanisms:
Auction, which is considered the most cost-effective way of distributing licenses, capable of generating revenues for the state treasury comparable to revenues from customs duties on the same product;
The system of explicit preferences - the assignment by the government of licenses to certain firms in proportion to the volume of their imports for the previous period or in proportion to the structure of demand among national importers;
Distribution of licenses on a non-price basis - the issuance of licenses by the government to those firms that have demonstrated their ability to export or import in the most efficient way.
A quantitative restriction of imports into a country can be achieved not only through the actions of its government to introduce an import tariff or import quotas, but also as a result of measures taken by the government of the exporting country within the so-called. "voluntary" export restrictions. "Voluntary" export restriction- quantitative restriction of exports based on the obligation of one of the trading partners to limit or at least not expand the volume of exports, adopted in the framework of a formal intergovernmental or informal agreement on the establishment of quotas for the export of goods
Technical barriers - hidden methods of trade policy arising from the fact that national technical, administrative and other rules and regulations are designed to prevent the importation of goods from abroad. The most common technical barriers are requirements to comply with national standards, obtain quality certificates for imported products, specific packaging and labeling of goods, compliance with certain sanitary standards, including environmental protection measures, compliance with complicated customs formalities and requirements of protection laws. consumers and more.
Internal taxes and fees - hidden methods of trade policy aimed at increasing the domestic price of imported goods and thereby reducing its competitiveness in the domestic market.
Public Procurement Policy - a hidden method of trade policy that requires government agencies and businesses to buy certain goods only from national firms, even though.
Requirement for the content of local components- a hidden method of the trade policy of the state, which legislates the share of the final product that must be produced by national producers if such a product is intended for sale in the domestic market. Developing countries use this method as part of the import substitution policy, developed countries - in order to maintain employment levels.
Financial methods of trade policy. If the government considers it necessary to stimulate the export of national producers, then it can provide them with subsidies from the budget in one form or another.
Subsidies - cash payments aimed at supporting domestic producers and indirectly discriminating against imports. By nature of payment they are divided into:
- straight - direct payments to the exporter after he has completed an export operation in the amount of the difference between his costs and the income he received. Since the beginning of the 60s, they have been used in the export of ships, aviation equipment and other expensive industrial export goods. Now prohibited by WTO rules;
- indirect- hidden subsidies for exporters through the provision of tax incentives, preferential terms for insurance, loans at a rate below the market rate, the return of import duties, etc.;
Domestic subsidy - the most disguised financial method of trade policy and discrimination against imports, providing for budgetary financing of domestic production of goods that compete with imported ones.
Export subsidy - a financial non-tariff method of trade policy that provides for budgetary payments to national exporters, which allows selling goods to foreign buyers at a lower price than in the domestic market, and thereby boosting exports. The fundamental difference between an import tariff and an export subsidy as a means of trade policy is that the former raises the domestic price of imported goods, while the latter raises the domestic price of exported goods.
Export lending- a method of financial non-tariff foreign trade policy, which provides for financial incentives by the state for the development of exports by national firms. It may take the form:
Subsidizing loans to national exporters - loans issued by state-owned banks at a below-market interest rate;
State loans to foreign importers, subject to the obligatory condition of purchasing goods only from firms of the country that granted such a loan (tied loan);
Insurance of export risks of national exporters, which include commercial and political risks;
Export credits are:
Short term and - for up to 1 year, are used to credit the export of consumer goods and raw materials;
medium-term - for a period of 1 to 5 years, are used to credit the export of machinery and equipment;
long-term - for a period of more than 5 years, are used for lending to the export of investment goods and large projects.
Subsidizing exports in order to speed them up in the face of increased competition can take extreme forms aimed at suppressing competitors and ousting them from the market.
Dumping - a method of financial non-tariff trade policy, which consists in promoting goods to the foreign market by reducing export prices below the normal price level existing in these countries. It can take one of the following forms:
Sporadic dumping is the episodic sale of surplus stocks of goods to the foreign market at reduced prices. Occurs when the domestic production of goods exceeds the capacity of the domestic market;
Intentional dumping - a temporary deliberate reduction in export prices in order to force competitors out of the market and subsequently establish monopoly prices.
Permanent dumping - the constant export of goods at a price below the fair price.
Reverse dumping is the overpricing of exports compared to the selling prices of the same goods on the domestic market.
Mutual dumping is the countertrade of two countries in the same product at reduced prices.
The necessary conditions for dumping are:
Differences in the elasticity of demand for a product in different countries - domestic demand should be less price elastic than demand abroad;
A situation of imperfect competition that would allow the manufacturer to set and dictate prices;
Market segmentation, i.e. the ability of the producer to fence off the domestic market, where he sells goods at high prices, from the external market, where he does it at lower prices.
Dumping is prohibited both by international rules within the WTO and by national anti-dumping duties in the event that dumping is discovered. The latter is understood as a temporary fee in the amount of the difference between the selling prices of goods in the domestic and foreign markets, introduced by the importing country in order to neutralize the negative consequences of unfair price competition based on dumping.
16. International trade its structure and dynamics
INTERNATIONAL TRADE - the totality of trade relations, foreign trade relations of all countries of the world trading with each other.
The need for the emergence and development of a system of relations for the international exchange of goods and services is due to many reasons. Virtually no country has the amount and range of resources needed to fully meet the entire system of needs. Each country has a limited amount of labor and capital, allowing it to produce various goods that are part of the GDP. If for the production of any product in the country there are the best conditions and costs are minimal, then by increasing its production and selling abroad, you can buy goods that cannot be produced domestically or whose production is too expensive. That's why reasons for the existence of foreign trade relations , and consequently, the modern world market always remains an international division of labor and mutual exchange.
The modern world market is a sphere of stable commodity-money relations for the exchange of produced national products. The subjects of these relations can be states, individual organizations and enterprises, as well as private individuals. As well as within the country, in the structure of the world market, one can single out markets for goods and services, markets for labor, capital, and, in addition, markets for the achievements of science and technology. As part of the latter, information markets are becoming increasingly important in modern conditions. In addition, it is possible to single out individual markets on a regional basis - European, Asian, South American, Far Eastern, etc.
In order for a country to trade on the world market, it must have export resources, i.e. stocks of competitive goods and services that are in demand on the world market, currency funds or other means of payment for imports, as well as a developed foreign trade infrastructure- vehicles, warehouses, means of communication, etc. Settlements for foreign trade operations are made by banking organizations, and the country's insurance business insures transportation and cargo. Of course, if necessary, you can use the services of the infrastructure of other countries, but, as a rule, they are very expensive, and each state involved in the world market seeks to create its own infrastructure.
Two counter flows of goods and services form the exports and imports of each country Export- is the sale and export of goods abroad, import - is the purchase and importation of goods from abroad. The difference between the value estimates of exports and imports forms trade balance, and the sum of their estimates is foreign trade turnover .
In the world market, as in any other, demand and supply are formed and the desire for market equilibrium is maintained. To understand how this happens, consider a hypothetical example. Suppose two countries produce and consume the same product, but the resources for its production and the need for it are different.
The world market always balances supply and demand for - exported and imported goods, and world price lies between the minimum and maximum internal equilibrium prices.
17. International regulation of foreign trade and the World Trade Organization
GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE (GATT)- A multilateral agreement adopted in 1948 between many countries of the world, containing rules for concluding intercountry trade contracts and conducting international trade operations. The parties to the agreement provide each other with favorable conditions for mutual trade (most favored nation treatment in trade). The agreement is designed to eliminate unnecessary restrictions and discrimination in foreign trade. In 1995 it was transformed into the WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION.
The Geneva Treaty on the sucking of GATT was signed in 1947 by 23 countries and in 1948 entered into force. Its main principles are the principles of non-discrimination and liberalization of the conditions of international trade.
To belong to the GATT, countries must comply with the about the most favored nation treatment . This is a condition enshrined in international trade agreements, which provides for the provision by the contracting parties to each other of all the rights, advantages and benefits that any third state enjoys and / or will enjoy. The MFN principle is included in the terms of the WTO and is considered the basis for creating a non-discriminatory regime in international trade. It means that if a country, say the USA, reduces the customs tariff for one country, for example Australia, from 20% to 10% on woolen sweaters, then the USA makes the same concession to all other countries of the world.
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade determined the allowable amounts of customs duties and export subsidies, resolved disputes between countries on mutual trade through intergovernmental multilateral agreements, and brought countries that violated the terms of the agreement to economic responsibility.
The main activity of the GATT is the organization rounds or rounds of negotiations(named at the place of their holding) to conclude multilateral agreements on the reduction of customs tariffs and the mitigation of non-tariff barriers for their participants. Each round bears the name of the city or state in which the participants met. A total of eight rounds were held, as a result of which the average customs duties were reduced by 10 times from 40% in the middle 20th century up to 4% to the mop of the 90s.
By 1996, about 130 countries were members of the GATT. Since January 1996, GATT has replaced World Trade Organization (WTO). Its founders were 81 countries. The formation of the WTO reflects the specifics of the current stage in the development of international trade, when the scope of WTO regulation extends to the international exchange of services and intellectual property, control and protection of investments.
Trade unions and free trade zones are the initial stages (steps) of the formation of integration associations. The first are based on preferential trade agreements. They are signed either on a bilateral basis between individual states, or between an already existing integration group and a separate country or group of countries. According to them, countries provide more favorable treatment to each other than is granted to third countries. At the same time, no interstate bodies are created to manage preferential agreements.
Examples of trade unions are:
1) “Agreement on cooperation and partnership between the EU and the countries of the former USSR”, the member countries of which are the EU, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine.
2) Association Agreement with the EU (Eastern European countries - former members of the CMEA, as well as the Baltic countries).
3) Enterprise for All America Initiative (USA, most Latin American and Central American states).
Free trade zones are the second level of integration, which envisages not a simple reduction, but a complete abolition of customs tariffs in mutual trade while maintaining national customs tariffs in relations with third countries. In most cases, the terms of the free trade zone apply to all goods, except for agricultural products. A free trade area can be coordinated by a small interstate secretariat located in one of the member countries. But more often it does without it, coordinating the main parameters of its development at periodic meetings of the heads of the relevant departments.
Examples of free trade zones:
1) European Free Trade Association (Austria, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Sweden)
2) Baltic Free Trade Zone (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
3) North American FTA (Canada, Mexico, USA)
4) Free Trade Agreement of ASEAN countries (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand).
Free trade zones – These are areas not covered by the state customs regime. In particular, in the United States, legislation allowed the creation of free trade zones at each official port of arrival. In world practice, free trade zones have become widespread general and special purpose(specialized)
18. The role of TNCs in international economic relations
transnational corporations- a form of international association of capital, in which the parent company, having its branches in many countries, coordinates and integrates their activities. The country in which the parent company is located is called the home country. This is usually the state in which the corporation originally originated. The manager of one of the IBM affiliates classified as transnational only those firms that have five characteristics:
1) the company operates simultaneously in many states (and not in 2-3) with different levels of economic development;
2) its foreign branches solve the issues of reconstruction and development, have industrial, trade and service enterprises;
3) executives of branches - local citizens who are well acquainted with the situation;
4) the governing bodies of the parent company consist of people of different nationalities;
5) the property of the company belongs to citizens of different countries.
The main purpose of the activity of TNCs, as well as any other business structure, is to make a profit. The preference for obtaining it abroad is due to the following circumstances:
Uneven distribution of economic resources, which causes the transfer of national production to areas where the availability of resources is higher;
The difference in tastes among consumers in different countries. This creates incentives for their satisfaction with the enterprises of the country, which has great opportunities for this;
The presence of technological advantages for a firm in a given country over similar industries in other countries, allowing it to transfer the production of obsolete products on the domestic market abroad (where they still retain their novelty);
The effect of the positive effect of scale, which determines the creation of larger enterprises than the capacity of the domestic market allows;
the growth of protectionism, forcing competition on the basis of the export of capital, not goods.
In accordance with the requirements of scientific and technological progress, changes are taking place in the organizational structure of TNCs, and, above all, in the geography of location. If in the 1940s and 1950s these were mainly developing countries, then in the 1970s and 1980s we are talking about industrialized countries with significant scientific and technical potential. Among the economically backward countries, those that have remained attractive to TNCs are: cheap labor; low taxation; proximity to sources of raw materials; weak state regulation; the possibility of exporting environmentally harmful industries to them; stable political environment, etc. In addition to the geography of location, modern trends in the development of TNCs are characterized by the following circumstances:
An increasing degree of dependence of the parent company on its external enterprises, i.e. the growing separation of TNCs from their national soil;
The corresponding growth of transnational banks, which create branches in other countries, buy local credit institutions there;
A positive attitude towards TNCs on the part of the countries hosting their branches;
Raising the general level of qualification, culture, education of the total worker of TNCs;
The new nature of relations between parent firms and their branches, determined by the decentralization of research and development work.
19. International labor migration causes and directions
Under
Immigration - Emigration - legal illegal (With
scale of disposals -
the scale of arrivals -
migration balance,
gross migration ,
The first mass movement of workers in modern times was the purposeful importation of slaves from Africa to the Americas, which was carried out by force.
That. according to geographic areas external and internal migration of the population. Under the internal refers to the movement of population between cities and regions of one country, and under the external - from one country to another. In its turn external migration is divided into intercontinental and intracontinental.
In modern conditions, international labor migration is characterized as a natural global socio-economic phenomenon that has deep roots in the economic, social and political spheres. What reasons motivate people to move from one country to another? Guest workers in Russia
First of all, the migration of labor is associated with the development of large-scale machine production, which predetermined the uneven socio-economic development of different countries.
International labor migration is primarily due to eq onomic reasons The main ones are:
Different levels of economic development of individual countries. The labor force moves from countries with lower gross domestic product (GDP) per capita to countries with higher living standards;
Different degree of provision of countries with labor resources, which affects the volume of production, differences in wage levels. If a country has an excess of labor resources, this creates an incentive for emigration;
Foreign activities of transnational corporations (TNCs), contributing to the development of international labor migration. In this case, there is a movement of labor resources to jobs in foreign affiliates of TNCs;
The presence of unemployment in a country that increases labor migration.
In addition to socio-economic, there are other reasons for the migration of the population:
Political instability of regimes or flight from political persecution, racial, religious and national discrimination;
Military circumstances - evacuation, re-evacuation, etc.;
Expansion of the international information system, which makes people aware of the wide socio-economic opportunities of other countries;
Development and cheapening of vehicles.
20. Features of modern world labor markets
World labor market - it is a system of economic mechanisms, norms, institutions that ensure the interaction of demand for labor and its supply at the interstate level.
Modern world labor markets have a number of features.
1. Growth in international labor migration. At the beginning of 1995, there were more than 35 million migrant workers in the world compared to 3.2 million in 1960.
2. Multidirectionality of the main flows of labor migration. This is migration to developed countries with market economies from developing countries; cross labor migration within the developed countries of the world; labor migration between developing countries; migration of highly qualified personnel from developed to developing countries.
3. Increase in the share of youth, women and children in the migration process. Thus, in Belgium and the Netherlands, the share of young people in the total number of migrants reaches 50%. In other countries, it is also significant and often exceeds the proportion of youth among the indigenous population. The share of women in labor migration in Western Europe increased from 30% in the 1960s to 40-48.3% in 1980.
4. Increasing the length of stay of migrants in the country of employment.
5. Since the 1980s, there has been a slight decrease in the degree of activity of international labor migration, which was associated with the transition to a policy of restricting this process and the deterioration of the economic situation.
6. Migration of scientists, highly qualified specialists from various regions of the world to developed countries with a market economy, as well as from these countries to developing countries.
7. Formation of a "black market" of labor in modern centers of attraction for foreign labor. " Black market" labor- this is a mechanism for using illegal labor migration in order to increase profits through the use of cheap labor. The scale of illegal migration is significant. For example, in the United States, the total number of clandestine immigrants ranges from 2 to 13 million people.
8. Expansion of Russia's participation in international labor migration.
21. Positive and negative results of international labor migration
22. Features of modern international labor migration and its regulation
Migration- a Latin word meaning movement, relocation. This word refers to the movement of people, animals, capital, chemical elements in the earth's crust, etc. The migration of the population that interests us is the movement of people across the borders of certain territories in connection with a change of permanent place of residence or with a return to it.
Under international labor migration refers to the movement of labor resources between countries and their use outside national borders for a certain time. Since labor is inseparable from a person, one often speaks of labor migration. International labor migration- intercountry movement of the able-bodied population for reasons that do not imply a final change of residence.
In recent years, international labor migration has been studied within the framework of the theory of human capital. Differences in economic growth rates are associated with its movement between countries.
International labor migration includes migration and emigration flows. Immigration - movement of the able-bodied population from abroad to this country. Emigration - movement of the able-bodied population from the given country abroad. Such movement is carried out with the aim of most effectively solving the economic and social problems of immigrants and emigrants. Re-emigration (reverse emigration)- return of emigrants to their permanent place of residence. From the point of view of compliance with the norms of the legislation in force in the country, there are legal labor migration (without violating legal norms) and illegal (With violation of the law).
Various indicators are used to assess the size of labor migration:
scale of disposals - the number of emigrants who left the country for a certain period in order to find a job;
the scale of arrivals - the number of immigrants who arrived in a country in a given period in search of work;
migration balance, or net migration - the difference between the number of arrivals and the number of departures in the country in the study period. The balance can be either positive or negative. It is expressed in relative terms (per 100 or per 1000 inhabitants), as well as in absolute terms;
gross migration , or total migration - the sum of the number of arrivals and the number of departures in the country, region for a certain period.
Regulation of immigration. Most host countries use selective approach in the regulation of immigration. Its meaning lies in the fact that the state does not prevent the entry of those categories of workers that are needed in a given country, restricting entry to everyone else. The list of desirable immigrants varies from country to country, but they usually fall into one of the following categories:
Workers who are ready to perform heavy, unprestigious, harmful, dirty and unskilled work for minimal pay - construction, auxiliary (in repair shops), seasonal (for harvesting in greenhouses), shift workers (oil drilling), municipal (garbage and sewage collection) workers;
Specialists for new and promising industries - programmers, highly specialized engineers, bank employees;
Representatives of rare professions - diamond cutters, art restorers, doctors practicing non-traditional methods of treatment;
World-famous specialists - musicians, artists, scientists, athletes, doctors, writers;
Large businessmen moving their activities to the host country, investing capital and creating new jobs.
23. Features of modern capital migration
International capital migration - one of the characteristic phenomena of the world economy is the movement of capital between countries, including exports, imports and its functioning abroad. Its causes are ambiguously interpreted by scientists of various areas of economic thought. Approaches to explaining this process evolve with changes in economic conditions, scale, forms, mechanism, and consequences of the international movement of capital.
The international movement of capital is one of the important tools in the competitive struggle of companies. Capital markets play an exceptional role in servicing farm restructuring. At the same time, they can contribute to the deepening of disproportions in the world economy.
Internationalization of capital markets connected primarily with the cross-border association of securities markets and to a lesser extent - markets for direct investment, bank loans and deposits.
The leading force behind the revitalization of international operations is savings institutionalization process , their concentration in the hands of non-bank credit institutions. The total assets of the top 300 US institutional investors rose from 30% of GDP in 1975 to over 110% of GDP in 1993. Similar asset growth has occurred in other countries. The process of institutionalization of savings contributes to the international diversification of portfolio investments, the internationalization of capital markets.
Starting from the last third of this century, credit markets began to function not as local structures, but as aggregates united by common patterns of development, which allows us to talk about the formation of a global credit and financial system, including the movement of bond, bank loans, portfolio, direct investment, as well as economic help.
25.International financial and credit institutions and their role in international economic relations
The output of production beyond national borders, the development of the process of internationalization brought to the international arena and credit relations. International credit relations mediate the movement of capital through the provision of loans, commodity resources on terms of urgency, repayment, payment.
Leading sectors world market of loan capital are the world money market and the world capital market. institutional base market of loan capital are intermediaries between lenders and borrowers of different countries. Intermediaries various financial institutions act, such as transnational banks, stock exchanges, etc., which accumulate temporarily free funds of banks, insurance companies, private firms and other economic entities from different countries. Government agencies, international organizations, transnational corporations, etc. act as borrowers.
The international loan capital market performs the following tasks arising from the functions of credit:
redistributive function;
The function of saving distribution costs;
The function of accelerating the concentration and centralization of captal;
The function of lending to states to pay off balance of payments deficits.
In the struggle for financial markets, monetary organizations use credit discrimination and credit blockade. Credit discrimination used in cases where it is necessary to exert political or economic pressure on certain countries or firms.
A more stringent measure is credit blockade, i.e. refusal to provide loans to certain countries. Most often, this measure is carried out unofficially through the denial of loans for various reasons, but sometimes it is formalized in official government documents as an addition to the economic blockade. In particular, the US economic blockade of India as a result of ongoing underground nuclear explosions will also entail a credit blockade on the part of the largest American and joint monetary and credit organizations.
Regulation of international credit relations carried out by various intergovernmental organizations.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) established in 1944 to regulate monetary and credit relations and assist member countries through the provision of foreign currency loans. The capital of the IMF is made up of contributions from members made by subscription, with each country having its own quota that determines the number of votes in voting, the amount of contributions and the possibility of using the Fund's resources. Since 1962, the IMF has used both borrowed funds and permanent or temporary special funds. The IMF pursues a policy of weakening the role of gold in the world monetary system, carries out interstate regulation of exchange rates, promotes the removal of foreign exchange restrictions, coordinates international credit, regulates relations over external debt, monitors the macroeconomic policies of member countries and the development of the world economy. The IMF provides short-term lending to its member countries in case of difficulties associated with a deficit in the balance of payments. It provides loans to treasuries, central banks in the form of selling foreign currency for the national currency of the borrowing countries. Loans are repaid by redeeming the national currency for foreign currency.
On the The World Bank, which includes IBRD and International Development Association ( MAP ), engaged in the issuance of soft loans, was entrusted with the financing of economic development. If the World Bank borrows and lends, the IMF is more like a credit union whose resources are dedicated to helping member countries in difficult times. Both organizations work closely together. In modern conditions, stable economic development is possible only if an effective financial policy is pursued. As experience shows, the balance of payments deficit arises not only due to a temporary lack of liquidity, but also due to structural imbalances in the economy, the elimination of which requires long-term financing. Therefore, the IMF and the World Bank are implementing concessional lending programs for developing countries that are carrying out large-scale economic reforms.
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) created in 1944 simultaneously with the IMF. At first, his activities were aimed at restoring and developing the economies of European countries, and since the mid-1950s, he has stimulated the development of market relations in the liberated young national states and has contributed to the deepening of integration processes. Its resources are formed at the expense of the statutory fund, formed by subscription of the member countries to the shares of the IBRD and from the proceeds from the sale of bonded loans. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development specializes in long-term lending to stimulate the economic development of IBRD member countries. The first loans were presented to finance the economies of Western Europe, which were destroyed during the Second World War. In modern conditions, it lends mainly to developing countries. Loans are provided at a fairly high interest rate, both to public and private enterprises, with government guarantees and on terms close to those of private commercial banks. The main task of this organization is lending to specific objects, among which social ones have prevailed in recent years. Similar functions are performed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), established in 1990, and regional banks; Inter-American, African, Asian. In addition to these, international monetary and credit relations are served by dozens of other intergovernmental organizations aimed at their development.
26.World capital market pricing principles
Since the export of capital is the movement of money abroad, either for the purpose of extracting entrepreneurial profits or for the purpose of obtaining interest, it is customary to distinguish between the export of capital in two forms: entrepreneurial and loan . Export of entrepreneurial capital means investment in the economy of a country, i.e. investment for profit. Export of loan capital- international loans and credits (as a rule, long-term), bringing loan interest to the creditor country. Thus, we can talk about the global capital market, which in turn is part of the global financial market. The latter, like any national market, in addition to the capital market includes the money market.
The world money market determines the ratio of supply and demand for short-term means of payment. This is usually an international commercial loan provided for the purchase of goods and services. The world capital market regulates the movement of long-term assets in the form of investments and long-term loans.
Long-term lending- These are loans from banks, the state to buyers of machinery and equipment, as well as loans from foreign governments and individual firms.
Investment financing involves investing in the creation of productive capital abroad. The main subjects of this process are private business and the state.
27. International investment and savings
Most representative private investment . Investors in this case are individuals, banks, insurance, investment companies, etc. Investments are carried out by them in two forms: portfolio and direct.
Portfolio investment - these are securities that appear in the portfolio of the country that provided the capital. These primarily include stocks and bonds placed in large financial centers. In this case, when buying securities, control is not established.
Direct investments give the investor the right to control the management of the borrower's enterprises. In most cases, it is primarily about investments at the expense of own funds. Among them:
Investments of companies in their foreign branches and branches;
Investments of citizens of a given country in enterprises created by them to conduct business abroad;
Investments of financial groups in foreign companies (in whose management they hold a dominant position) to secure their equity participation in their capital.
Since the main thing in the implementation of direct investment is not ownership, but control, insofar as their sign is the presence of dominant positions in management. To determine these positions, the International Monetary Fund put forward three criteria:
Investor ownership of 50% or more of the voting capital;
Concentration of 25% or more of the capital in the hands of one owner;
The dominant role of foreigners in the practice of determining the policy of the enterprise.
The movement of private investment is characterized by movement in the following areas:
a) between countries with highly developed industry, where there is a movement of portfolio investment;
b) to countries that already have a fairly significant industrial potential (Austria, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico), where direct investment is more significant than portfolio investment;
c) to countries with an underdeveloped economy, but rich in raw materials, where only direct capital investments are directed.
Direct investment in modern conditions has a number of characteristic features. First of all, it is necessary to note the increase in direct investment in comparison with other forms of capital movement.
Direct public investment include:
Entrepreneurial activity of the state in foreign territory;
Purchase of shares of private companies in order to control them;
Investment in colonial possessions or protectorates.
source world investments, as well as national ones, are saving. The equilibrium of world investment and saving determines the world equilibrium rate of interest. In fact, this is the real interest rate prevailing in the world capital market. At the same time, the equality of national investment and savings is not necessary.
Levels of world savings and savings. Savings and savings are inextricably linked. Saving usually precedes accumulation and represents the formation of money capital, in which credit institutions play an important role. The level of global savings has changed dramatically in the last three decades. It gradually increased in the 1950s and 1960s, increased sharply in the 1970s due to the energy crisis, and dropped significantly in the 1980s. When calculated on the basis of the purchasing power of currencies, the world savings rate was 23% in 1960-72, 25% in 1973-1980 and 22.5% in 1981-1995. The decrease in the share of savings is primarily due to their reduction in the public sector of industrialized countries. In many industrialized countries, the savings rate of the private sector remained within 20% in the 1960s and 1980s, the savings rate of the public sector fell from 4% to 1/2% and in recent years has fallen almost to zero. In the opposite direction, the process of savings developed in developing countries, where the savings rate increased from 19% in 1970 to 27% in 1996. high growth rates. In the 1990s, the savings rate dropped significantly there.
The accumulation of capital is manifested in the increase in capital investments and production assets. Average annual investment volumes, in the world economy changed according to the dynamics of world savings, with the exception of the 70s. From 1950 to 1970 the investment quota grew steadily, reaching almost 27% of GDP in 1973. Then it fell to 20-22% in 1983, after which it began to increase again, but did not reach the level of the early 1970s. The decrease in the rate of accumulation in the mid-1970s and early 1980s occurred in countries in which, as a result of the energy and raw materials crisis, large amounts of labor instruments turned out to be inefficient, despite the fact that they belonged to the samples of the late 60s. Value transfer proved to be difficult due to falling capacity utilization. The lack of equipment on the market that would be effective under that system of relative prices was an important reason for the formation of an investment pause in the mid-1970s. In general, changes in the dynamics of world capital investment corresponded to the movement of the business cycle, they increased during periods of upswing and decreased during downturns.
There were other reasons as well. In the world economy in the 80s there was an increase in real discount rates. They rose from a low and often negative real value to the highest level in history, which persisted until the late 1980s. The restrictive monetary policy of the industrial countries, as well as the huge US federal budget deficit, which was financed by savings from other countries, contributed to the increase in real rates. The high level of real interest rates was not accompanied by an increase in the savings rate. It declined in all industrialized countries in the 1980s.
Changes in the investment quota are affected by shifts in prices. If the prices of investment goods fall relative to consumer prices, then more investment can be made in real terms for the same level of savings. Since 1973, the prices of investment goods have fallen relative to other goods and services, but the real value of capital investment could be maintained with a decrease in the share of investment spending. Therefore, the value of the investment quota decreases less if measurements are taken at constant prices and exchange rates, compared with calculations at current prices. But even in this case, a downward trend was noted in the 1980s.
In the world economy as a whole, the levels of savings and investment are identical.
Sources of savings and savings. At macro- and micro-(levels, savings and accumulation are mobilized from various sources of economic entities. These are depreciation and retained earnings of companies. In the structure of accumulation of companies, the share of expenses for the replacement of consumed fixed capital (depreciation) pretty stable. On average, it makes up slightly more than half of investments, increasing during periods of crisis and decreasing during economic upswings. Net savings, formed at the expense of retained earnings, directly increase the production assets of companies. Firms with weak access to the loan capital market tend to maintain a high level of retained earnings and pay less dividends. Although companies provide the bulk of capital investment in industrialized countries (50-80%), their net 17% of total capital investment.
Household savings in industrialized countries in the 80-90s decreased. This trend has been driven by a number of factors. In particular, the liberalization of consumer credit has led to a decrease in savings for large purchases. The role of households in savings varies dramatically from country to country. In the second half of the 1980s, they accounted for 9% of gross capital investment in the UK to 57% in Italy.
Since the late 1980s, there has been an increase state savings , which was determined by a decrease in the need for the issuance of government loans. A sharp increase in budget deficits occurred in the 70s due to an increase in spending on military purposes, social security, while reducing business activity and taxation.
In developing countries, domestic savings are also the most important source of replenishment of productive assets, providing over 95% of investment. The domestic savings rate has fallen significantly in countries experiencing difficulties in servicing external debt. Analyzing trends and patterns of savings in developing countries is difficult due to the difficulty of obtaining relevant information on households, the business and public sectors.
28.Monetary system and its evolution European and Jamaican monetary systems
European Monetary System (EMS)- the zone of coordinated swimming in relation to the dollar of national currencies created by the EU members in order to ensure their greater stability. The main parameters of the EVS are:
Limitation of exchange rate fluctuations within 2.25% in each direction from the agreed central rate of each currency to the ecu;
Creation of a European currency unit - ECU (European Currency Unit) - a unit of account, the rate of which is determined as a weighted average of the exchange rates of EU member states;
Establishment of the European Monetary Cooperation Fund. It was created through contributions to: provide temporary financial support to EU member states; financing the balance of payments deficit; making settlements on foreign exchange interventions of member countries in order to support exchange rates.
The mechanism for regulating exchange rates within the framework of the EMU was called "snake in the tunnel" due to the fact that courses could only swim within limited limits. If the deviation of the exchange rate from the central parity reached 75% of the size established by the agreement, the country had to take a number of measures to prevent the exchange rate of its currency from going beyond the established limits.
In June 1989, the Commission of the European Communities adopted a decision on the transition of the European EU member states to a monetary and economic union. This transition was supposed to be carried out in three stages. On the first, which began in July 1990, there was a complete elimination of restrictions on the movement of capital between the EU countries and a gradual convergence of key macroeconomic indicators of their economies began. On the second, which began on the basis of the agreement on the European Union (Maastricht Agreement), which entered into force in November 1993, the member countries took the path of further deepening monetary integration on the basis of an agreement on the convergence of national economies and the creation of a mechanism for multilateral monitoring of this process. Transition to third stage began in 1999 and is associated with the introduction single European currency and education European Central Bank .
The second stage, which lasted from 1993 to 1999, was key in moving towards a full monetary union. In this period:
Convergence requirements were introduced - tough indicators of farm convergence in the areas of public finances, long-term interest rates and exchange rates. To qualify for participation in a monetary union, a country must meet the following requirements: the budget deficit must not exceed 3% of GDP, and gross government debt must not exceed 60% of GDP; consumer price inflation must not exceed inflation in the three lowest inflation member countries by more than 1.5 percentage points; interest rates on long-term government debt securities should not exceed by more than 2 percentage points the interest rates in the three member countries with the lowest inflation;
The European Monetary Institute (EMI) was created - an organization of the EU countries responsible for coordinating monetary policy between them, as well as preparing for the creation of the European Central Bank and developing a common monetary policy;
Creation of an economic policy oversight mechanism, which is formed from the Council of the EU and the EMI.
The transition to a single currency also includes three stages. The first lasted from the moment of determining the participants of the monetary union until the mutual fixing of their exchange rates. After that, the EMU, the ECU and other mechanisms were abolished, and their functions were transferred to the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), in which the European Central Bank plays the main role. Euro (single European currency) is used as non-cash currency. Second phase will last from the moment of fixing exchange rates until the national currencies are withdrawn from circulation, along with which the non-cash euro will circulate. Third stage should begin no later than January 1, 2002 and will be marked by the issuance of the euro into cash circulation in the form of banknotes and coins. The exchange of the ecu for the euro will take place at the rate of 1:1, i.e. the exchange rate of the euro against the other currencies of the participating countries will correspond to their exchange rate against the ecu.
29.The concept of the exchange rate and its determinants
30. Exchange rate regulation
The formation of the exchange rate of the national currency in a foreign one is called currency quote. In this case, the exchange rate of the national currency can be set in the form as direct quotes ( 1,10,100 units foreign currency = x units. national currency. Formula Rb 1 = ( x ) $ 1 ), so and reverse quote ( 1,10,100 units national currency = x units. foreign currency. Formula $ 1 = Rb x (1/ x )). There is also cross quote- the expression of the rates of two currencies to each other through the rate of each of them in relation to a third currency, usually the US dollar.
Exchange rate quotes also have a time dimension. According to this criterion, there are: spot rate- the rate at which currencies are exchanged within no more than two business days from the moment an agreement on the rate is reached; forward rate- an agreed rate at which currencies are exchanged at a certain point in the future, more than three days after reaching an agreement on the rate.
Comparability of national currencies on a cost basis, in fact, expresses the ability to compare the cost of various goods produced in different countries, or rather, using the exchange rate to compare the prices of goods in different countries. As a result, the profitability of buying goods or investing capital in the economy abroad is determined in comparison with this country.
The exchange rate depends on many factors, and primarily on the supply and demand of currency in the market, therefore, all the factors that affect the supply and demand of a currency also affect its exchange rate. These factors include:
High growth rates of national income in a given country. The result of this will be an increase in the income of individual citizens, an increase in the aggregate demand for goods, including imported ones, which will lead to an increase in demand for foreign currency and an increase in its exchange rate;
Similarly, there will be a change in the preferences of consumers who are oriented towards imported goods;
High inflation rates in the country depreciate the national currency, and its exchange rate begins to decline against the currencies of countries where inflation rates are lower. The negative consequences of this are primarily felt by countries with a large volume of international transactions. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate real exchange rates, those. purchasing power parity, which is the ratio of prices for similar goods and services produced in the compared countries. Weighted aggregated parities of any level are calculated, up to GDP. These calculations make it possible to estimate GDP adjusted for the standard of living. The IMF establishes parities for large areas of the planet According to the theory of PPP, the exchange rate changes in accordance with the need to compensate for the difference in the dynamics of the price level in different countries;
The country's balance of payments also has a certain influence on the exchange rate. If the balance sheet is positive, then the exchange rate of the national currency rises, as foreign debtors buy much more of it, and vice versa. Currently, the balance of payments is increasingly influenced by the movement of capital, which also affects the exchange rate;
The movement of capital largely depends on the difference in interest rates in different countries. An increase in the interest rate stimulates the import of capital into the country, and a decrease in the rate makes it necessary to look for use of free capital abroad, which increases the instability of the balance of payments. Low interest rates in other countries encourage banks to buy foreign currency from them, increasing its supply. As a result, the exchange rate of the national currency rises;
The exchange rate can be influenced by the development of currency speculation, the popularity and trust in a particular currency, the actual terms of international settlements and, of course, the monetary policy of the state.
The exchange rate can be of two types. The first one is free floating exchange rate, or, as it is also called, free floating. In this case, the state is completely outside the foreign exchange market, and the exchange rate is set only on the basis of the supply and demand of currencies, i.e. it is completely flexible. Usually, the exchange rate is considered to be floating, which can change within any limits, and these limits are not established by law. The following varieties are known:
Adjustable exchange rate - a rate that is automatically changed in accordance with a change in a certain set of economic indicators (used in Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua);
Manageably floating exchange rate - the rate set by the central bank, and not by the foreign exchange market, but with frequent changes (developed - Norway, Greece, developing - Brazil, Egypt, etc., countries with economies in transition - China, Russia, etc.);
An independently floating exchange rate is a rate determined on the basis of the ratio of supply and demand for a currency in the foreign exchange market with the state not interfering in this process (most industrial countries, except for the EU countries, many developing countries and countries with economies in transition).
Another type exists when the state is rigid fixes exchange rates . Fixed exchange rate- the officially established ratio between national currencies, allowing a temporary deviation from it in one direction or another by no more than 2.25%. The course can be fixed in one of the following ways:
Fixing the exchange rate to one currency - linking the exchange rate of the national currency to the exchange rate of the most significant currencies of international settlements (the exchange rate is fixed to the US dollar for most countries in Latin America and Africa, as well as some countries with economies in transition, such as Lithuania and Turkmenistan);
The use of the currency of other countries as legal tender (the ruble in 1992-94 in the CIS countries, the dollar in Ecuador);
Currency board - fixing the exchange rate of the national currency to a foreign one, and the issue of the national currency is fully secured by foreign currency reserves (Argentina, Hong Kong, Singapore);
Fixing the exchange rate of the common currency to one foreign currency (countries of French-speaking Africa to the French franc);
Fixing the exchange rate of the national currency to the currencies of other countries - the main trading partners (Estonia - to the German mark);
Fixing the exchange rate to the currency composite - linking the exchange rate of the national currency to the exchange rates of collective monetary units, such as SDRs.
Equilibrium exchange rate- an exchange rate that ensures the achievement of equilibrium in the balance of payments, provided there are no restrictions on international trade, special incentives for the inflow or outflow of capital and excessive unemployment. In other words, the equilibrium of the balance of payments as a result of a change in the exchange rate should be ensured as a result of the action of fundamental economic laws, and not with the help of short-term measures of the state economic policy. Thus, the equilibrium balance of payments is the key fundamental economic regularity necessary to maintain an equilibrium exchange rate.
If the equilibrium is established in the foreign exchange market at point A and the price of 1 yen is Y, then you can influence the price by increasing or decreasing the purchases of the yen. The central bank of a country can appreciate the yen by throwing a significant amount of dollars into the market and buying up a significant part of the offered yen. In this case, the supply on the market will decrease from S to S1 and the rate will increase. If the yen needs to depreciate, the central bank throws more yen into the market. The legal depreciation of a currency or central parity under a fixed exchange rate regime is called devaluation, and the increase revaluation .
Which of these systems is better, more profitable for the state? It is difficult to answer unambiguously, since the practice of using fixed and flexible exchange rates has shown both the advantages and disadvantages of both. Flexible rate often creates fluctuations in exchange rates, which leads to additional difficulties and costs in international economic relations, but, as practice has shown, in the long run it has the necessary flexibility to ensure normal relations . Fixed exchange rate good from the point of view of ensuring short-term stability, but in the long run it is inelastic and hinders the development of international relations.
In market conditions, the supply and demand for foreign currency is constantly changing under the influence of a host of factors, which together reflect the change in the country's relative place in the international economy. Accordingly, the exchange rate of the national currency also changes. Moreover, the economic meaning of changing the exchange rate under the regime of a floating and fixed exchange rate is different.
Currency depreciation– depreciation of the currency under the floating exchange rate regime. Currency appreciation- an increase in the value of the currency under a floating exchange rate regime.
In the case of a fixed exchange rate regime, its adaptation to the changed volumes of supply and demand for foreign currency occurs differently. At the same time, the question of the size of the state's foreign exchange reserves is of particular importance. They are not unlimited and therefore, if for some reason the demand for foreign currency exceeds its supply for a long time, it is impossible to artificially keep the national currency from falling by selling foreign currency from reserves. When the latter decline to less than eight weeks of imports of goods and services, the question of the utmost importance arises before the state about the need to abandon the protection of a fixed exchange rate and move to a floating exchange rate regime or legally reduce the value of its national currency to a level approximately corresponding to market equilibrium.
In this situation, currency speculators, who play on the exchange rate difference in the foreign exchange market, can get ahead of the state, which will inevitably be forced to reduce the value of its currency due to the growing loss of reserves, and begin to actively sell the national currency in exchange for a foreign one, thereby trying to avoid losses. The result is a situation known in international economics as "speculative attack on the currency". It is understood as a sharp increase in the supply of currency on the market during a period of weakening of its exchange rate, leading to the loss of the country's foreign exchange reserves in case of attempts to support the weakening exchange rate.
Important to consider dependence of prices on the dynamics of the exchange rate. In general, this dependence boils down to the following:
- depreciation of the national currency leads to a decrease in the prices of national goods in the world market, expressed in national currency, which contributes to the growth of exports, which as a result becomes more competitive. At the same time, prices for foreign goods denominated in national currency are getting higher, as a result of which their imports are reduced. As a result of the depreciation of the national currency, national assets and securities denominated in it become cheaper and more attractive to foreign investors, which leads to an increase in capital inflows from abroad.
- growth of the national currency leads to an increase in the prices of national goods in the world market, expressed in foreign currency, which leads to a reduction in their exports, which as a result becomes less competitive. At the same time, the prices of foreign goods denominated in national currency are falling, resulting in their imports increasing. As a result of the growth of the exchange rate of the national currency, national assets and securities denominated in it become more expensive relative to foreign ones, which leads to an increase in the outflow of capital abroad.
Conducted monetary policy It has a certain influence both on the internal situation of the country and on its position in the world economy. Therefore, during the implementation of reforms in Russia, from the very beginning, great attention was paid to currency relations. The liberalization of the economy led to the organization of the foreign exchange market using the mechanisms of free and managed floating.
Under these conditions, when the internal conversion of the ruble was carried out, and production showed a progressive downward trend, which was accompanied by inflation, the demand for foreign currency increased sharply, and the ruble depreciated. As a result, the profitability of exports has increased, while the profitability of imports has somewhat decreased, which led to the emergence of additional channels of capital flight abroad. The process of dollarization was clearly manifested in the national economy, when all savings of both individuals and legal entities began to be carried out mainly in foreign currency. This, like the flight of capital, has had a negative impact on investment opportunities.
The transformation of the US dollar into a practically parallel currency revealed all the shortcomings of the internal conversion of the ruble in the absence of an external one: the Central Bank of Russia had to constantly replenish foreign exchange reserves to ensure the internal conversion of the ruble and maintain its exchange rate. Funds for this could only be obtained through the export of raw materials and energy resources, which also negatively affected the state of the economy and increased the disproportionality of development.
In 1995, in order to stabilize the ruble exchange rate and reduce inflation in the country, "currency corridor". It is understood as the establishment of limits for fluctuations in the exchange rate, which the state undertakes to support.
31.The economic content of the trade balance
32. Balance of payments and factors affecting its condition
trade balance is the ratio of the value of exports and imports of goods over a certain period of time. It allows you to analyze the country's participation in the international division of labor, to determine its place in world trade. Another example might be estimated balance sheet at a certain date (balance sheet of international debt and claims). It allows you to obtain data on the volume of monetary claims and obligations of the country in relation to other countries. The settlement balance is closely related to the trade balance, since the basis for the emergence of claims and obligations in the international payment turnover are, in particular, commodity transactions. An analysis of the state of the settlement balance makes it possible to judge whether a country is an international debtor or an international creditor in the entire range of external settlements.
A special place in the system of balances of international settlements is occupied by payment balance. It is a statistical report on all international transactions of residents of a particular country with non-residents for a certain period of time. It reflects the ratio between the volume of goods and services received by a given country from abroad and provided by it abroad, as well as changes in its financial position in relation to abroad.
Note that the balance of payments deals with flows, not with stocks, with changes in real and financial assets and liabilities that occur over a base period, and not with the total amounts of a country's economic assets and liabilities that exist at a particular point in time.
The balance of payments is compiled for the purpose of performing both accounting and analytical tasks, which are closely related. Analysis of the balance of payments makes it possible to draw conclusions about how effectively a country is able to manage its foreign economic activity, and serves as the basis for making decisions in the field of foreign economic policy.
Methodology for compiling the balance of payments. Fundamental to the preparation of the balance of payments is double-entry method of international transactions. This method is based on the fact that each recorded transaction corresponds to a payment in one form or another, and the balance of payments and receipts must converge. The double-entry system used in compiling the balance of payments means that each transaction is represented by two entries that have the same value. One of them is registered as "credit" and has a positive sign, the other - like "debit" with a negative sign, and the sum of their values must be equal to zero.
In accordance with the principles of constructing the balance of payments of the balance it is always balanced. The concept of a negative or positive balance is applicable only to its individual parts. At the same time, it should be noted that the balance sheet itself a priori cannot have an unambiguous interpretation from the point of view of its impact on the national economy. Depending on the goals of economic policy, both negative and positive balances for individual items can be regarded both positively and negatively.
Usually, within the general balance of payments, the trade balance, the current account balance, the balance of capital movements and the balance of official settlements are distinguished.
Trade balance is formed as the difference between exports and imports of goods only (excluding services). Comments on the change in the trade balance depend on what factors caused this change. For example, if a negative balance was formed as a result of a reduction in exports, then this may indicate a decrease in the competitiveness of the national economy and be considered as a negative phenomenon. But if such a situation was the result of an increase in imports due to the inflow of direct investment into the country, then this cannot in any way be considered as a weakening of the national economy.
Current account balance(this is the most frequently mentioned balance) is usually considered as a reference balance of payments, since it determines the country's need for financing, being at the same time a factor in external economic restrictions in domestic economic policy. A positive current account balance means that the country is a net creditor for in relation to other states, and, conversely, a current account deficit means that the country becomes a net debtor, obliged to pay for net imports of goods and services and finance transfers. In fact, a country with a current account surplus is investing some of its national savings abroad instead of increasing domestic capital accumulation.
Balance of capital and finance movements in fact, it is a mirror image of the state of the current balance, as it shows the financing of the flow of real resources. True, part of this mirror image usually falls on the article "Pure errors and omissions."
Balance of official settlements is the most common definition of the overall (final) balance of payments and indicates an increase (decrease) in liquid claims to the country from non-residents or an increase (decrease) in the country's official reserves in foreign liquid assets. Recall that this balance covers all items, except for the item "Reserve assets".
In the conditions of the system of fixed exchange rates before 1971, great importance was attached to the state of the balance of official settlements, since, for example, its deficit indicated an increase in the country's obligations to other states (or a reduction in reserves), which threatened the stability of exchange rates. The introduction of floating exchange rates led to the blurring of the concept of the general balance of payments, and the dynamics of official reserves became not only a consequence of the balance of official accounts, but also the cause of changes in flows recorded in other parts of the balance of payments.
The standard components of the balance of payments are also used to determine country's international investment position , which is a statistical report on the value of the country's external assets and liabilities at the beginning and end of the reporting period, as well as all those changes that occurred during the reporting period as a result of financial transactions, cost and other changes in accumulated assets and liabilities. The main classification groups used to determine the net investment position of the country are the external assets and liabilities of residents, the difference between which gives the required value. The international investment position contains information that is important for the analysis of the economic state of the country. The net international investment position of the country characterizes the state and trends in the development of the country's foreign economic relations with the rest of the world. Depending on whether this position is positive or negative, one can say whether a country is "net creditor" or "net debtor".
There are several main methods of state influence on the state of the balance of payments. First method- this is direct control, including the regulation of imports (for example, through quantitative restrictions), customs and other fees, a ban or restrictions on the transfer abroad of foreign investment income and cash transfers of individuals, a sharp reduction in gratuitous aid, the export of short-term and long-term capital, etc. Such direct control measures usually cause great embarrassment for many firms in the country and, accordingly, are perceived as hostile.
In the short term, direct control has a positive effect (more or less, depending on the level of compliance of firms with business laws and the ability of the government to enforce its decisions). In the long term, the effect of these measures is contradictory, since a “greenhouse regime” is created for local producers, the interest of foreign investors in the country is reduced due to a ban on the transfer of their income, difficulties arise in attracting foreign specialists, and obstacles are created for expanding goods abroad. and service network for domestic exporters.
It does not cause hostility, but on the contrary, such a direct measure as export subsidies is welcomed by domestic firms. But it is expensive, and therefore its use is usually associated with the state of the country's budget. Thus, the state of Russia's state budget is unlikely to allow it to actively subsidize exports in the near future.
The second method is deflation(i.e., the fight against inflation), which is aimed at solving domestic economic problems, while the side effect is an improvement in the state of the balance of payments. It is believed that the traditional consequences of deflationary policy - a decrease in production, investment and income - lead to a reduction in imports and an increase in reserve capacity to increase exports. Raising the real interest rate, which is common for deflation, attracts short-term capital to the country, provided, of course, that there is a developed banking system and a low level of political risk. However, there is another point of view: deflation reduces exports and increases imports. With deflation, the exchange rate of the national currency rises, which increases the opportunities for importers. For exporters, the high exchange rate of their national currency means that they receive less national currency when exchanging export earnings, and this does not stimulate them to export.
The third method - exchange rate changes. Both with a fixed and a floating exchange rate, they are under strong control and influence of the state. So, even in a floating exchange rate, the state (usually represented by the country's central bank) often seeks to keep these fluctuations within certain limits, focusing on the so-called exchange rate targets in order to avoid strong economic shocks.
Changes in the exchange rate help the state to regulate the equilibrium of the balance of payments, but it must be taken into account that the effect of revaluation / devaluation is weakened by the elasticity of exports and imports, as well as the inertia of foreign trade flows. Therefore, the short-, medium-, and long-term effects of changes in the exchange rate on the balance of payments are distinguished. Thus, the inertia of foreign trade flows often leads to the fact that in the first months after a strong depreciation of the national currency, the trade balance does not change and, oddly enough, it may even worsen. After all, exporters need time to increase their exports, and importers need time to reduce the number of new contracts. In the meantime, foreign trade flows are carried out under previously concluded contracts, the value of exports and imports in dollars does not decrease, but in the domestic market the value of exported goods in rubles remains the same, while the value of imported goods increases. True, after some time the situation with the trade balance usually changes: exports increase and imports decrease.
1. The totality of interacting national economies of all countries of the world and international economic relations is ...
£ global production
world economy
£ global market
2. The number of independent states currently recognized by the world community:
3. Number of the most economically powerful developed countries with market economies:
4. Modern world economic relations are based on:
The total predominance of market relations
£ limited distribution of market relations
£ predominance of political agreements
£ to strengthen the role of anti-terrorist agreements
5. "Open economy" implies:
Availability of the domestic market to attract foreign capital
£ liquidation of national borders
£ complete abolition of customs duties and restrictions
6. System-forming factor of the modern world economy:
£ offer
Capital
7. The uneven economic development of countries means:
£ differences in the standard of living of the population
The difference in the level of industrial development and technical equipment of labor
£ varying degrees of openness of the national economy
8. Indicators expressing the openness of the national economy:
£ volume of foreign investments
Import quotas
£ number of people employed in export production
9. Groups of countries in the world economy in accordance with the UN typology:
Developed countries with market economies
£ industrialized countries
Countries with economies in transition
£ newly industrialized countries
Developing countries and territories with market economies
10. Criteria for assigning a country to a particular group:
The type of its economy
Level of socio-economic development
£ level and quality of life of the population
£ development of the military-industrial complex
£ volume of gross domestic product
GDP per capita
11. Countries in "Group 7":
£ Brazil
France
12. Countries of the group "New Industrial Countries":
£ Nigeria
£ Uruguay
Taiwan
£ Vietnam
Singapore
13.Countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development:
Netherlands
Norway
Ireland
14. Characteristic trends inherent in the current stage of development of the world economy:
Deep international division of labor
£ autarkism
Globalization
Sharpening of competition
15. New industrial countries of the "first wave":
Taiwan
£ Indonesia
The Republic of Korea
Hong Kong
Singapore
£ Vietnam
16. Key changes in the traditional "North-South" equilibrium scheme of the world economy after the 1970s. 20th century happened due to...
£ collapse of the administrative-command system of the former socialist countries
NIS appearances
£ CMEA decay
17. Key changes in the traditional "West-East" equilibrium scheme of the world economy after the 1970s. 20th century happened due to...
The collapse of the administrative-command system of the former socialist countries
£ appearance of NIS
The collapse of the CMEA
£ the formation of new markets for goods
£ collapse of the colonial system
18. In the technogenic model of world development, the "periphery" occupied
Dependent and subordinate position
£ dominance
19. In the technogenic model of world development, the "periphery" specializes in supplies to the world market
Mineral raw materials
energy carriers
agricultural products
£ science-intensive products
20.Protectionism of the foreign trade policy of the countries of the world economy is based on
Import substitution
£ export promotion
State or international regulation
£ market freedom
21. The liberalization of the foreign trade policy of the countries of the world economy is based on
£ import substitution
Export promotion
£ national or international regulation
Market freedom
22. The main features of the manifestation of the uneven development of the world economy are
£ the gap between the levels of development of the ORS and developing countries has narrowed
The differentiation of developing countries in terms of the level of economic development is growing
Leading countries are changing
In the context of the globalization of the world economy, the newly industrialized countries approached the group of leading exporters
The gap in the levels of development of the ORS and developing countries has widened
23. Countries with market economies are considered
OPEC countries
£ CIS countries
24. Countries with economies in transition are considered
£ OPEC countries
CIS countries
25. The emerging global world economy includes national economies
industrialized countries
Newly industrialized countries
developing countries
£ raw material supplier countries
Countries with economies in transition
£ countries with a command and control system
26. The main results of international cooperation are considered
£ strengthening of friendship between countries
Increasing the output of manufactured goods
£ obtaining licenses and patents free of charge
£ deepening MRI
27. Motives for the participation of countries in the international division of labor
£ getting access to new technologies
£ redistribution of spheres of influence between countries
Obtaining economic benefits
£ access to sources of raw materials and energy
28. Economic benefits of the country from participation in the international division of labor:
£ obtaining information about competitors
Saving national costs on the failure of domestic production of goods and services due to their cheaper imports
£ receiving land rent
29. Reasons for the development of the international division of labor:
Differences in natural and climatic conditions
£ geopolitical features of the country's position
£ pursuing an import substitution policy
30. The form of the country's participation in the international division of labor, subject to the production of products in excess of domestic needs:
£ international division of labor
£ international cooperation
£ branch division of labor
International specialization of production
31. The form of labor union at various stages of production and sale of goods and services is called:
£ international division of labor
£ productive collaboration
international cooperation
£ import substitution
£ international specialization
32. The increase in the export quota reflects:
Increasing the level of competitiveness of export-oriented products
£ increased productivity
£ favorable conjuncture of world commodity markets
33. The main forms of the international division of labor:
International specialization
International cooperation
£ regional integration
£ internationalization of production
£ globalization of the world economy
34. Intellectualization of the international division of labor is expressed in:
£ increase in the export quota
Form of scientific and technical cooperation
Form of technological cooperation
£ Strengthening the role of TNCs
35. Classical theoretical provisions for the development of the international division of labor are considered ...
£ theory of supply and demand
Theory of Relative Advantage (D.Ricardo)
The theory of absolute advantages (A. Smith)
£ mercantilist theories
36. The main functions of international cooperation:
Increasing labor productivity
£ deepening of the international division of labor
Increasing the production of goods and services
£ receiving free assistance
37. The indicator of the export quota indicates:
£ level of production cooperation
Degrees of orientation of individual sectors of the national economy to foreign markets
£ the nature of foreign economic relations
The level of industry international specialization
38. Quantitative indicators of the openness of the economies of the countries of the world economy are
Export quota
£ export quotas
Import quota
£ import quotas
Foreign trade quota
39. The most dynamically developing areas of the international division of labor at the present time:
£ production
£ transport
Information Services
£ investment
40. The specific specialization of countries in the production of individual goods and services depends on ...
Natural and geographical conditions
Scientific and technical cooperation between countries
Industrial cooperation
£use of international legal norms and rules
41. Correspondence between the subjects of the world economy and specific forms of their manifestation
42. The essence of the international division of labor is manifested in:
Breakdown of the production process
Integrating the production process
£ diversify sources of raw materials and labor
43. The main types of international specialization are ...
subject
£ single
Detailed
Technological
£ private
44. Main directions of international specialization:
Production
£ scientific
£ technological
Territorial
Intersectoral
Intra-industry
45.Main subjects of the global world economy:
Globalizing capital - TNC, TNB, MFC
£ United Nations (UN)
46. The solution of the contradictions of the process of globalization comes down to ...:
£ Strengthen aid to least developed countries
Giving the process of globalization a social orientation
£ direct the process of globalization for the benefit of the least developed countries of the world economy
£ Addressing Corruption in the Developing World
47. Problems related to the relationship "man-nature":
Use of the resources of the oceans
£ development of culture, education, healthcare
£ Employment of the economically active population
£ international terrorism
48. Problems related to the relationship "man-society":
Development of culture, education, healthcare
£ peaceful space exploration
£ disarmament and prevention of another world war
£ preservation and restoration of ecological balance
49. The main areas of activity of ECOSOC, as one of the main divisions of the UN
£ policy
£ science and culture
Economy
50. The issues of the development of education, science and culture in the UN system are dealt with
51. Main activities of UNCTAD:
international trade
£ cultural environment
£ art
£ international scientific and technological progress
52. In the process of globalization, contradictions arise between ...
Countries with market economies and countries with economies in transition
Advanced Economies and Least Developed Countries
£ leading countries of the world
53. The main reasons for the emergence of the "anti-globalism" movement:
Globalization is for the benefit of the "club of selected countries"
Globalization is implemented on the basis of taking into account the cultural values of the "West"
£ All countries benefit from globalization
54. Global demographic challenges are
World population growth
£ population migration
Population aging
£ illegal migration
55. Global political issues:
Rogue countries
International terrorism
£ religion
56. Global problems in the economic field:
£ economic wars
Growing backlog of developing countries
International debt problem
£ confrontation between interstate blocs
£ conflict between TNCs and national companies
57. Global social problems:
Income inequality
Unemployment
£ drop in real wages
£ urbanization
58. Global environmental issues:
£ limited resources
The problem of waste and pollution
Climate warming
£ problem of agricultural land
59. Characteristic features of the globalization of the world economy:
Liberalization of foreign trade
Strengthening the role of TNCs in the global economy
£ unresolved external debt problem
£ increased international terrorism
Increasing the regulatory role of international economic organizations
60. Reasons for accelerating the process of globalization at the beginning of the 21st century:
Information Technology
New financial technologies
The growth of the international capital market
£ financial crises
£ uneven economic development of the countries of the world economy
61. The area of the most dynamic development of the globalization process:
Economy
£ appliances
Information
£ culture
£ policy
Finance
62. Global socio-political problems:
Disarmament and prevention of another world war
£ energy problem
Ensuring employment of the economically active population
International terrorism
£ natural disasters
63.Global problems of a “natural-economic” nature include
Economic problems
Security with energy resources
£ demographic problems
£ health concerns
£ problems of interethnic relations
Food and raw material problem
64. The main activity of the specialized organization of the United Nations - FAO is considered
£ development of international cooperation in the field of education, science, culture
Collection, compilation and analysis of information on nutrition, environmental management, fisheries
65. The most common mineral:
£ iron ore
66. Of the fuel and energy fossil resources, the largest reserves are:
£ biofuels
67. A peculiar geographical phenomenon of the last decades of the 21st century, which has received the name "expansion" of the resource frontiers of the world economy in the scientific literature, is associated with:
£ involvement in industrial exploration and development of almost all countries of the world
The beginning of the development of new sources of minerals in hard-to-reach areas and offshore areas
£ discovery of fundamentally new types of minerals
68. Countries that almost completely satisfy their needs for fuel and energy resources from their own sources:
£ Mongolia
Norway
69. At the heart of the ability of the biosphere to cope with the consequences of human activity lies the concept of the development of modern civilization ...
£ the concept of "limits to economic growth"
£ concept of "new quality" of economic growth
The concept of "sustainable development"
70. Natural resources that create the conditions for human existence primarily include:
71. The absolute limitation of mineral resources is associated with (check):
£ involvement in the economic turnover of new types of resources
£ cardinal shifts in the production basis
The general limitation of the scale of our planet and all types of resources
72. Renewable (reproducible) types of natural resources:
solar energy
geothermal energy
73. The relative scarcity of mineral resources is associated with:
£ the general limitation of the scale of our planet and all types of resources
Cardinal shifts in the production base
Involvement in the economic turnover of new types of resources
74. Five countries, in the depths of which 100 billion tons of oil are concentrated (or 2/3 of all proven reserves):
£ Venezuela
Saudi Arabia
£ Norway
75. Seven countries with 60% of proven natural gas reserves:
£ Ethiopia
Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan
£ Ukraine
Saudi Arabia
76. The main oil exporters are currently:
Mexico
£ Ethiopia
Norway
Saudi Arabia
Venezuela
77. Major oil importers:
EU countries
£ Mexico
78. Top five places in world demand for primary energy resources:
hydropower
Natural gas
Atomic Energy
£wind power
£ solar energy
79. The main factors that, according to P. Samulson, will provide both individual countries and the world economy as a whole with "crisis-free development":
Natural resources
Population
Capital
Technical innovations
£ democracy
£ culture
£ ecological cleanliness
£ humanity
80. "Six" countries-leaders in gold mining:
Australia
81. The science that, on the basis of social, economic, biological and geographical factors, investigates the processes occurring in the structure, dynamics, movement and distribution of the population is called:
£ global studies
£ sociology
£ political science
Demography
£ global economy
82. The population of the Earth is projected to be:
£ gradually decrease
£ shrink slowly
Growing slower
£ grow at an ever faster pace
83. The movement of the rural population to cities inevitably leads to:
£ marginalization
Urbanization
£ democratization
£ demopopulation
84. The movement of people across the borders of certain territories with a change of residence forever or for a sufficiently long period is:
£ population diversification
£ Marginalization of the population
Population migration
£ geopoliticization
£ urbanization
85. Workers - frontaliers are:
£ officially registered migrant workers
£ illegal immigrants
Daily border workers
£ family members of migrants
86. The increase in the share of highly qualified specialists among migrants leads to:
£ significant losses
£ increase in economic crime
£ political instability
Significant economic impact for host countries
87. Groups of the population united along national, ethnic or religious lines and living in a new region (country) are called:
£ nationality
Diaspora
88. The current demographic situation in Russia is characterized by:
£ increase in the number of births
£ reduction in mortality among the population
Depopulations
Decreased life expectancy
£ increase in life expectancy
89. A continuing trend of "aging" of the population is characteristic of the following countries:
£ developing countries
Industrialized countries
£ countries in transition
90. The occupational structure of the population reflects:
£ political activity of the country in the international arena
The degree of development of society as a whole
£ sex and age composition of the population
Achieved structure of the economies of countries
£ unemployment rate in the country
General trends in the distribution of the labor force by sectors of employment
91. Characteristic trends in the distribution of EAN in industrialized countries:
£ Growth of EAN in agriculture
Reduction and stabilization of EAN in agriculture
Service Employment Growth
92. Typical trends in the distribution of employment in developing countries:
£ increase in employment in agriculture
Industrial Employment Growth
High level of employment in agriculture
Service Employment Growth
93.Characteristic trends in the distribution of EAN in countries with economies in transition:
Consistently high level of employment in agriculture
Growth of employment in the service sector
£ increase in employment in industry and construction
Decrease in employment in industry and construction
94. Reasons for international migration:
Economic
Demographic
Military-political
Environmental
£ terrorism
95. Characteristic features of the concept of "Population explosion" are considered
Decreasing mortality
£ low mortality
high birth rate
Sharp increase in population growth rate
£ declining birth rate
£ stable or minimally growing population
£ low birth rate
96. Characteristic features of the concept of "Demographic maturity" are
£ declining mortality
Low mortality
£ high birth rate
£ declining birth rate
low birth rate
Stable or minimally growing population
97. Characteristic features of the concept of "Demographic crisis" are
£ high birth rate
High mortality
The vital rate with a minus sign (-)
Depopulation
The death rate exceeds the birth rate
98. Countries and regions of the world experiencing high population growth include
Southeast Asian countries
Bangladesh
£ Israel
99. Correspondence between countries (regions of the world), and characteristic trends
100. Areas of activity that belong to the category of "high" technologies:
Nanotechnology
Information Technology
Biotechnology
£ continuous casting technology
Technologies based on the use of new materials
101.Indicators characterizing the scientific and technical potential of the world economy:
Number of specialists employed in science and scientific services
£ number of EAN in industry
Share of R&D spending in VMP
The share of science-intensive products in VMP
Share of products of high-tech industries in the world market
102. The cycles of scientific and technological development of the countries of the world economy according to the theory of cyclic development of N. Kondratiev are completed:
Change of technological patterns
technical revolution
£ political crises
103. The sequence of stages in the formulation of the global information space:
1: the emergence of writing
2: Invention of the printing press (typography)
3: creation of telegraph, radio, telephone, television
4: the advent of computer technology
5: the advent of Internet technology
104. Reasons for the steady growth of the knowledge intensity of the world economy:
Reducing the duration of the life cycle of high-tech goods (frequent change of generations of computers, household appliances, etc.)
Rise in the cost of the research developments themselves
High costs for scientific and fundamental research
Transnationalization of production
£ MX globalization
105. Quantitative characteristics of the scientific and technical potential of the countries of the world economy
£ R&D management organization system
Availability of research personnel
R&D Logistics
£ main areas of scientific research
£ availability of scientific and technical information
106. Qualitative characteristics of the scientific and technical potential of the countries of the world economy
R&D management organization system
£ availability of research personnel
£ Logistics for R&D
Main directions of scientific research
Provision of scientific and technical information
107. International scientific and technological exchange can be carried out
on a non-profit basis by...
License agreements for the rights to use inventions, etc.
Scientific and technical publications
Scientific conferences
£ migration of scientists and specialists
108. Decreased efficiency of the applied technique leads to:
£ energy crises
Search for new scientific ideas and technical solutions
Innovation boom
Mass updating of machine generations
£ mass migration of the population
109. Number of least developed countries (LDCs) (according to the UN list):
110. Approximate population in the least developed countries ... people
111. The least developed countries are predominantly located in:
£ latin america
£ South Asia
Tropical Africa
£ Eastern Europe
112. Differentiation in terms of economic development between developed and developing countries in the twentieth century:
increased
£ remained constant
£ decreased
113. Uneven and inconsistent development of countries in the modern world:
£ decreased
£ intensified
stopped
114. "Periphery" took its place in the technogenic model of world development - ...
£ equal position with "center"
dependent position
£ independent position and specializes in supplying to the global market
high technology products
£ of minerals
agricultural products
115. The main features inherent in the modern world economy:
£ transition to a post-industrial development model
£ a socially oriented market economy model emerged
The market economy has become universal
Strengthening interdependence of countries and regions
The gap between the center and the periphery of the world economy has widened
£ developing countries catch up with developed countries in terms of economic development
116. Features of the catch-up development model:
Protectionism
£ liberalization of foreign economic activity
£ convertibility of the national currency
Strengthening state regulation of the economy
£ strengthening of integration processes
117. The highest level of differentiation in the distribution of income in ..
£ developed countries
developing states
£ newly industrialized countries
£ OPEC countries
Countries with economies in transition
118. The share of developing countries in world GDP is
£ less than 5%
£ about 10%
Over 30%
119. The share of countries with economies in transition in world GDP is ...
£ over 20%
£ about 50%
£ about 10%
120. The main resources in an industrial society are
£ natural resources
Capital
£ information and knowledge
£ economic freedom
£ manpower
121. The main resources in a post-industrial society are
£ natural resources
£ capital
Information and knowledge
£ economic freedom
£ manpower
122. The dominant sector in the economy of developed countries is
£ primary
£ secondary
Tertiary
£ Quaternary
123. The dominant sector in the economies of the least developed countries is
Primary
£ secondary
£ tertiary
£ Quaternary.
124. The dynamics of economic growth (GDP growth) of China at the end of the twentieth century was
Up to 10% of GDP per year
£ about 3-5% of GDP per year
£ approximately 1-3% of GDP per year
£ less than 2% per annum
125. The dynamics of economic growth (GDP growth) in Germany at the end of the twentieth century was
£ up to 10% of GDP per year
£ about 3-5% of GDP per year
£ approximately 1-3% of GDP per year
Less than 2% per year.
126. The "Marshall Plan" was associated with
£ exercising international control over key branches of the military industry of the EU countries
£ transfer of management of coal mining in France and Germany to a supranational body
£ creation of the European Atomic Energy Community
US economic assistance to Western European countries.
127. The period of implementation of the "Marshall Plan" falls on
1948 - 1951
128. The Treaty on European Union entered into force with
£ 01.01.1991
£ 31.12.1995
129. The document of the beginning of the functioning of the Treaty on European Union is
£ white paper
Single European Act
£ Maastricht Agreement
£ NATO Treaty
130.The high level of technical equipment of Japanese production was achieved through
High level of development of fundamental research
Borrowing scientific and technological achievements from abroad
Active buying of foreign licenses
£ joint developments with partners in scientific and technical cooperation
131. The main institutions of the EU are
European Parliament
£ Single European ACT
£ EURATOM
132. Candidates for EU membership are
Slovakia
£ Belarus
Hungary
Estonia
133. The United States meets its needs for minerals through
£100% import
Approximately 50% of imports
£25% import
own resources
134. For Japan, "vital imports" are
£ food
Fuel and raw materials
£ labor force
£ semiconductors and home appliances
£ foreign currency
135. For Japan, a "vital export" is
£ foreign currency
£ food
£ fuel and raw materials
£ labor force
Semiconductors and home appliances
136. NAFTA is a free trade agreement between:
£ USA and Canada
£ US, Canada and EU
USA, Canada and Mexico
£ USA, Russia, Canada
137. Approximate amount (as a percentage of the world) of mineral resources that Russia possesses
Over 20%
138. The approximate amount (as a percentage of the world) of mineral resources that the United States has ...
£ over 20%
139. Three economic centers of power in the world economy are considered ...
140. USA, EU and Japan have a share in world GDP ... %
£ less than 40
£ approx 30
141.Participation and role of the state in the economy of most developing countries
£ small
Quite active
£ absent at all, since the main engine of economic development is foreign capital
142. Economic reforms in China at the present stage, which caused an economic upsurge in the country, began in ... g.
143. Most of China's population lives
£ in cities
In the countryside
£ abroad ("huaqiao")
144. Financing for the development of priority industries in China is provided by
£ state budget funds
£ off-budget funds
foreign investment
£ private investors
145. Common features of most developing countries are
Deep socio-economic backwardness
Diverse economy with different forms of ownership
The influence of traditional institutions in society
High population growth
£specialization in MRI mainly in power generation
£ quite developed market relations
£ heavy dependence on the influx of resources from outside
146. The modern economic model of the development of the national economy of developing countries is characterized as
Import substitution industrialization
Export-oriented model
£ convergence
£ liberalization
£ free trade
147. Share of developing countries in world GDP
is increasing
£ decreases
£ stays the same
148. The share of developing countries in world GDP is ... %
£ over 50
£ less than 20
£ approximately 10
149.Japan used in its relations with developing countries of these countries the model of economic development
flying geese
£ flying flock
£ adaptation effect
150. Differentiation within developing states
Increasing
£ stays the same
£ decreases
151. Differentiation within developing States is due to
Politics of developed countries
NIS development
£ rapid development of China
£ Russian competition
152. OPEC countries export mainly
£ natural gas
£ electronics
153. Population growth in developing countries
higher than in developed
£ approximately on the same level as developed countries
£ less than in developed countries due to high mortality
154. The population of developing countries predominantly lives
£ in Latin America
£ in Africa
155. Relations between Russia and APEC:
Russia is a member of APEC;
£ Russia is not a member of APEC;
£ Russia plans to join APEC
156. The most developed integration grouping in the world is considered
157. As a result of the formation of the CIS, mutual economic ties between them
£ remained the same
have shrunk
£ increased
158. The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) was established as part of an integration association...
159. The forms of integration, in accordance with the intentions of the organizers of the EU, provided for the creation
£ cooperation with Russia
political union
Economic and Monetary Union
Single (common) market for goods, services, capital, labor
£ military-political union
£ US integration
Customs Union
160. The main forms of international economic integration are considered
Common Market
Customs Union
£ syndicate
£ international association
Free trading zone
Economic and Monetary Union
161. The integration group "Visegrad Four" includes
£ Bulgaria
Slovakia
£ Romania
Hungary
162. Candidates for EU accession from the republics of the former USSR are
£ Ukraine
Estonia
£ Belarus
163. OECD was founded in...
164. Russia's relations with the OECD:
£ not bound by bilateral agreements
£ is a member of the OECD
Not a member of the OECD
Bound by a bilateral agreement
£ is in a hostile relationship
165. At the origins of the EU was the union
166. The ECSC included the states
£ Spain
Benelux countries
France
Germany
167. The sequence of stages in the formation of the economic and monetary union of the EU countries
1: Free Trade Zone
2: Customs Union
3: "Common Market"
4: Economic and Monetary Union
168. Russia's external debt is in the range of ... billion dollars
£ less than 50
169. The largest in the 90s. XX century was the fall of the mutual economic ties of Russia with ...
£ industrialized countries
£ countries of Central and Eastern Europe
£ developing countries
former republics of the USSR
170. The main component in Russian exports to Western European countries is currently
£ electricity
£ industrial products
Fuel and raw materials
£ machinery and equipment
£ agricultural products
171. Economic and scientific-technical relations between Russia and China are considered
£ little promising
Very promising
£ economically disadvantageous
172. The main reasons for the sharp decline in Russia’s economic relations with other CIS countries are
£ decrease in the degree of interdependence of the majority of the union republics
£ national animosity
£ non-delivery under intergovernmental agreements
The desire to export their products for hard currency to the countries of the "far abroad"
Painful transition from a single centralized supply system within the USSR to market mechanisms of interaction
173. The main components in Russian exports to developed countries are
£ machinery and equipment
£ electricity
£ industrial products
Semi-finished products
Fuel and raw materials
£ agricultural products
174. The main advantages of Russia in the world are considered
Natural resources
£ scientific and technical potential
High educational level of the population
Nuclear weapon
£ developed economy
£ developed market infrastructure
175.VES of Russia in the first place at the end of the twentieth century were focused on
OECD countries
£ CIS countries
Far abroad countries
£ CEE countries
£ developing countries
GDP per capita
Educational level of the population
£ military potential of the state
£ inflation
177. The place that Russia occupies in the world according to the Human Development Index (UN) at the beginning of the XXI century
Between 60th and 80th place
£ in the top ten states
£ between 10th and 20th place
£ between 20th and 40th place
£ between 40 and 60 places
178. Industrial production in Russia for the period of the 90s of the twentieth century
£ slightly decreased
£ up slightly
£ reduced by 10%
Reduced by more than 60%
179. The reduction in industrial production in Russia during the 90s of the twentieth century was associated with ...
£ confrontation with the US
Severing economic ties with the former republics of the USSR
Transition to market reforms
£ increased military tensions
180. GDP per capita in Russia correlates with the world average:
Below the world average
£ above world average
£ is approximately equal to
181.The main components of the problem of Russia's external debt are
Indebtedness from developing countries to Russia itself
Russian debt to leading RSPs, commercial banks and a number of countries in Eastern Europe
Debts of the former USSR
£ service of Russia's external debt
£ relationship with the London Club
182. The largest demographic decline in Russia was observed in:
£ 1920s
£ 30s of XX century.
£ years of so-called Stalinist repressions
1990s
The first years of the 21st century
183. The largest decline in the production of GDP (GNP) took place in:
£ Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War
£ global economy during the Great Depression
£ USA in the 30s of the XX century.
£ countries of Western Europe in the 30s of the XX century.
Russia in 1992-1996
184. The basis of the international division of labor is the principle:
£ industry isolation
Territorial isolation
£ technical and technological community
£ natural division of labor
comparative advantage
185. The formation and development of the world market is associated with:
£ protectionism
Deepening and expanding the international division of labor
The development of industrialization
Development of transport and communication systems
£ autarky of national economies
186. The internationalization of production is a process of economic interrelations between countries based on:
£ exchange of finished products
£ differences in natural and climatic conditions
Specialization and cooperation of production
£ countries overcome economic dependence
International movement of factors of production
187. According to the Heckscher-Ohlin model, countries specialize in the production of products based on a comparison:
£ production costs
Cost of factors of production
£ marginal utilities of exchanged goods
£ labor costs
Abundance or lack of certain factors of production
188.Leontief's paradox is that the US should be seen as a country:
£ capital surplus
labor surplus
£ with limited natural resources
£ with limited manpower
£ with limited capitals
189. Net exports are understood as:.
£ the difference between the proceeds from the export of products and the costs of its production
Balance of foreign trade turnover
£ share of exports in total production
£ the share of imports in the total volume of consumed products within the country
The difference between the volumes of exports and imports
190. Re-export means:
£ import into the country of products manufactured abroad with the help of national capital
£ export from the country of products produced with the help of foreign capital
Export of products that were previously imported
£ export of finished products that contain imported components
Export of products previously imported into the country
191. Foreign trade turnover is determined:
£ by subtracting the value of exports from GDP
£ by adding to GDP the value of exports
Summing up the values of exports and imports
Current account for goods and services
£ subtracting from the volume of exports the value of imports
192. World trade is currently dominated by:
£ groceries
Manufacturing products
£ patents and licenses
£ "experience and knowledge", engineering services
193. The degree of openness of the national economy is determined by:
£ country's share of world trade
The volume of exports per capita
£ share of national production in world production
Share of exports in national production
£ share of national production in international exchange
194. The policy of protectionism is aimed at:
£ expansion of imports from abroad
Protection of domestic production from foreign competitors
£ reduction in domestic exports
£ restriction of the import of foreign capital
Creating barriers to the import of goods and ensuring the inflow of foreign capital
195. The policy of foreign economic liberalism (free trade) is pursued by the following countries:
The most successful in their development
£ low-industrialized economy
£ agro-industrial
£ gained political independence
Not afraid of flooding the domestic market with imported goods
196. Transnational corporations are characterized by:
£ the limitation of its activities within the framework of the national economy
£ multinational capital
International economic activity
Capital of national origin and international nature of its activities
£ multinational capital and the international nature of its activities
197. Multinational corporations are characterized by:
£ the national nature of the origin of their capital
Multinational origin capital
£ international nature of activity and national origin capital
£ restrictions in the sphere of international economic relations
International nature of economic activity
198. The essence of the export of capital is:
£ export of value for the purpose of its realization and appropriation of profit in
Exporting value to produce new value and profit
Overcoming protectionist barriers that prevent the export of goods to the country
£ advancing cost in order to obtain rent
£ advancing cost to recover production costs
199. Direct foreign investments are those that provide their owner with:
£ appropriation of profit
Establishing control over the activities of a foreign enterprise
£ receiving interest on the loan
£ receiving a share of the capital of a foreign enterprise that does not provide control over the activities of the enterprise
Creation of own enterprise abroad
200. Portfolio foreign investment:
£ investment of capital that ensures the establishment of control over the activities of a foreign enterprise
Investment of capital that does not allow to establish control over the activities of a foreign enterprise
£ granting a loan to a native partner
Acquisition of a minor part of the shares of a foreign enterprise
£ buying up a controlling stake in a native enterprise
201. Loan form of export of capital:
Assumes the return and payment of imported capital
£ ensures ownership of a controlling stake in the enterprise
It involves the provision of a loan and the receipt of interest on it
£ gives the right to own a certain share of the capital of the enterprise
£ is characterized by a gratuitous transfer of capital
202. On the eve of the First World War, in terms of the export of capital, the first place was occupied by:
Great Britain
£ France
£ Belgium
£ Netherlands
203. In the middle of the XX century. first place in the export of capital is occupied by:
£ UK
£ France
£ Germany
204. At the end of XX - beginning of XXI century. the first place in the export of capital is occupied by:
£ Germany
£ oil-producing countries of the Middle East
£ UK
205. Until the middle of the XX century. The main importers of capital were:
£ developed capitalist countries
£ socialist countries
£ socialist countries of Europe
£ EU countries
Developing countries
206. At the end of XX - beginning of XXI century. The main recipient countries of capital were:
£ developing countries
£ countries that have embarked on the path of industrial development
£ socialist countries
Developed capitalist countries
£ post-socialist countries
207. Reinvestment of foreign capital means:
£ export of part of the profit to the country - the exporter of capital and its investment
Investment of a certain share of profits on foreign capital in a given country
£use of profits to pay off the debt of a foreign investor
£ export of all profits received on foreign capital
Re-investment from a part of the income received on previously invested capital
208. International labor migration is affected by:
Demographic situation in the country
High domestic unemployment
Differences in pay levels
£ domestic capital surplus
£ low economic growth
209. Departure from Russia to the United States of more than 50 thousand scientists and specialists was caused by:
£ lack of democratic freedoms in Russia
£ unwillingness to live in our country
Softening US immigration policy towards former socialist countries
Lack of funding for R&D and higher education in Russia, low wages
The policy of "human rights" and the openness of the economy
210 "Brain drain" from Russia to the United States, estimated at 1 trillion dollars means that:
Exhausted by "reforms", Russia acted as an intellectual donor
The rich US acted as an intellectual "vampire"
The flight of "human capital" from Russia has become the most profitable item for the United States in relations with our country
£ Russia received big profits
£ Russia has strengthened its scientific and technical potential
211.The migration policy of Russia in the modern period of transformation should proceed primarily from:
Ensuring scientific, technical and economic security
£ Ensuring the openness of the economy
212.The migration policy of Russia in the modern period of transformation should proceed primarily from:
Priority of national interests
£ compliance with international human rights standards
£ the need to include the country as a priority in the process of globalization
Preservation and enhancement of the potential of human capital
£ the need to increase emigration from Russia
213. Only economic integration is characterized by:
£ expansion of the international division of labor
£ growth of mutual trade
The presence of a single mechanism for regulating social and economic relations
£ internationalization of production
Closeness of the integration block
214. The final stage of economic integration is:
£ waiver of export and import quotas
£ refusal to license export deliveries
£ free movement of factors of production within one economic space
Creation of a political and economic union of countries
Formation of a monetary union of countries
215. The softening of the US immigration policy towards post-socialist countries was aimed at:
£ its humanization
£ strengthening compliance with international human rights standards
Benefiting from the influx of human capital
£ improving the situation of workers in Russia
Increasing your own intellectual potential
216.Gold parity:
Based on the gold content of the currency
£ represents a gold coin
£ expressed in paper currency
£ is the price scale
This is the ratio of national currencies based on their gold content
217. Currency parity expresses:
£ purchasing power of the currency
£ exchange rate of the national currency
£ weight amount of gold contained in the monetary unit
The ratio between national currencies established by law
The ratio of national currencies in accordance with their gold content and is adequate to the gold parity
218. The exchange rate is characterized by:
The ratio of national currencies, determined by their purchasing power
£ ratio of national currencies in accordance with their gold content
£ by the ratio of national currencies, established by a volitional decision
The purchasing power of one currency in relation to another
219. The cross rate of the currency is determined on the basis of:
£ gold content of foreign currency
£ gold parity of the other two currencies
Exchange rates of two other countries
Purchasing power ratios of the currencies of the three countries
£ currency parity
220. Currency arbitrage involves:
£ protection of the currency parity of the country's currency
£ protection of the exchange rate of the country's currency
Operations with the aim of making profit as a result of different quotes of cross-rates of the same currency
£ speculative transactions based on the forward rate
Speculative transactions based on cross rates
221. A foreign exchange transaction is called the "spot" rate if:
£ there is a deal under a fixed-term contract
£ deal is medium-term
The transaction is carried out in accordance with the current exchange rate
£ the transaction is carried out in accordance with the exchange rate set at a certain date in the future
The operation is based on cash (cash) transactions
222. The forward rate provides for:
A transaction made on the basis of a forward contract
Agree on a rate for a specific date in the future
£ trade based on the current rate
£ spot rate
£ transaction not related to hedging or speculation
The number of national monetary units corresponding to foreign currency
£ the number of foreign monetary units corresponding to the national currency
£ by the ratio of the exchange rate of two other currencies
£gold parity
£ currency parity
224. The reverse currency quotation is based on the expression:
£ amount of national currency in foreign currency
Quantity of monetary units of foreign currency in national currency
£ of one currency through the ratio of the rates of two other currencies
£ gold content in foreign currency
£ currency parity
225. The demonetization of gold was carried out by the decision:
£ Bretton Woods Conference
Kingston (Jamaica) Conference
£ Genoa Conference
US decision in 1971
£ decision of Russia in 1897
226. A real, and not just a counting international monetary unit is (was)
£ transferable ruble
227. To determine the "weight" of each national currency in the currency "basket", data on:
£ per capita income
£ national wealth
Share of countries in world exports
GDP
Share of countries in world foreign exchange reserves
228. Trade balance:
Is part of the balance of payments
Expresses the ratio between exports and imports of goods and services
£ includes balance of payments
£ has nothing to do with the balance of payments
£ does not include re-export
229. Balance of payments:
£ is part of the trade balance
Includes trade balance
£ does not include income and expenses from foreign exchange transactions
£ not linked to the interbank foreign exchange market
It is a report on the totality of international transactions
230. The weakening of the national currency and the depreciation of its exchange rate is caused by:
£ positive balance of payments
£ trade surplus
Negative trade balance
£ lowering the level of taxation
Negative balance of payments
231. The strengthening of the national currency and the appreciation of its exchange rate are associated with:
£ negative trade balance
Positive trade balance
£ negative balance of payments
Positive balance of payments
£ increase in taxes
2nd floor 20th century - discussion of the problems of the foundations and prerequisites of scientific knowledge made it possible to expand the problems of the structure of scientific knowledge - the metatheoretical foundations of science, which are implicit. Polanyi is the concept of implicit background knowledge.
As the foundations of science - various forms of axiological and worldview structures.
FUNCTIONS - 1) set strategic orientations for scientific knowledge,
2) largely ensure the inclusion of its results in the culture of the corresponding historical era.
BASIC FORMS of metatheoretical foundations of science:
· outlook
Philosophical principles, paradigms and categories;
general scientific methodological regulations,
a scientific picture of the world,
different models of science development,
style of scientific thinking, etc.
The ideological function of philosophy is considered one of the most important. It manifests the ability of philosophy to act as the basis of a worldview, which is, at the theoretical level, a holistic, stable system of views about the world and the laws of its existence, about the phenomena and processes of nature and society that are important for maintaining the life of society and man. The worldview of the individual acts as a set of feelings, knowledge and beliefs. A special role in the worldview of a human scientist is played by ideas about the principles that determine his attitude to the world, society and himself. The ideological attitudes of the scientist are of particular importance in the study of social and humanitarian processes. This can be clearly seen in the example of the economy.
Philosophical problems of economics are currently becoming particularly relevant, because. in the modern world, global changes are taking place in the field of the world economy, geopolitics and the socio-spiritual life of people.
The economic sphere is a complex multifaceted system. It is part of the wider system of society as a whole. The economy is an objective reality with which we constantly deal in everyday life, it is an indispensable attribute of our being. As Hegel noted, it is the economy that is the foundation of civil society. Various aspects of economic life are studied by many sciences. Among them, an important place is occupied by economic theory, economic psychology, and the philosophy of economics.
Features of socio-economic knowledge:
1. The complexity of the object - the diversity and dynamism of economic phenomena
2. Coincidence of object and subject in cognition (is objectivity possible?)
3. The influence of the personal subjective factor in cognition (experience, etc.)
4. Situational economy. knowledge
5. Limitation of the experiment as a method
The ideological factors of the researcher, therefore, play an important role in the study of eq. Processes. Philosophy has a decisive influence on the formation of the worldview foundations of a scientist's thinking.
The philosophy of economics is aimed at comprehending the foundations of economic life, relying on philosophical categories and principles, it reveals the essential aspects of economic phenomena and processes.
The philosophy of economics is a field of knowledge that has found itself in a difficult position in the modern world. Having become pragmatic, technological - in accordance with the spirit of the times - economic science claims the status of an exact discipline, which, in fact, is not. There is a noticeable narrowing of its subject field, at a time when, on the contrary, at the modern turning point in history, a broader humanitarian view of the economy as a cultural phenomenon is needed. Today, a discussion of the economic problems of society in intensive interaction with philosophical and cultural approaches is required.
The philosophical point of view involves revealing the essence of human behavior and activity in the economic sphere.
The intensification of scientific efforts in the interpretation and solution of economic issues is especially noticeable within the framework of social philosophy. The philosophy of economics is engaged in the study of general deep processes in the economy, this analysis is carried out on the basis of the achievements of philosophy.
Firstly, we are talking about the philosophical epistemological interpretation of economic knowledge - this is the desire to identify and describe the actual structures of economic knowledge and their adequacy to objective realities.
Secondly, philosophy acts as a methodological basis for considering economic problems. Of fundamental importance here is the knowledge of the laws and categories of dialectics, as well as the use of forms and methods of cognition developed by modern philosophy.
Thirdly, we are talking about the philosophical worldview interpretation of economic knowledge - this is the desire to identify and describe the actually existing structures of economic knowledge and their adequacy to the value orientations of a specific historical time.
These methods, being applicable in combination with other methods, can help economists in solving complex theoretical and fundamental problems. There is not a single economic theory, the formation of which would have done without the use of philosophical ideas about causality, space, time, etc. Without worldview concepts and principles, the progress of economic science is impossible.
However, the philosophical methodology of economic research is limited not only by dialectical materialistic approaches, it also has methodological ideas, value-based and cultural orientation (M. Weber), and ethical aspects.
In economics, there are strategies of two research programs - naturalistic and anti-naturalistic. Already in the very construction of an economic theory or an economic mathematical model, it should be taken into account that the economy deals with the phenomena of everyday experience. This should broaden its empirical base. Next comes the stage of theoretical research, where dependencies and concepts known from everyday experience appear. And only after that a more difficult stage begins - the proof of the possibility of using this theory to predict real processes in the economy and its applications.
In the main opposing approaches to each other - spontaneous or regulated economy - one can find orientations towards both naturalism and cultural centrism. It is quite obvious that the concept of spontaneous economic activity creates more prerequisites for substantiating the natural nature of the economic process and applying positivist approaches to its analysis, as well as mathematical models and methods. One can note the influence of G. Spencer on V. Pareto, who proposed the idea of economic equilibrium. The idea of economic equilibrium was supported by a number of other researchers who turned to the analysis of business cycles. This created opportunities for mathematical modeling in the economy (P. Samuelson, V. Leontiev).
Along with these concepts, among the theories of unmanaged economy received distribution of marginalism coming from the subjective theory of values and psychologism. Marginalists (F. Wieser, E. Böhm-Beverk and others) replaced the labor theory of value of classical bourgeois political economy, which, from their point of view, does not correspond to the most optimal modes of operation of the economic system, with the theory of marginal utility and productivity, designed to rationalize the subjective aspirations of trading partners and any other agents of economic relations. They assumed that the entrepreneur seeks to maximize his income, and the buyer - to acquire the most useful thing. These motives of the agents of economic relations seemed so obvious to the marginalists that their identification did not require any analysis. Therefore, in these subjectivist concepts, the method of understanding is not used in any developed form.
In view of the abstract interpretation of the interests of individuals, as always, unchanged, marginalists remain within the framework of a naturalistic research program. Since the human factor is always, one way or another, taken into account by social science, those economic concepts that proceed from the historically and psychologically variable nature of the subject's participation in the process under consideration should be classified as cultural-centric. In this case, it becomes necessary to understand the motives, to identify the historical context of the activity.
However, the above condition for classifying concepts as cultural-centric is necessary, but not sufficient. Thus, in the theories that allow state intervention in the economy, the role of a person in the very essence of these concepts is presented to a greater extent. But even here there are naturalistic tendencies. For example, John. Keynes is looking for an explanation of the unevenness of the economic process in the variability of the psychological motives of the entrepreneur and the buyer. And yet, with all this variability, he finds a “basic psychological law”: people increase their consumption with income growth, but not in direct proportion to income growth. Therefore, demand depends not so much on solvency as on the psychological propensity to consume and save, the ratio of which is a variable. Keynes's economic concept is aimed at eliminating this volatility through measures of state-monopoly regulation (tax, inflationary policy, subsidizing entrepreneurs from the state budget, etc.). In the course of state intervention, the economy undergoes a kind of naturalization by maintaining the proper quantitative ratios of a constant set of factors affecting reproduction.
Along with this naturalistic, albeit artificially constructed, economic model, in the theories of the state-regulated capitalist economy, there are (and predominate) cultural-centric approaches originating in the historical school of M. Weber, W. Sombart, G. Schmoller.
G. Schmoller set himself the task of analyzing the changing modes of activity of agents of economic relations, taking into account a combination of psychological, geographical, economic and other factors. Non-economic aspects of economic activity were the main subject of his interests. Economic changes were considered by him as a consequence of changes in those contents of mental life that a person manifests in the economy.
W. Sombart denied economic laws and made the nature of economic activity and institutions dependent on place and time. Exploring the cultural paradigms of the economy, he tried to discover the motives for economic activity in any society, interpreting capitalism as a universal phenomenon. The economic system, according to Sombart, is the embodiment of the economic spirit, which has a cultural and creative role. Therefore, economic activity must not only be studied, but understood.
M. Weber, in his more rationalistic theory of economy, sought to turn political economy into a rigorous science, capable of understanding at the same time. His "ideal type" turns into a method of discovering the unique aspects inherent in a particular historical situation. By introducing "relevant understanding", Weber actually takes a step towards the extension of this method to the natural sciences, which could be fully extended with the application of the culture-centric research program to the natural sciences. In economics, Weber is interested in the institutional aspects of economic activity, the connection between religion, sociology and economics. The basis of the development of capitalism, according to the scientist, is the development of the "spirit of capitalism", which is influenced by religious ideas.
It should be noted that the basis of any economic research and economics is labor productivity, as an indicator of the efficiency of the use of labor resources (labor factor), measured either by the quantity of products in physical or monetary terms produced by one worker for a certain, fixed time (hour, day, month, year); - or the amount of time spent on the production of a unit of marketable output. In this regard, it is possible to distinguish various worldview directions:
Liberalism
From the very beginning, this direction declared itself as a manifestation of bourgeois social thought. The ideas of liberalism were substantiated in the XVII-XVIII centuries. English philosopher J. Locke and English economist A. Smith. A great contribution to the development of the theory of liberalism was made by outstanding Russian thinkers, specialists in the field of philosophy, history, political science and law B.N. Chicherin, N.M. Korkunov. Representatives of liberalism, comprehending society, its economic, political and spiritual life, the activities of its legal institutions (we are talking at the same time about the main methodological approaches to the study of social phenomena, including economic, political, etc.), used certain criteria, mainly of which was (and is) the idea of human freedom1 - first of all, the freedom of expression by each individual of his views and interests, as well as the freedom of his activities and other civil liberties associated with it. The subject of the study is the state of society in terms of the presence or absence of certain economic, political and civil freedoms in it and finding ways for their most complete implementation.
In this regard, theorists of liberalism solve the following problems:
Freedom of the individual in society and his personal responsibility for his actions and the results of his activities;
The role of private property as the economic basis for individual freedom and the functioning of the economy;
Conditions for free enterprise and free market relations.
Since the time of A. Smith, liberals have traditionally assigned the role of a "night watchman" to the state, protecting the property of citizens, their rights, order in the country and protecting it from external encroachments.
Monetarist theory.
It was created by representatives of the so-called Chicago School, headed by the prominent modern economist Milton Friedman. This theory is theoretically and methodologically based on the idea of a free market and non-intervention of the state in the development of the economy. At the same time, M. Friedman and his followers substantiate the idea of the primary role of money circulation and, mainly, monetary operations in the functioning of a market economy. This will be discussed in more detail below. We only note that the theory of monetarism, based on the ideas of self-organization and self-regulation of economic processes and contributing to their study, proves the relevance of the fundamental ideas of liberalism in the study of modern economic phenomena and processes.
Conservatism
This direction of social thought was formed as a reaction to liberal theory and ideology. His predecessors - the English thinkers E. Burke and T. Carlyle, as well as the French thinkers J. de Maistre and L. de Bonald - countered the ideas of bourgeois individualism with the ideas of preserving and developing society as total, i.e. holistic education. The same ideas were substantiated by representatives of Russian conservatism K.N. Leontiev and K.P. Pobedonostsev and others. In solving the problems of interaction between society and the individual, which they interpreted as the interaction of the whole and the part, they preferred society as an integral organism in which each person must have the necessary conditions for his existence and development. At the same time, it was pointed out that the individuals themselves bear obligations to society, aimed at preserving and strengthening it for the common good.
Any social phenomena (spiritual, political, economic, etc.) were considered by them in relation to society as an integral social and natural organism. In their opinion, the freedom of the individual, his entrepreneurial activity, as well as freedom of speech and other civil liberties, should be supported only if they do not harm society, contribute to its evolution and strengthen it, since these freedoms can be destructive, lead to an unreasonable breakdown of traditional social institutions that have been formed in the field of politics, economics, morality, and religion.
One of the most significant manifestations of conservatism in the field of economic research of the XX century. the works of the famous English scientist J.M. Keynes, who declared the end of the liberal doctrine of the spontaneous development of the economy, based on unlimited freedom of enterprise and competition and the denial of any state intervention in the economy, due to the complete theoretical and practical failure of this doctrine.
Social Democratic direction
The theoretical origins of this trend go back partly to Marxism, partly to social reformism, neo-Kantianism and other teachings. Soon after the October (1917) Revolution in Russia, the final break between the Social Democrats and the consistent Marxists took place. Now it is an independent and widespread direction in Europe in theory, ideology and politics. The Social Democrats, having long ago abandoned the idea of abolishing private ownership of the means of production, are now advocating the preservation of state, cooperative and private property in society, i.e. for a mixed economy. They are increasingly inclined to recognize the advantages of the free market, although they do not deny the need for partial state influence on the development of the economy. Here they are unanimous, on the one hand, with modern conservatives, and on the other hand, with modern liberals. For them, the main method of social change is not revolution, but reform. The main goal of the theoretical studies of modern social democrats is to identify and substantiate the possibilities of building a society of democratic socialism.
Marxist direction
The founders of this trend are, as you know, the German thinkers K. Marx and F. Engels. Their prominent adherents, who played a significant role in the spread and further development of Marxism, were A. Bebel (Germany), A. Labriola (Italy), G.V. Plekhanov and V.I. Lenin (Russia), Mao Zedong (China) and others.
The initial theoretical and methodological position of Marxism in the study of the economic, political and other processes taking place in society is the consideration of society itself as a self-developing social system. Each such historically formed system is considered as a socio-economic formation, which, on the one hand, appears as a certain social organism developing on the basis of its own mode of production, and on the other hand, as a qualitatively unique stage of the world historical process. The nature and content of social relations in a given society to a decisive extent determine the nature and content of the socio-economic and political processes taking place in it, their social nature.
The leading role in the system of social relations (economic, political, legal, moral, religious, etc.) is assigned to economic relations, the totality of which is characterized as the economic basis of society, above which rises the political, legal and ideological superstructure, a derivative of the economic basis. As the founders of Marxism emphasized, this does not detract from the importance of political or spiritual phenomena in the life of society (on the contrary, their importance is constantly increasing), but it shows that, in the final analysis, their nature and content are determined by the economic basis of society.
The modern world economy (world economy) is a naturally developing and increasingly complex system of interaction between the national economies of various countries of the world, which manifests itself in various forms of their international economic relations based on the international division of labor.
The world economy is a complex system that includes many interconnected, dependent and interacting elements. The basis of this system is formed by international and national production of material and spiritual goods limited by the framework of individual states, their distribution, exchange and consumption. Each of these phases of the world reproduction process, both on a global scale and within individual states, depending on their place and share, generally affects the functioning of the entire world economic system.
Although the world economic system has long become a reality, there is still no single definition of the concept of "world economy" due to its complexity and diversity.
World economy, or world economy,- this is a set of national economies that are in constant dynamics, in motion, with growing international relations and, accordingly, the most complex mutual influence, subject to the objective laws of a market economy, as a result of which an extremely contradictory, but at the same time more or less integral world economic system is formed.
The formation of the world economy took place gradually, as the appropriate prerequisites were created. At the final stage of the formation of the world capitalist economy, world market, which became one of the characteristic signs of the development of the world economy in the second half of the 19th century, played an important role in the formation and development of the world economy.
The modern world economy is heterogeneous: the states included in it differ in social structure, political structure, level of development of productive forces and production relations, as well as in the nature, scale and methods of international economic relations.
Leading position in the world economy occupied by seven industrialized countries: USA, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy. They account for more than 80% of the industrial production of the group of industrialized countries (IDC) and about 60% of the total world industrial production; respectively 70 and 60% of electricity production, more than 60% of exports of goods and about 50% of services.
There are several periods in the development of the modern world economy and the involvement of national economies in it.
First period- 20-30s of the XX century, which were characterized by crisis phenomena in the development of the world economy. When Russia dropped out of world economic relations in 1917, the economic blockade carried out by the Western countries could not lead to the restoration of world economic relations on the former basis. The deep socio-economic crisis of the world economy was accompanied by a general instability of economic relations caused by the First World War, the Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s in the development of the economies of the leading countries of the world.
Second period development of the world economy - this is the end of the 40s - 80s of the XX century - is characterized by an intensive growth in the export of entrepreneurial capital in the world capitalist economy. During this time, the growth of foreign production has had a major impact on the organizational and economic parameters of the world economy. The main force in industrial relations was transnational corporations (TNCs), which formed international production complexes, including the creation of a product, its implementation, payments, lending.
Very important economic processes took place in the world economy during this period. Among them, the following should be noted.
The United States, which sharply increased in its economic power during the Second World War, assisted in the economic revival of Western Europe. After finishing "Marshall Plan" (1951) as the colonial empires collapsed, aid programs were redirected to developing countries in order to keep them in the system of relations between Western countries. The liquidation of the colonial system in the mid-1960s brought to the forefront of international life a large group of developing countries, which still occupy a special place in the world economy.
In the 1950s–1980s, the levels of development of the United States and other industrialized countries converged. The global economic dominance of the United States began to degenerate into a multipolar system.
The crisis period in the world economy in the 1970s and 1980s was not accompanied by a trend towards economic autarky, as was the case in the 1920s and 1930s. On the contrary, foreign economic relations had a steady tendency to expand and deepen.
The beginning of a new third period in the development of the world economy can presumably be considered the last decade of the XX century. In the Eastern European countries, there are processes of formation and creation of economic and political structures close to similar structures of Western states. The economic reforms carried out in Russia since the early 1990s are aimed at transferring the country's economy to market economic conditions and its deeper integration into the world economy.
Purposeful economic activity in the world economy is carried out by subjects that determine the state and development of factors of production, as well as ways to combine them. The subjects of the world economy are business units that are capable of organizing production activities on an international scale and have certain international rights and obligations in terms of their financial and material capabilities. These main economic entities include national states, TNCs, regional integration economic associations, and international economic organizations.
main subject world economy is state.
The role of the state in the economy is manifested primarily in the creation of guaranteed markets for companies within the country and abroad, its participation in the accumulation of capital, the regulation of internal and external economic relations in the national interests, directly in the production of gross domestic product (GDP).
In modern conditions of globalization of world economic relations, the state impact on other subjects of the world economy and on the system as a whole is commensurate with the economic potential of the state and the role of national economic entities in international markets.
In accordance with the International System of National Accounts (SNA), the subjects of world economic relations are private (individual) persons and organizations (legal entities), carrying out international economic transactions.
From the standpoint of belonging to the national economy, the subjects are divided into residents and non-residents.
Residents- these are economic entities permanently located on the territory of a given country, regardless of their national (state) affiliation.
Non-residents- these are economic entities permanently located in the territory of a foreign state, even if they are citizens of this country, but permanently reside abroad, or branches of economic units of this country located outside it.
Under the SNA, all residents and non-residents, or business entities, qualify as institutional units. These are individuals and legal entities that own factors of production and have the ability to produce products or sell services, on their own behalf to conclude transactions with other persons.
The SNA does not distinguish between subjects of national and international economic activity, since in an open market economy all legal entities and individuals that actually exist in the economy of any country, at the same time and in the same capacity, have the right to be subjects of the world economy, i.e. enter into economic relations permitted by law with any subjects of other countries or participants in international economic unions.
To analyze economic events and complex economic relationships, a system of reliable, complementary indicators is needed. The modern SNA was approved by the UN in 1993, which somewhat modified the names of sectors of the economy, standard accounts and main macroeconomic indicators.
Most widely In economic analysis, two important indicators are used: gross product and national income. The central indicator of the new SNA is gross domestic product (GDP); its second macroeconomic indicator is the gross national product (GNP). Both of them reflect the results of activities in two areas of the national economy - material production and services; both are defined as the value of the total volume of final production of goods and services in the economy in one year (quarter, month). These indicators are calculated both in current (current) prices and in constant (prices of any base year).
The difference between GNP and GDP is as follows.
GDP calculated on the so-called territorial basis. This is the total value of products in the sphere of material production and services, regardless of the nationality of enterprises located in the territory of a given country.
GNP- this is the total value of the total volume of products and services in the national economy, regardless of the location of national enterprises (in their own country or abroad).
Thus, GNP differs from GDP by the amount of so-called factor income from the use of resources of a given country abroad (profit transferred to the country from capital invested abroad, property available there, wages of citizens working abroad) minus similar income exported from the country foreigners.
Usually, in order to calculate GNP, the difference between the profits and incomes received by enterprises and individuals of a given country abroad, on the one hand, and the profits and incomes received by foreign investors and foreign workers in this country, on the other hand, is added to the GDP indicator. This difference is small - for the leading Western countries no more than ±1% of GDP.
In our country, the transition to new indicators of GDP and GNP is carried out by recalculating the gross social product (GSP) and national income (ND), which are, respectively, the sum of gross output and net output of material production sectors.
national income- this is the value newly created for the year, characterizing what added the production of this year to the well-being of society. Therefore, when calculating it, unlike GDP, it does not include the amount of depreciation, indirect taxes, and government subsidies.
This is the net "earned income" of society, and this determines the importance of ND as a macroeconomic indicator and its widespread use in comparative analysis.
In Russian practice the breakdown into two funds still applies:
consumption fund - a part of the ND that ensures the satisfaction of the material and cultural needs of people and the needs of society as a whole (for education, defense, etc.);
accumulation fund - part of the RD, ensuring the development of production.
The SNA usually defines the rate of accumulation and the share of consumption, but as a percentage of GDP, and not of ND.
For international comparisons and other purposes, it is more convenient to have an integral indicator of the scale and level of economic development. This role is usually played by a monetary indicator expressed in dollars - GDP or GNP.
For international comparisons, GDP is converted into one currency, usually US dollars. This raises a number of problems. First, it turns out that the relative performance of a particular country, its place in the world economy is highly dependent on the current exchange rate, which can change dramatically.
By the 90s of the XX century. a solution to this problem was found: the concept of purchasing power parity appeared - PPP (from the English. purchasing power party - PPP). Since 1992, the UN, within the framework of the program of international comparisons, as well as the OECD, the EU, the IMF and the World Bank, began to introduce PPP calculations.
PPP is a coefficient for converting national currencies into dollars, however, not at the bank rate, but based on the ratio of the purchasing power of two currencies in the countries where they are issued. For the convenience of the PPP, 1 dollar is taken as a unit.
For such calculations, they take a uniform “basket” of goods and services and calculate its cost by country. Here a new problem arises: the inadequacy of the standard basket to the structure of consumer spending, which varies dramatically in different countries. This means that there is no standard "basket" that is the same for all countries.
Price differences are not the only source of distortion in GDP comparisons; in addition, the shadow economy and labor costs in the household are not taken into account.
The integration of economic life in the world goes in many directions:
a) internationalization of productive forces through the exchange of means of production and technological knowledge, as well as international specialization and cooperation, linking economic units into integral production and consumer systems; through production cooperation, international movement of production resources; through the formation of a global material, information, organizational and economic infrastructure that ensures the implementation of international exchange;
b) manifestation of internationalization through MRI;
in) increase in the scale and qualitative change in the nature of traditional international trade embodied goods. The main factor in the impact of international trade on national economies is not so much its outstripping growth, which reflects the process of deepening MRT, but its fundamental qualitative shifts. The very functions of international trade have changed- from short-term transactions "goods - money" to a means of direct servicing of national production processes, linking them into a single production mechanism that knows no national borders. The emphasis in such service is shifting to the final stages of production (finishing, assembly operations);
G) international movement of financial and production resources, providing interweaving and interdependence of economic activity in different countries. This movement takes the form of an international loan or foreign investment;
e) an increasingly important area of international cooperation is services sector, which develops faster than the sphere of material production;
f) rapidly growing international exchange of scientific and technical knowledge: no single country alone is able to solve all the issues of scientific and technical progress, and even more so to be a leader in all its areas. All this leads to an intensive process of formation of the international intellectual division of labor. There is an international specialization of scientific and experimental design centers, the establishment of sustainable cooperation between them;
and) the scale of international labor migration is increasing, to which Russia and other states formed on the territory of the former USSR are beginning to connect as exporters;
h) along with the increasing internationalization of the impact of production and consumption on the natural environment, need in the international cooperation aimed at solving global problems of our time(protection of the natural environment, exploration of the World Ocean, space, assistance to the starving population of developing countries, etc.). The solution of the increasingly aggravated global problems that put humanity on the brink of survival requires the combined efforts of all countries of the world community.
The basis for the unification of national economies into a single world economy is international division of labor(MRI), i.e. specialization of individual countries in the production of certain types of products, which countries exchange with each other.
MRI is the basis of the world economy, allowing it to progress in its development, to create prerequisites for a more complete manifestation of general (universal) economic laws.
The essence of MRI manifests itself in the dynamic unity of the two processes of production - its dismemberment and association.
A single production process cannot but be divided into relatively independent phases separated from each other. At the same time, such a division is at the same time the unification of isolated industries and territorial production complexes, the establishment of interaction between the countries participating in the MRT system.
The need to increase labor productivity, which determines economic and social progress, is the driving force in deepening the division of labor, including the international one. MRI performed in order to increase the efficiency of production, serves as a means of rationalizing the social productive forces.
The main motive for MRI for all countries of the world, regardless of their social and economic differences, is their desire for economic benefits. The implementation of the effect obtained by the MRI participants in this case occurs as a result of the operation of the law of value, which manifests itself in the differences between the national and international cost of goods.
MRI is the “integrator” that has formed the world economic system – the world economy – from separate elements.
1. Territorial: a) interregional - the division of labor between regions of the same country; b) international - the division of labor between individual countries.
2. Functional: a) general - the division of labor between large areas of material and non-material production (industry, agriculture, transport, communications, etc.); b) private - the division of labor within large areas by sectors and sub-sectors (for example, such as heavy and light industry, animal husbandry and crop production, sea, air and land transport, as well as within them: mining, metallurgy, engineering within heavy industry ; machine tool building and transport engineering within the framework of mechanical engineering; automobile, aircraft, shipbuilding within the framework of transport engineering, etc.); c) single - the division of labor within the enterprise (in this case, the enterprise is interpreted broadly, as a full cycle of creating the final product).
The scientific and technological revolution (STR) at the present stage causes profound changes in the structure of productive forces, inter- and intra-industry proportions in the national economies of an ever-growing number of countries and the world economy as a whole.
New technological base, availability of information since the early 80s change the conditions of production and consumption. The individualization of demand, the growth of saturation of mass needs, the shortening of the time for satisfying demand, the constant threat of overproduction, a number of socio-economic increased the role of consumer demand as an incentive for the qualitative development of production and services, or, in other words, the formation of directions for technical progress, the ultimate efficiency of material and spiritual production.
New technologies bring into action qualitatively new economic ties: they are aimed at saving resources, individualization and specialization of production and consumption. The cumulative result of new connections goes not so much along the cost chain, but along the axis of the growing effect of their application. The chain reaction here has a consequence saving all kinds of resources. Increasing the role of consumers in the "producer - consumer" system results in the implementation of a set of organizational and managerial measures at the corporate level of a marketing nature (strengthening the connection between research and development (R&D) and production activities with marketing policy, preliminary identification and assessment of consumer capabilities , focus on meeting a narrow specific demand).
Application of new technologies affects world economic relations. The nature of the MFA is changing as the latest forms of automation deprive developing countries in a growing number of economic activities of part of the benefits associated with the presence of a large cheap labor force, which affects the traditional incentives to export capital. They're shifting away from savings on labor costs to cost savings, associated with lower standards for environmental cleanliness and labor safety, which developing countries go to for the industrialization of national economies. In addition to the export of goods and capital, industrialized countries are increasingly using the export of scientific and technical information and scientific and technical services as a "ram" of great punch to establish and expand their positions in the world market.
The modern world is moving to a new, synthesized model of development, which is characterized by: a) a qualitative renewal of the technological base of production, b) the widespread introduction of resource- and energy-saving technologies, c) shifts in the structure, content and nature of production and consumption processes.
Globalization how the process is a movement towards over-internationalization, over-integration, manifesting itself in all world markets.
The process of globalization has led to a new qualitative state of the world economy, the so-called globalized space. Globalization as a new qualitative state of the world economy is a new stage in the development of human society, at which the features of the integrity of the world economy, the interdependence of all its parts become obvious, noticeable at the level of both phenomena and individual events.
The revolution in finance and technology, as well as the availability of information, has led to a new state of society: neither governments nor national media are able to isolate economic agents from the full amount of information about the economy, politics, problems and ways to solve them in other countries.
In the economic aspect globalization means the reduction of barriers between national economies (the role of the World Trade Organization - WTO is increasing, numerous agreements on telecommunications and financial services are being developed), the over-integration of national economies.
At the beginning of the XXI century. under the influence of the global information system, the boundaries between technologies, industries, and sources of capital disappear. Various computer technologies are merging into a single integral information system, carrying along not only the information environment and information technologies, but also the markets of capital, goods and services, and labor. Now it is often difficult to determine the country - the manufacturer of the goods, the country - the source of capital.
Globalization is especially pronounced in the capital market: thanks to the information and technical power of modern means of communication, huge masses of financial resources are rapidly moving from one point of the planet to another; the speed and direction of this movement is difficult to predict, they are instantly invested in where they work best.
In 1980, 4.6 million Americans owned shares in various funds, and in 2000 half the US population invested their money in the securities markets. At the same time there was a "narrowing of space"; in the commodity market, this manifested itself in a sharp increase in world exports, which increased from $53 billion to $7 trillion in half a century.
Technological preconditions for globalization were computerization, miniaturization, fiber optics, the expansion of the use of satellites, the introduction of the Internet. Important indicators of the development of a country are the number of computers per capita, the number of CDs and digital disks, as well as the number of individuals using e-mail, as well as the number of Internet users.
The deepening of the process of globalization, unfortunately, not only does not lead to the solution of global problems, but also contributes to the prosperity of a small group of industrialized countries and the degradation and impoverishment of the least developed countries of the world.
None of the global world problems known since the middle of the 20th century has yet been completely resolved: the creation of a mechanism for resolving issues of war and peace, disarmament, conversion, overcoming poverty, hunger, and disease. There is no paradigm for the development and survival of man in the face of global warming, a unified program for protecting the environment, and a joint search for new sources of energy. Today, more than 80,000 chemicals are used in daily production that adversely affect human health.
Moreover, herself globalization generates new global problems. Direct investments of transnational corporations do not always give an unambiguously positive result, for which they are called “instruments for preserving underdevelopment”, producing products that are unnecessary for the country using unnecessary technology. Financial resources attracted through the process of globalization "run away" as quickly as they come. In mid-1997, Western capital left Thailand, and in 1998, South Korea and Indonesia, causing a financial shock in each of these countries.
Even in countries that are reaping the “sweet fruits” of globalization, protests against alien values, sold as universal ones, periodically flare up. (anti-globalism movement). The sharply increased severity of competition on a global scale leads to growing inequality in income, lack of job security. In the industrialized countries, globalization is being pushed back from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The left sees the differentiation of consumption: the suffering of the poor and the super-enrichment of dozens of citizens, the right sees the erasure of national borders, the unification of national identity, the loss of jobs, the loss of clearly expressed national sovereignty.
Protest against globalization and trade unions in developed countries. It is known that in the US a worker on average receives about $19 an hour, and a Mexican worker $1.5, which causes a massive outflow of production to Mexico.
The capital that has escaped to the global expanses finds those areas where wages are minimal, taxes are insignificant, state regulation is almost absent.
The environmental problem has a long history, but it has become aggravated since the second half of the 19th century as the planet was industrialized.
The exacerbation of the environmental problem means a transition to a qualitatively new dependence of the population of the world community on the depleting natural environment as a result of the barbaric impact of human activity on it.
The main directions of the aggravation of the ecological crisis:
Increased withdrawal from land use (area) of cultivated lands as a result of excessive use of chemical fertilizers, soil salinization, wind and water erosion, etc.;
Chemical impact on agricultural and livestock products, water, human environment, deforestation, etc.;
The growing volume of pollutants released into the Earth's atmosphere (hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, etc.), leading to the gradual destruction of the protective ozone layer around the Earth's atmosphere;
The rapid build-up of waste, the transformation of significant land areas into dumps for various industrial waste. As a result, useful land areas are reduced and territorial foci with increased danger to human life are expanding;
Growth in the number of nuclear power plants.
The so-called local wars - in Vietnam, Kampuchea, Laos, Afghanistan, Africa, Central America - also influenced the acceleration of the ecological crisis. Huge expanses of the jungle, which had been untouched for centuries, turned out to be literally scorched.
The links between the environment and the economy are seen in many phenomena. The recent famine in sub-Saharan Africa was more the result of severe environmental and economic deterioration than the result of the drought alone, which undoubtedly catalyzed the disaster.
The problem of environmental security is closely related to the achievement of economic security, approval of equal economic relations, excluding the predatory exploitation of natural resources, the export of polluting industries and hazardous waste - this idea was emphasized at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, held in 1992 by the American scientist Brown, director of the Washington Institute for World Observation , emphasized in this regard that the extensive destruction of natural support systems and deteriorating environmental conditions pose a threat to national and international security, which now competes with the traditional military threat.
This is where the most developed forms of international cooperation based on common criteria and universally recognized universal approaches are required.
Although food consumption is generally increasing in all regions, it is unevenly distributed across continents and individual states:
1) industrial zones of the world, including Western and Northern Europe, North America, Australia and Japan - regions that are faced not with a shortage of high-quality food, but with its excess;
2) regions of southern Europe and Central Asia, as well as most of the countries of Latin America, the countries of the Maghreb and ASEAN, in which the food supply is at a level approaching the norm in terms of the UN WHO requirements;
3) the countries of Eastern Europe, the CIS and the Baltic countries, as well as India, Egypt, Indonesia, whose food supply is at the “permissible” level of deviation from the norm according to the UN WHO standards;
4) developing countries, the vast majority of whose population is experiencing all the hardships of the food crisis (a vivid example is the countries south of the Sahara).
Level of food production in countries of Eastern Europe, CIS and Baltic countries does not correspond to their real capabilities. Russia alone, having vast territories for cultivating various agricultural crops and animal husbandry, has a huge potential not only to fully provide the necessary food for its population, but also to provide assistance to other countries. However, at present, the CIS countries and the Baltic countries are food importers.
Feeding a rapidly growing population developing countries is one of the most urgent global problems of our time. The solution of the food problem of the developing countries is connected with overcoming their economic and scientific and technological backwardness and lies on the path of radical socio-economic transformations, the elimination of backward forms of land ownership and land use, the rise of agriculture based on the introduction of advanced scientific methods of its management.
FAO estimates that the total number of people suffering from acute hunger in the early 1990s due to the food crisis in Africa is from 600 million to 700 million people. The criterion of hunger in this assessment is its extreme degree, determined by the "critical level" of the body's energy needs, sufficient only for survival. If, however, a less rigid approach is taken to define hunger, the number of hungry people in developing countries will be even greater. Hunger in the liberated countries is a massive and constant phenomenon that accompanies the daily life of large sections of the population.
Chronic hunger causes irreparable damage to the reproduction of labor resources, reduces life expectancy, and contributes to a high mortality rate.
United Nations is the largest, universal and most authoritative international organization at the present time, designed to deal with the main political problems that concern humanity. The political activity of the UN is inextricably linked with economic and social tasks directly related to world politics.
The preamble to the UN Charter states that its purpose is to promote the economic and social progress of all peoples. In charge United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) includes the organization of research and the preparation of various kinds of reports and recommendations on a wide range of international economic, social, cultural and other "related" issues. The Council prepares draft conventions for submission to the UN General Assembly and may convene international conferences on these issues. Being the main coordinating body in this area, ECOSOC coordinates work with other UN organizations, conducts consultations, involving for this purpose non-governmental organizations that specialize and are interested in the issues under consideration.
The main questions of ECOSOC:
The state of the world economic and social situation and the preparation of fundamental reviews and other analytical publications;
The state of international trade;
Problems of environmental protection;
Economic and scientific and technical assistance to developing countries;
Various aspects of the food problem;
Problems of socio-economic statistics;
Population problems;
Problems of natural resources;
Problems of settlements;
Problems of planning and mobilization of financial resources, etc.
In the system of ECOSOC bodies, there are five regional economic commissions: Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), Economic Commission for West Africa (ECWA).
Meeting on environmental protection held EEC in 1979, adopted the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (entered into force in 1983) and the Declaration on Low-Waste and Zero-Waste Technology and Waste Reuse.
Within ESCAP a project of trans-Asian railways and highways has been developed and is being implemented.
The document that determined the economic policy of the states of the continent for the 90s was adopted at the 24th session ECA(1989). It is "The Framework for an African Alternative to Structural Adjustment Programs for Economic Recovery and Transformation." The "alternative" is the real basis for stopping Africa's slide into the now deepening economic crisis.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) designed to regulate global trade relations. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was created and operated outside the UN. Therefore, many countries set the task before the UN - to have in its structures an independent and universal body, called on behalf of the world community to regulate the complex problems of international trade. For these purposes, in 1964, an autonomous body of the United Nations was founded to promote international trade, negotiate and develop international treaties and recommendations in this area, and currently includes about 170 states. The main body of UNCTAD is the conference, which is convened in session twice a year. Sessions of UNCTAD committees are convened more often - on commodities, on finished products and semi-finished products, on shipping, technology transfer, economic cooperation between developing countries, etc.
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Within its framework, a Section of Integrated Industrial Projects was created: development, coordination and control over the implementation of individual large-scale technical projects, development and management of joint technical cooperation programs with FAO. During the year, UNIDO is working on more than 100 interregional and global projects for Latin America and Asia in all sectors of the economy and training.
Environment Program(UNEP): protection of soils and waters, flora and fauna, socio-economic aspects of energy, urban problems, cooperation in the field of education and exchange of information on environmental protection, practical implementation of environmental safety tasks.
The International Labour Organization(ILO): development of international conventions and recommendations on labor and trade union rights.
Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO): collection and compilation of information on nutrition, environmental management, agricultural production, forestry and fisheries. The main field of activity is the agriculture of the world.
Target European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(EBRD) to provide financial assistance to the new states of Eurasia and Eastern Europe in economic reforms, in particular in financing "privatization programs" and encouraging "private initiative" and "entrepreneurial spirit". The real functioning of the bank began only in 1993. During 1994-1997, certain technical assistance was provided to a number of countries, but it is clear that the EBRD's capabilities are limited and it is unrealistic to expect any significant financial impact on the CIS members, the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe.
The world economy is based on the use of significant reserves of natural resources. The economic activity of economic agents is unthinkable without soil cover, minerals, fresh water, solar and wind energy, precipitation moisture, biological (flora and animal) resources.
All elements of nature used in economic activity and being the means of human existence form the natural resource potential of the world economy. All natural resources are divided into real, i.e. identified by modern survey methods, technically accessible and cost-effective, and potential, i.e. resources, the volume of which is established theoretically and has a predictive character.
Potential resources are the resources of the future. Due to their current economic unprofitability, they will be able to be involved in production under conditions of a qualitatively new level of development of scientific and technological progress.
The important thing is the classification according to the principle of exhaustion. From this point of view, all resources are divided into exhaustible and inexhaustible.
Demands for exhaustible resources sharply exceed their volumes and the rate of their natural replenishment, which leads to the depletion of these resources.
Based on the intensity and speed of natural renewal exhaustible resources are divided into non-renewable (all types of mineral and land resources), renewable (flora and fauna) and relatively renewable (productive arable soils, mature forests).
Despite the significant development of geological exploration (primarily in developed countries), the knowledge of the subsoil is still insufficient. The proportion of proven reserves for certain types of minerals sometimes amounts to several percent of geological reserves.
Among the fuel and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world are coal. Its geological reserves, according to some estimates, reach 9-11 trillion tons (in standard fuel), and brown coal and lignite - 2.2 trillion tons. If we compare the figure of world reserves with world coal production - more than 4.3 billion tons in 1994 (in terms of standard fuel - 3.1 billion tons), it turns out that it will be enough for 3000-3700 years at modern production (and for 1000 years at the level of production possible in 2020). Explored coal reserves are much less than geological ones - 1.2 trillion tons.
Of this total, the United States accounts for 430 billion tons, Germany - 100 billion, England - 50 billion, India - 29 billion, Canada - 50 billion, Australia - 90 billion and the CIS - 290 billion tons. The bulk of coal is mined in the CIS, USA, China, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and England.
By the mid-1990s, about 900 million tons of coal were mined annually in the United States. Approximately 1/10 of coal is exported. The coal industry has excess capacity, which is associated with the displacement of coal by other more efficient fuels. Reduced coal production in European countries. In England, mines are being closed due to the depletion of coal reserves and the rise in the cost of its production, as well as the displacement of coal by oil from the North Sea. Decreased production in France, in Russia.
The share of coal in the world consumption of energy resources (in terms of standard fuel) at the beginning of the 20th century. was 56%, and in 1995 - 27%. In the coming years, the ratio between the types of energy resources consumed in the world will change towards a decrease in the share of oil, the sources of which are limited. The share of consumption of coal, natural gas and nuclear energy will grow.
Proven reserves oil amount to 127 billion tons of standard fuel and probable - 360 billion tons of standard fuel. In addition, probable oil reserves from unconventional sources - oil shale and tar sands - amount to up to 750 billion tons. Proven oil reserves from traditional sources in the world are distributed as follows (in%): in the Near and Middle East (in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq) - 70, in Africa (in Nigeria, Algeria, Libya) - 9-11, in North America - 8-10, in Central and South America - 5, in Western Europe - 5. Currently, slightly less than half traditional oil reserves are located on the coastal shelves.
Oil is likely to remain the main fuel and energy resource for a long time to come. According to estimates, in 2020 the share of oil in world energy consumption will be at least 10%. At the same time, it should be taken into account that with the existing production technology, on average, only 30–35% of the oil available in the bowels of the Earth is extracted to the surface.
The world has natural gas(in terms of standard fuel) 79 billion tons of proven reserves and 276 billion tons of probable reserves (respectively 66 trillion and 230 trillion m 3 in physical terms). The largest proven gas reserves are in developing countries - Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Near and Middle East, as well as in Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Venezuela, Mexico. Of the developed countries, the United States, Canada, Australia have significant gas reserves, and in Europe - Great Britain, Norway and Holland (North Sea reserves). In many of these countries, gas reserves have been discovered over the past 15–20 years, and there is reason to believe that further discoveries are possible.
Natural gas production in the world reaches 1.7 trillion m 3 per year. This figure will increase and may double by the middle of the 21st century. The share of gas in world energy consumption is estimated to be about 15% by 2020.
Geological potential reserves iron ores are estimated at trillions of tons. The resources of known deposits, including those that are currently unprofitable, reach approximately 600 billion tons, while proven and probable reserves reach 260 billion tons. Brazil, Australia, Canada, the United States, South Africa have the largest deposits of iron ore in the world, and among European countries - France, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and Norway. There are large iron ore deposits in the CIS and China. The content of iron in the known deposits of industrial ores for the most part does not exceed 40%. Poor ores with an iron content of 30–35% or less are processed at mining and processing plants. Rich ores - with an iron content above 45% - are used without enrichment.
Iron ore production in the world is about 870 million tons per year. In recent years, its production has significantly decreased and the production of ferrous metallurgy has decreased. The capacity for steel production has decreased, as the need for it has decreased, in particular in the automotive industry. Steel is being replaced by plastics, heavy-duty ceramics, and other materials.
General stocks bauxite(raw materials for aluminum production) amount to 50 billion tons, of which reliable and probable - about 20 billion tons. Bauxite production reaches 80 million tons, mainly in Australia, Guinea, and Jamaica.
General stocks copper ores are determined at 860 million tons, of which 450 million tons are reliable and probable. There is data on 363 million tons of estimated and 290 million tons of theoretically possible resources. The main part of the total reserves of copper ores is located in the USA, Chile, Zaire, Zambia, as well as in Canada, Panama, Peru. About 8 million tons of these ores are mined annually.
Limited stocks and other non-ferrous metals- lead, tin, zinc. The total lead reserves are 200 million tons, reliable and probable - 100 million tons. Most of the reserves are located in the USA, Australia, and Canada. Lead production annually is about 2.5 million tons. The total reserves of tin are 8.3 million tons, of which 3.8 million tons are reliable and probable (India, then Thailand, Bolivia).
Natural resources, which are increasingly used in the course of the development of society and create the conditions for its existence, primarily include land - this is the basis, basis, living space of a person. From this significance of the land as the space on which society exists, its active significance in production, primarily as the basis of agriculture, as the main means of producing food and raw materials, differs. Land covered with forest - a source of wood and other raw materials, should also be attributed to the production sector, since the forest is used and reproduced by society. Finally, the bowels of the earth contain various types of mineral raw materials, are the environment that contains them, fossils also serve as means of production.
Of the total surface area of the Earth of 510 million km 2, land accounts for 149 million km 2. Agricultural land covers 51 million km 2 and forested areas - 38 million km 2 . As part of agricultural land, arable land and perennial plantations make up 13.4 million km 2, hayfields and pastures - 37.4 million km 2. Thus, on average, there is 0.3 hectares of arable land per capita in the world - the main source of food and fodder. In recent years, the area of arable land has been shrinking absolutely, not to mention the relative reduction (per capita), due to population growth, especially in developing countries. In individual countries, the area of arable land per capita differs sharply. Thus, in the United States per capita there are 0.67 hectares of arable land, in Germany - 0.12, in Great Britain - 0.11, in Japan - 0.03 hectares.
There are reserves in the world for increasing cultivated areas: several million square kilometers of land that could be used for agricultural needs, but their development requires significant capital investments. Therefore, in order to increase food production, first of all, they seek to improve the use of available agricultural land. Most of the cultivated land is in the Northern Hemisphere. Over half in Europe and Asia and 15% in North America. These countries also produce the bulk of food.
More than half of the area is occupied grain crops. The production of grain and leguminous crops on the planet in 1994 reached 1658 million tons, including 403 million in China, 359 million in the USA, 227 million in India, 81.3 million in Russia, 57 in France, 1 million, in Brazil - 49.2 million, in Canada - 49 million, in Argentina - 24.9 million tons. Over the past 25 years, the production of grain and legumes has doubled.
Urbanization, the development of industry, transport lead to the alienation of agricultural land, their sale for other needs. The alienation of cultivable land directly reduces the ability to produce food. Significant harm to land resources is caused by the deterioration of their condition, degradation due to erosion, deflation, pollution with waste, which is facilitated by imperfect methods of cultivating the land, its overload, and depletion.
Agricultural Development ranked first in the world USA. This is facilitated by favorable natural conditions, vast plains, a temperate climate, turning to subtropical in the south, and sufficient moisture. Agricultural land covers more than half of the country's territory. Agricultural exports are growing, labor productivity has increased while the number of agricultural workers has been reduced (1.7% of those employed in the national economy, or 3.1 million people). The high level of labor productivity in agriculture is based on its broad mechanization. In recent years, farms have been in a state of growing crisis. Dealers of agricultural products receive big profits, farmers go bankrupt.
The areas of irrigated lands are growing; they gather up to 1/4 of the crop. All surface water in the western United States is virtually distributed; groundwater is mainly used, including from the very extensive underground reservoir Ogallala.
Wind erosion and deflation negatively affect the soil. When the soil dries up and deep plowing, the fertile layer is blown out.
Significant depletion of land resources occurs in Asian countries. This is the result of primitive farming in conditions of rapid population growth, the cultivation of the same crops, the plowing of new unproductive lands, and overloading of pastures. In South and Southeast Asia, a slash-and-burn farming system is used: slash-and-shift, which uses the decay products of cut down forests, and slash-and-burn, based on burning forests and using ashes. Such predatory methods of farming accelerate soil degradation, their disposal, lead to land salinization, and desertification.
Rapid processes of erosion and deflation, as well as general depletion of arable and pasture lands, are occurring in countries Africa, where backward methods of farming are widespread. On pasture lands, the vegetation cover is degraded due to overgrazing. There is a process of desertification in which thousands of square kilometers of semi-desert lands are involved in areas north and south of the Sahara. Dust storms occur in the Sahara, Sahel, and Kalahari plains, and their intensity is so great that sand and dust are sometimes transported across the Atlantic Ocean and reach the West Indies.
In countries Latin America The area of agricultural land is expanding, which is largely due to the decrease in forest areas. The slash-and-burn system of agriculture is widely used, which is why erosion and deflation cover most of the cultivated land in these countries.
AT australia the development of pastoralism over a number of decades has led to the deterioration of pasture lands; periodic droughts also contributed to this; plowing in the "wheat-sheep belt" caused erosion processes. Measures are being taken for melioration, backfilling of ravines, plowing across slopes, grassing of eroded lands, and construction of water-retaining ramparts.
The forest is of great importance for life on Earth. With the help of light energy absorbed by plant chlorophyll, i.e. through photosynthesis organic substances are formed to the plants themselves, and to all others living organisms. This is one of the main biological processes taking place on Earth. More than 100 billion tons of organic matter are formed annually on Earth, half of which is terrestrial vegetation, mainly forests. The forest covers with its underground and above-ground multi-tiered structures a larger part of the biosphere than other plants, counting per unit area occupied.
Forested areas worldwide reach 36 million km2, which is 27% of the land area. The main part of the forested territory is located within the CIS - 8.1 million km 2, in the USA - 2 million, in Canada - 2.6 million, in Brazil - 3.2 million km 2. Large areas are occupied by forests in India, Angola, Colombia, Mexico, Peru.
Forest - wood source, building material, raw materials for pulp and paper, woodworking, including furniture, and other industries. The total stock of wood in all forests of the world is 360 billion m 3 . The development of logging depends not only on the available timber resources, but also on the quality of forest management. It is characteristic that in Sweden and Finland, which have a small stock of wood - only 4.1 billion m 3 of all species and 3.4 billion m 3 of coniferous species - the removal of wood is about 100 million dense m 3, or almost 1/8 of the total removal developed capitalist countries.
Taking the annual growth of wood as 1% of its total volume in the forests of the world, i.e. 3.6 billion m 3 , we get that about 80% of the annual forest growth is harvested. But from this ratio it is still impossible to conclude that forests are used rationally. First of all, logging in general is growing rapidly. Thus, in the mid-1950s they amounted to 1.5 billion m 3 per year. By 2000, with the same increase, they reached 3.3 billion m 3 , i.e. almost equal to the annual growth of wood.
Along with wood, a number of other types of forest products: various types of technical raw materials, such as resin for the production of rosin and turpentine, gutta-percha for the production of rubber, tanning agents, organic dyes and other wood chemistry products. The forest has significant food and feed resources(wild berries and fruits, mushrooms, nuts, honey plants, birch sap). The annual harvest of all types of forest food products is measured in tens of millions of tons, but only a small part of this amount is used.
Are important forest products(fruits, foliage, needles, bark, roots) for the production of medicines. Very effective medicines obtained from sea buckthorn, lemongrass, ginseng, lily of the valley and many other forest plants, shrubs, and trees are widely known. It should be noted the role of the forest in soil protection, protection of fresh water sources, recreational functions, etc.
Population data are obtained from regular (usually every 10 or 5 years) general censuses, and in the intervals between them - by calculations based on census data as a base. Many countries have not had censuses for a long time, so the total population is considered as an approximation to the exact value.
According to the UN in 2005, the world population was 6.5 billion people and will continue to grow and in 2050 will be approximately 9.1 billion people.
The labor resources and the movement of the population as a whole are dealt with demography- a science that, on the basis of social, economic, biological and geographical factors, explores the patterns that occur in the structure, dynamics, as well as the location and movement of the population. On the basis of this, a population policy is developed, forecast estimates are made of changes in the population of a country, a region and within the framework of the world economy as a whole.
In demographic statistics are used odds fertility (number of births per 1,000 citizens of the country, measured in ppm), mortality (number of deaths per 1,000 citizens, in ppm), marriage rates, vital rates - the difference between birth and death rates.
The coefficients are most often calculated for calendar year. Coefficient mortality(birth rate): the number of deaths (or births) in a year is divided by the average population (of the country or other study area) for the same year, after which the quotient of the division is multiplied by 1000.
Average population for a given year: the population as of June 30 of the year in question (or calculate the arithmetic average of the population as of January 1 of the given and next year). In the same way, it is calculated marriage rate: the count may be based on the number of marriages, or on the number of newlyweds, which is twice the number of marriages.
As a result of births and deaths, there is a process of continuous renewal of the population, which is called "reproduction". To monitor the dynamics of the population determine its annual growth. Annual growth rate is the population growth during the year in question (i.e. between two consecutive January 1) as the arithmetic mean:
P = (P r / P m) x 1000,
where R g - growth during the year; P m is the average number of the population during the year.
With the exception of periods of war, epidemics and famine, the birth rate slightly exceeded the death rate; annual population growth, as a rule, reaches several units per 1000, with an upper limit of 10 per 1000, or 1%. In order to assess the extent to which a given generation has provided its replacement, it is necessary to follow this generation from the moment of its birth until it produces its descendants. Complete generation replacement observed if 1000 people of a given generation, counted from the moment of their birth, produced 1000 newborns (live).
An analysis of the dynamics of the world population shows that in most European countries, as well as in the countries of North America in the 19th and 20th centuries, the mortality rate of the population decreased. In other countries of the world, a noticeable decrease in the mortality of the population began only after the collapse of the colonial system, i.e. mainly after World War II. The prerequisites for reducing mortality were: a) a general increase in the living standards of the population; b) improving medical care; c) carrying out preventive measures to prevent diseases, primarily infections.
Thus, one can point to two characteristic types of demographic transition to a new type of reproduction:
1) "classic", or European, type: the transition from high levels of mortality and fertility to low levels occurs over a long period of time, and the birth rate in most cases exceeds the death rate by an amount significantly less than 10%, which leads to a slowdown in population growth;
2) "modern" type: a decrease in the total mortality rate over a shorter period than in the first case to a level of approximately 10% with a stabilization or increase in a significant birth rate.
This ratio of births and deaths means rapid population growth: doubling its size over a period of about 20 years. Measures to regulate the birth rate in some countries contribute to its decline. Individual countries are characterized by numerous features of these processes, which often complicate the task of classifying them.
Generally developing countries can be attributed to the "modern" type of demographic reproduction. A number of developing countries are characterized by very low overall mortality rates due to the "young" age structure. At the same time, the level of age-sex mortality rates is higher than in economically developed countries of the West.
However, sometimes it appears specific type of reproduction when the death rate begins to exceed the birth rate, and the result is a vital coefficient with a minus sign (i.e., there is a natural decrease in the population - depopulation). Trends of this kind are clearly manifested in modern Russia.
The resident population of the Russian Federation according to the last census (2002) was 145.2 million people, which is 1.8 million more than the current population estimate. As of December 1, 2005, the population was 142.8 million people. In 2005, the population decreased by 0.5% (680 thousand people).
Urbanization- a multilateral socio-economic, demographic and geographical process occurring on the basis of historically established forms of social and territorial division of labor. In a narrower, demographic and statistical sense, urbanization is the growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the proportion of the urban population in a country, region, or world.
The development of the urbanization process is closely related to features of the formation of the urban population, inclusion in the urban environment or attribution to urban administrative subordination of suburban areas, the transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. In fact, the growth of the urban population is also due to the formation of wide suburban areas and urbanized areas. The living conditions of the population in these areas are increasingly approaching those in large cities.
The outpacing growth of the urban and non-agricultural population compared to the rural and agricultural population is the most characteristic feature of modern urbanization.
In three parts of the world - Australia and Oceania, North Africa, Europe - urban dwellers predominate; they are being overtaken by rapidly urbanizing Latin America; at the same time, the population of the Afro-Asian countries, due to its large numbers, creates a preponderance of the village over the city on average in the world. The developed countries have the highest percentage of the urban population. In Europe - UK (91%), Sweden (87%), Germany (85%), Denmark (84%), France (78%), Netherlands (76%), Spain (74%), Belgium (72%) ; in North America - USA (77%), Canada (76%); in Asia - Israel (89%), Japan (78%); in Australia and Oceania - Australia (89%), New Zealand (85%); in Africa - South Africa (50%). When the proportion of the urban population exceeds 70%, the rate of its growth, as a rule, slows down and gradually (when approaching 80%) stops.
Urbanization is characterized concentration of the population in large and super-large cities. It is the growth of large cities (with a population of over 100 thousand people), the new forms of settlement associated with them and the spread of the urban lifestyle that most clearly reflect the process of urbanization.
At the end of the XX century. a qualitatively new phenomenon of urbanization - metropolitan areas(cities with a population of over 20 million people) - has also arisen in developing countries. By the 60s of the XX century. there were only 2 megacities in the world (New York and London), then Mexico City, Tokyo - Yokohama, Greater Bombay, Calcutta, Jakarta, Dhaka, Karachi, Madras, Bangkok were added to them.
In 2000, the urban population made up about 48% of the world's population. The most urbanized region is Western Europe; the least urbanized is Africa.
Employment- this is the activity of the able-bodied population to create a social product or national income. Giving the opportunity to everyone who is willing and able to work in social production leads ideally to full employment.
Employment in social production does not exhaust all types of useful employment, such as studying in general education and special educational institutions, serving in the army, employment in the household, raising children, caring for the sick and the elderly, and so on.
Accounting for all types of economic and socially useful activities is reflected in the concept global employment. Those who, for subjective or objective reasons, could not find for themselves a useful field of activity that does not contradict the law remain outside it.
Employment in social production is of decisive importance from the point of view of the development of society itself. productive employment. The ratio of productive employment to other types of useful employment makes it possible to determine rational employment.
In international statistics, categories are widely used "economically active population" and "economically inactive population".
According to the ILO recommendations for economically active the population includes all persons who participate in the production of goods and services, including the production of goods for the market, through barter channels and for personal use: wage laborers - workers and employees; independent workers; unpaid family members; seasonal and casual workers; persons temporarily not working for objective reasons (illness, vacation, etc.); students who combine study with part-time work; apprentices and persons undergoing vocational training at work and receiving either a stipend or a salary.
In different countries, the definition of the economically active population is somewhat different, for example, by the age of entry into active working life (USA - from 15 years old, in Sweden - 16 years old). Differences by category: In the UK, the economically active population does not include students working part-time or looking for work. The economically active population for the current period in market economy countries is defined as "work force".
The labor status of the economically active population is quantified by the number of weeks or days worked in a certain period of time (12 months or one calendar year). According to the number of hours worked, the economically active population is divided into employed, unemployed and underemployed.
To economically inactive population, international statistics include everyone who, regardless of age, is not included in the categories of the economically active population: full-time students, housewives, old-age and disability pensioners, rentiers, persons receiving material support from public organizations and individuals; employed in unpaid public work, persons providing voluntary, free services, etc.
The rapidly occurring internationalization of production and capital is accompanied by the internationalization of the labor market. International migration has become an integral part of the modern system of the world economy.
In countries that actively use foreign workers, entire sectors of the economy are dependent on imported labor. In France immigrants make up 1/4 of those employed in construction, 1/3 in the automotive industry; in Belgium- half of the miners; in Switzerland– 40% of all construction workers, etc. At the same time, for the majority of developing countries exporting labor, abandoning it would mean the loss of the most important source of foreign exchange. So, if in Egypt the operation of the Suez Canal in the late 80s made a profit of 970 million dollars, and tourism - 600 million, then remittances from immigrants - 3.1 billion dollars.
Number of foreign workers in Western Europe is 4.1–6.5 million, in USA- 5-5, 6 million, in Latin America– 3.5–4 million, in countries Middle East and North Africa - 2, 8 million, in West Africa- 1.3 million people.
First immigration center was formed in the countries of Western Europe, where foreign labor began to be used on a permanent basis. The EU has 13 million immigrants and their family members, including about 8 million (or 61%) from non-EU countries. In Germany, foreign labor is 8% of the total number of employees, in France - 7, Switzerland and Luxembourg - up to 30%.
But the special role of foreigners as an additional labor force for the countries of immigration was that the interstate movement mainly involved young people, usually under 25 years old, fit for intensive work and physical exertion.
Until recently, foreign workers were used mainly in those areas where the share of manual labor is high (construction, service sector), and in those industries where work is too dangerous, dirty or considered not prestigious for the local population. Here the share of foreigners is very high, sometimes reaching up to 70%, which means that such enterprises are already "oriented" to the use of foreign labor.
Second immigration center traditionally the United States, whose labor resources have historically been formed precisely at the expense of immigrants. Now the incoming labor force is constantly about 5%, and in coastal areas even more (counting those who did not have time to assimilate).
Third center- in the region of the oil-producing countries of the Middle East. Until recently, it was the third immigration center: in the UAE, the proportion of the labor force is about 90%, in Qatar - over 80%, in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - almost 40% each, in Oman - 34%. The main exporter of labor in the region is Egypt (75% of the total number of immigrants).
fourth center– in Latin America: Argentina and Venezuela accept workers from neighboring countries. The total number of immigrants is 3 million, the vast majority are Hispanics. The most common form is rural seasonal migration. Longer time migration is typical for industrial and service workers.
Scientific and technical potential of the state (industry, a separate industry)- a set of scientific and technical capabilities that characterize the level of development of a given state as a subject of the world economy and depend on the quantity and quality of resources that determine these capabilities, as well as on the availability of a fund of ideas and developments prepared for practical use (introduction into production). In the process of practical development of innovations, the materialization of scientific and technical potential takes place.
Scientific research, especially in the field of natural and technical sciences, is increasingly becoming a direct component of the process of material production, and applied research and experimental design can practically be considered an integral part of this process.
The science It is a complex and very difficult to measure system that embodies the results of people's intellectual activity, an ordered complex of their ideas, knowledge and experience. As a result, the study of the results of scientific and technical activities is associated with a number of difficulties.
The main components of the NTP: provision of the country with scientific and technical personnel and logistical support for research activities. The main "quality" components: organization of the science management system; provision with scientific and technical information; main directions of scientific research.
The development of scientific and technical progress indicates the onset of a qualitatively new stage in world development, which is manifested in the following: 1) the economy is experiencing continuous innovation process, during which transformations in the technological, organizational and social spheres merge together. At the same time, it forms a new model for the development and use of human resources, focused on a highly skilled workforce integrated into the production system; 2) takes priority intangible accumulation, including investment in people, compared with material accumulation; 3) turns into the most important productive force information. Its production, processing, distribution, creation of information infrastructure and information networks become necessary conditions for competitiveness and economic growth; 4) industry complex of services, performing important production functions in the modern process of reproduction, becomes the main area of employment; 5) the mobility of public institutions, vocational qualification and social class structures increases; 6) public control over capital is increasing, social expenses of corporations are increasing, the role of social guidelines in the development of the whole society is increasing; 7) the spread of powerful information systems enhances the interconnectedness of the states of the world. However, many critical problems facing society (destruction of the natural environment, limited resources, wealth and poverty, terrorism, etc.) are also acquiring a global character.
An analysis of trends in the financial and staffing of scientific activities shows that its scale in developed countries continues to grow. R&D spending at the macro level is rising, but the share of R&D spending in GNP tends to stabilize below 3% (except in Japan, where this figure has been surpassed).
Increasing the scale of scientific activity is a positive factor in economic growth. The American scientist F. Scherer formulated "natural law of technological progress": spending on R&D in each individual country should grow faster than the production of the gross national product. At the same time, the optimal scale of resource support for science is 3% of GNP.
The reasons for the sustainable long-term growth of the knowledge intensity of the economy: the rise in the cost of research and development due to the growing use of highly skilled labor and sophisticated science-intensive equipment; "maintaining stable funding for corporate research departments or even increasing it in years of both normal and unfavorable economic conditions; technological convergence, which requires firms to train experts in broader areas of science and technology, to develop in a wider range of related technologies; reducing the duration life cycles of science-intensive products (frequent change of generations of computers, household appliances), constantly growing demand for science-intensive products from the healthcare sector (diagnostic tools, medicines).
Modern Russia is characterized by a gradual and steady decline in the share of spending on science in GDP, a transition to indicators that are typical, at best, for moderately developed countries. According to the State Statistics Committee, the share of R&D in GDP fell to 1.16% in 2005 (at the level of India, Canada, Brazil).
Process prioritization involves simultaneously taking into account at least four factors: 1) national ideas (ensuring national security, competitiveness of the economy, development of education, healthcare); 2) the need to solve the most pressing problems of this period, such as energy savings (70s), environmental protection (80s), the fight against AIDS (late 80s - early 90s); 3) the implementation of modern scientific achievements, for example, the results of molecular biology or genetic engineering, and in the longer term, the phenomena of superconductivity; 4) real possibilities of national scientific schools.
Comparison of the list of STP priorities of different countries, such as OECD countries, leads, first of all, to the conclusion that most of the positions are very similar. Among the recurring positions in the lists of state priorities: technologies for the production of new materials, information technology, communications, biotechnology, health and environmental protection; an important role is assigned to space research.
In the future, common priorities will retain their significance, but they will increasingly fit into the solution of global problems of preserving man and nature.
Sectoral structure of the economy in a broad sense, it is a set of qualitatively homogeneous groups of economic units, characterized by special conditions of production in the system of social division of labor and playing a specific role in the process of expanded reproduction.
Sectoral shifts at the macro level, if considered in a long historical framework, manifested themselves first in the rapid growth of "primary industries" (agriculture and mining), then "secondary" (industry and construction), and in the last period - "tertiary industries" ( services sector).
In world practice, the basis for the formation of the structural elements of the economy are the International Standard Industrial Classification of all types of economic activity and the International Standard Classification of Occupations, which are components of the SNA. The SNA provides for the use of two types of classifications - by industry and by sector. Grouping by industry provides a characteristic of the sectoral structure of the economy, allows you to establish the contribution of each industry to the creation of GDP, trace inter-sectoral relationships and proportions. Grouping by sectors of the economy, formed depending on the functions performed by economic units in the economic process, allows you to analyze the processes in the field of distribution and redistribution of income, investment financing. A special place in the system of national accounts is occupied by intersectoral balances, which, depending on the goals of economic analysis, can include from several tens to several thousand industries.
Basic sectors for the development of intersectoral balances are industry, agriculture, construction, trade, transport and communications, and other industries (they mainly include service industries). Each sector of the economy, in turn, is divided into so-called consolidated industries, industries and types of production. Each of the enlarged industries includes homogeneous, but specialized industries in the production of certain types of products.
When referring an enterprise, types of production and services to a particular sector of the economy are taken into account the purpose of the product or services, the type of basic raw materials and materials, the nature of the technological process. In a number of cases, difficulties arise in attributing a particular sector of the economy to a particular industry. This is due to the fact that, as a result of specialization, products of the same purpose are often manufactured using different technologies, from a variety of raw materials, etc. In addition, it happens penetration process techniques and methods from one industry to another. From the same raw materials, products of the most diverse purposes are produced.
Industry is the main, leading branch of material production, in which the predominant part of the gross domestic product and national income is created; its share in the total GDP of developed countries is about 40%.
modern industry consists from many independent branches of production, including a large group of related enterprises and production associations located at a considerable territorial distance from each other.
Sectoral structure of industry characterized by the composition of industries, their quantitative ratios, expressing certain production relationships between them. The sectoral structure of industry is determined by finding the share of industries in the total volume of production, the number of employees and the value of fixed industrial assets.
The main one is indicator of the volume of production: allows you to judge the ratio of industries, their relationships, the dynamics of the sectoral structure of industry.
When determining the sectoral structure of industry according to employment rate the share of more labor-intensive industries will be overestimated, and the share of industries with a high level of mechanization and automation will be underestimated.
The sectoral structure of industry reflects the level of industrial development of the country and its economic independence, the degree of technical equipment of industry and the leading role of this industry in the economy as a whole. The progressiveness of the structure of industry is judged by the composition and relative weight of the branches included in the industry, by how perfect the intra-branch structure of one or another branch of industry is.
Factors determining changes in the sectoral structure of industry: 1) scientific and technological progress and the degree of implementation of its results in production; 2) the level of social division of labor, the development of specialization and cooperative production; 3) the growth of material needs of the population; 4) socio-historical conditions in which industry develops; 5) natural resources of the country.
The classification of industries is based next principles: economic purpose of manufactured products; the nature of the functioning of products in the production process; homogeneity of the intended purpose of the products, the commonality of the processed raw materials, the affinity of the technology used; the nature of the impact on the object of labor, etc.: 1) AT system of national accounts industry classification is used one of the following signs: homogeneity of the intended purpose of the manufactured products (machine-building, fuel, food), the commonality of the feedstock (metalworking and woodworking), the affinity of the technology used (chemical industry). The largest part of industries is covered by the feature designated purpose the products they produce; 2) by the nature of the impact on the object of labor: extractive and manufacturing industries.
The current stage of economic development of the leading countries of the world is characterized by major shifts in the structure of the economy, which leads to the irreversibility of the transition to new intersectoral and reproduction proportions. This was also influenced by such factors as the raw materials and energy crises, which contributed to the rise in the cost of raw materials and energy carriers, and, consequently, equipment and construction. The investment process has become more complicated, and production costs have generally increased significantly. All this not only caused, but also intensified the tendencies towards a rise in the cost of the reproduction process itself.
passing structural adjustment aimed at improving the quality parameters of production and manufactured products, strengthening the resource-saving type of reproduction, intensifying national economic processes, and accelerating the development of the latest science-intensive industries. Structural changes occur in the sectoral and reproductive sections. Structural transformations began to be carried out at the micro level - the level of sub-sectors and types of production - mainly due to qualitative shifts within the traditional sectors of the economy.
Wherein industry remains the leading branch of material production and, above all, mechanical engineering, where scientific and technical achievements are accumulated. Therefore, it is in it that the tendency towards a decrease in the share of raw materials, energy carriers, and human labor is most noticeable; the share of the latest high-tech industries is rapidly growing in the structure of industry.
The share of the extractive industry is declining(with an increase in the cost of exploration, drilling and production of gas, oil, etc.). At the same time, the latest progressive technological processes are increasingly penetrating into it, microprocessors and microcircuits are being introduced, which have a huge impact on the structure of production and contribute to the mass release of labor from the production process.
Integrated automation of production, the development of "unmanned" technology are the leading directions of scientific and technical progress.
In general, in recent decades in industrialized countries, the general pattern of sectoral shifts is a noticeable decrease in the share of primary industries and agriculture, the technical modernization of industry and the rapid growth of service industries. The most radical changes are taking place at the level of sub-sectors, within which high-tech industries have the highest dynamics.
Branches of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) are capital-intensive industries. In industrialized countries, where all its industries are represented, usually the main capital investments in the range of up to 85% fall on the oil and gas industry and the electric power industry (in approximately equal shares) and up to 15% on oil refining and the coal industry. A significant impact on the investment process in the fuel and energy complex as a whole is exerted by investments in the oil industry.
The cyclic nature of the development of business activity in the oil industry This is due to the fact that decisions to increase investment in the oil industry are made at a time when there is a shortage of oil in the markets, accompanied by rising prices and profits. At this time, there is a revival of the investment process in this industry, and an increase in production begins in about 10 years. There is an excess supply of oil over demand in the oil markets, prices begin to decline, which is also accompanied by a decrease in investment until the excess oil disappears. This period also lasts about 10 years. Over the past 100 years, there have been five such cycles, each lasting from 20 to 22 years, and these cycles do not necessarily coincide with the development cycles of the entire economy.
In the period up to 2010, there will be an increase in oil prices, and investment will pick up.
Investment in development power industry less subject to such cyclical changes. Annual investment in this industry will be (with some fluctuations in one direction or another) within the limits of $100 billion a year.
In the future until 2015, according to experts, the average annual growth rate of electricity generation in the world will be about 2.7%, however, there are significant differences both in the pace of development of the electric power industry in industrialized and developing countries, and in the ratio of the use of various types of fuel for electricity generation.
In the long term, industrialized countries are expected to see a very modest increase in their own production primary energy resources (PER). As a result of this, with the emerging steady downward trend in oil production in these countries, the dependence of these countries on the import of PER from third countries will increase.
In the structure of PER consumption for oil, obviously, the first place will remain not only until 2015, but also for many years ahead beyond this period. However, the share of oil in total PER consumption will gradually decrease. Natural gas consumption will grow at a faster pace. By 2015, in the structure of PER consumption, gas will take the second place, coal - the third. The main share will be retained by PER of organic origin (more than 92%).
Share electricity NPP, HPP and other energy sources in the total consumption of PER in industrialized countries by 2015 will increase to 7.4% compared to 6.5% in 1990. At the same time, the growth rate of nuclear power use will not exceed 0.9–1% per year , while from hydroelectric power and renewable energy will exceed 3% per year.
Agro-industrial complex (AIC)- this is a fairly general concept, which means a unified system of agricultural and industrial enterprises and industries that has developed in social production, united by integration (close, long-term) industrial and commercial ties based on property or contractual relations (contracts) and covering the entire agro-industrial chain: production important means of production for agriculture, their transportation, production of agricultural inputs, their storage, transportation, processing and marketing of finished products or products.
The agro-industrial complex is divided into three areas:
1) industries supplying the means of production for agriculture and related industries, as well as providing production and technical services to agriculture;
2) agriculture proper;
3) industries engaged in processing and bringing agricultural products to the consumer (harvesting, processing, storage, transportation, sale).
A number of industries entirely (or almost entirely) serve the needs of the agro-industrial complex (production of agricultural machinery, fertilizers, equipment for animal husbandry and fodder production, etc.). Other industries are only partially occupied with meeting the needs of the agro-industrial complex. They are included in the functional structure of the agro-industrial complex only to the extent that their products are used for the needs of the agro-industrial complex.
The formation of the agro-industrial complex- a new stage in the development of social production, based on the development of the productive forces of agriculture, the "industrial revolution" in agriculture, which in this sense, as it were, caught up with industry. However, this does not mean that the technical and technological level of millions of peasant farms has reached the level that exists in industry. Unfortunately, in the world, and especially in developing countries, tools and implements are still widespread, which came in our time from the depths of centuries and do not correspond to modern industrial productive forces. But mankind has created new material means of production for agriculture, close in their parameters (productivity, energy intensity, saving living labor, etc.) to the means of production of industry, the technological level of world agriculture has approached the technological level of industry. In developed countries, they already predominate in agriculture, in the developing world they spread in enclaves, islets, covering agriculture in the most economically and socially developed regions and countries.
The main direction of international agro-industrial integration in the current conditions is solution to the biggest global problem of our time- problems of meeting the growing needs of the world's population in food products.
The process of developing agro-industrial integration and the formation of the agro-industrial complex has advanced far in industrialized countries, primarily in the USA.
To an immeasurably lesser extent, this process is observed in developing world, where, along with the general tendencies and forms of its manifestation, specific features and forms appear associated with the significant lag in the agro-industrial sphere of the liberated countries and their economic dependence on the West.
In most developing countries, TNCs play an important role in this, acting as integrators. This is due to many factors, including the fact that, by creating their processing enterprises in developing countries, TNCs bring with them the forms and methods of activity that have developed in their home countries.
Factor of intensification of agricultural production in recent decades, continued to be decisive in terms of the scale of gross grain production in the group of industrialized countries. Grain farms, like agriculture in general, have essentially become an integral part of the agro-industrial complex, in which direct agricultural production is closely combined with the processing, storage and final sale of products, as well as with the provision of the farm with the means of production. The intensive path of development of grain production in the world will continue to prevail, since only this path can lead to mitigation of the crisis in the supply of food to the ever-growing population of the planet.
Many developing countries have retained archaic forms of agriculture and land use, delayed progressive agrarian reforms. Crop production in many of them, especially in Africa, remains highly dependent on weather conditions. The development of grain production in the group of developing countries is becoming increasingly dependent on an intensive factor, large capital investments in agriculture, infrastructure, related industries, as well as large-scale land reclamation.
With a significant increase in gross grain production in general, industrialized countries and developing countries continue to deepen disproportion in grain farming: a growing and divergent gap between production and consumption in each of these groups of countries.
In industrialized countries, there is a concentration of "surpluses" of grain, since production exceeded the consumption of grain. In developing countries, on the contrary, in connection with the growing food needs, the shortage of grain increased, the average per capita production increased slightly here, and continued to decline in a number of regions.
Transport complex- one of the main branches of material production, carrying out the transportation of passengers and goods. Based on the difference in functions, transport is divided into passenger and freight. It forms the basis of the domestic and international division of labor.
All means of communication, transport enterprises and vehicles together form world transport system within which individual modes of transport, countries and regions interact.
Transport systems developed countries make up 78% of the total length of the world transport network, 74% of the world freight turnover; the density of the transport network is 50–60 km per 100 km 2 of the territory; It is characterized by a high technical level, close interaction of all types of transport, a complex configuration of the transport network, and high "mobility" of the population.
Transport systems developing countries make up 22% of the total length of the world transport network, 26% of the world freight turnover; transport network density - 5–10 km per 100 km 2 of territory; characterized by a low technical level, the predominance of one or two types of (railway, pipeline) transport, the predominance of transport lines connecting the main center (port, capital) with areas of export specialization, low "mobility" of the population.
most developed are the transport systems of North America and Western Europe. North America ranks first in terms of the total length of roads (30% of all world communications) and in terms of cargo turnover of the main modes of transport. Western Europe leads in terms of network density and frequency of traffic, although it is much inferior to North America in terms of transportation distance. In North America, in Western Europe, the leading role belongs to road, pipeline and air transport.
Types of transport are grouped as follows: land (land and pipeline), water (sea and river) and air.
In terms of the structure of world cargo and passenger turnover, automobile transport, which accounts for 8% of freight turnover and 80% of passenger turnover of the total world volume (railway - 16% of freight turnover and 11% of passenger turnover, pipeline - 11% of freight turnover, sea - 62% of freight turnover and 1% of passenger turnover, river - 3% of freight turnover and 1% of passenger turnover, for air - less than 1% of cargo turnover and 8% of passenger turnover).
Road transport is the most expensive mode of transport, which has great maneuverability, speed and the ability to deliver goods directly to consumers. The total length of roads is 24 million km (70% of the total length of all communications). The world road density is 180 km per 100 km 2 of territory.
The largest length of roads in the USA, India, Japan, China, Russia, France; the densest road network in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain; the highest level of motorization in the United States (600 cars per 1000 inhabitants). It also has the highest turnover of road transport.
Railway transport provides transportation of goods and passengers over long distances. The greatest length of railways is in the USA, Canada, Russia, India, and China. Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic have the most dense network of railways. Russia, USA, China, Canada, Poland are leaders in cargo turnover.
In developed countries, there is a tendency to reduce the railway network, in developing countries - to expand.
Pipeline transport. The United States leads in the length of oil and gas pipelines. Russia and Canada have the longest pipelines. The world's largest main pipelines have been laid in Russia (Druzhba, Soyuz, Progress, Radiance of the North).
Sea transport- an important part of the global transport system, performing intercontinental transportation. Sea transport provides 98% of foreign trade transportation of Japan and Great Britain, 90% of all foreign trade transportation of the USA and CIS countries. Sea transport has the lowest cost.
The following countries are leading in terms of the tonnage of the marine fleet: Liberia, Panama, Japan, Norway, USA, Greece, Cyprus, Russia. The tonnage of the maritime fleet of developing countries is growing. This is due to the provision of so-called cheap flags: the use of courts and cheap labor by enterprises in developed countries.
Seaports are an important part of the transport system: universal (typical for developed countries) and specialized (typical for developing countries).
River transport most developed in the USA, China, Russia, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, France. These countries are leaders in terms of cargo turnover of river transport.
An important role is played by international river basins: the Danube (combining 12 countries), the Nile, the Congo, the Niger (9 countries each), the Rhine, the Amazon, the Zambezi (7 countries each).
Many river basins (the Volga, the Ob, the Lena, the Yangtze, the Yenisei, the Amazon, the Mississippi, and others) have a much greater carrying capacity than the major railroads.
Air Transport, the youngest and most dynamic, provides transportation of passengers and goods over long distances. The largest passenger turnover is noted in the USA, Russia, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany.
The largest airports in the world are located in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, London. There are 34 major airports in the world, half of which are in the US and 8 in Europe.
The financing of the transport complex in industrialized countries is traditionally one of the priority functions of the state, because transport, along with energy and communications, is the most important base for the normal operation of production and the social environment in the state.
Under the influence of scientific and technical progress, the role of fixed assets of the transport complex has changed significantly. In this regard, investments are mainly directed to ensure the intensive development of transport.
In the long term, market economies are expected to further development of scientific and technical progress in transport. The structure of the communication network will undergo significant changes.
The length of inactive and unprofitable railway lines and sections will be reduced. At the same time, it is planned to build a number of new, mainly high-speed, lines. The development of work on the electrification of railways is expected.
Length automotive paved roads will increase. The focus will be on improving the existing network.
The number will increase airports(mainly cargo) and the length of domestic airlines.
In the US, the length will increase pipelines, in the first place - gas and oil pipelines.
Both in the USA and in Western European countries in the domestic water transport hydrotechnical works, reconstruction of ports are coming. In maritime transport, it is planned to modernize ports.
Significant changes are coming in the vehicle fleet. Their number will increase somewhat and the proportion of progressive types of traction will increase noticeably. The share of specialized rolling stock, its carrying capacity and specific power will increase.
In the field of interaction between different modes of transport existing means will be improved and new means will be created for non-transshipment door-to-door communications, not only general, but also a significant part of bulk cargo will be containerized, automated information systems of different modes of transport will be combined, integrated systems of different modes of transport, integrated stations and reloading stations will be built. improved terminals, etc.
STP in transport will allow significantly improve its economic performance, improve the quality of customer service and traffic safety. In transport, the following are planned: widespread use of marketing, study of demand, introduction of accounting for needs, application of modeling, etc. It is expected that the Raillink computer system (which currently connects railways, customers and banks) or another similar system will be implemented throughout the network of communications, which will make it possible to include transport in the network of commercial exchanges.
Work will continue to ensure the compatibility of information systems in order to link national computer networks.
In international practice, all countries of the world are divided into three main groups: developed countries with market economies, countries with economies in transition and developing countries. This grouping was chosen for ease of analysis in the ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) and is now being revised, especially in light of recent dramatic geopolitical changes.
Group of developed countries with market economies includes 23 countries. It is further subdivided for purposes of analysis into overlapping classification subgroups of the largest industrialized countries, which include the seven countries with the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the group of developed market economies (MDEMs). These are Germany, Italy, Canada, Great Britain, USA, France and Japan; European Union - EU (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, UK, France, Sweden, Finland and Austria); European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Austria, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden; Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg); North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): USA, Canada, Mexico.
Group of countries with economies in transition subdivided into the countries of Eastern Europe, which include: Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and new states that emerged after the collapse of the USSR: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as new countries that emerged after the collapse of Yugoslavia.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, almost all countries in this group have been carrying out economic reforms aimed at ensuring the sustainable development of the national economy through internal and external macroeconomic stabilization, the creation of competitive market relations and the corresponding price reform, the restructuring of production and enterprises on the basis of a clear legislative defining property rights - public and private, limiting the dominance of monopolies and state interference in the activities of economic entities of a market economy, expanding and deepening international economic integration.
Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary achieved the greatest success in carrying out economic reforms in this group of countries. After three years of crisis in the economy at the beginning of the reforms (1991-1993), the situation began to stabilize in 1994, and already in 1995-1996. national income in these countries increased annually by an average of 6%. Since 1995, economic growth has also begun in other countries of Eastern Europe - Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
Developing countries usually grouped by region based on their geographic location. For the purposes of the analysis, countries with an active balance of payments and capital-importing countries are also singled out separately. The latter, in turn, are divided into countries-exporters and countries-importers of energy resources. A country is considered an energy exporter if it simultaneously satisfies the following two criteria:
1) its production of primary energy resources (including coal, lignite, crude oil, natural gas, hydropower and nuclear power) exceeds its own consumption by at least 20%;
2) energy exports account for at least 20% of total exports. Among developing energy-importing countries, countries with a recent balance of payments surplus stand out, which include four Asian countries that are considered the first generation of successful exporters of manufactured goods (Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan).
Among developing countries in modern conditions there is a process of further economic differentiation. At present they are at least at three different levels of economic development. The most industrialized developing countries formed a group "new industrialized countries" (NIS). These include Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan, and Turkey.
intermediate group formed countries that lagged significantly behind the NIS both in terms of total production volumes and in per capita production of goods and services. This group, in particular the countries of the Middle East, is characterized by a great differentiation of sectoral structures, social strata of the population and their position in society.
To the group "least developed countries" includes about 50 developing countries. As a rule, they have a narrow, even monocultural structure of the economy, a high degree of dependence on external sources of financing for activities in the socio-economic sphere. The UN uses three criteria to classify countries in this group: the share of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita does not exceed $350; the proportion of the adult population who can read is no more than 20%; manufacturing industry in GDP is no more than 10%. This group includes 8 countries in Asia, 28 in Africa, 5 in Latin America and Oceania, etc.
A diverse combination of production factors and development conditions in different countries does not allow assessing the level of economic development from any one point of view. For this use a range of key indicators. one. GDP/GNP or ND per capita. 2. Sectoral structure of the national economy. 3. Production of main types of products per capita (the level of development of individual industries). 4. Level and quality of life of the population. 5. Indicators of economic efficiency.
It should be emphasized that the level of economic development of the country is a historical concept. Each stage of development of the national economy and the entire world community as a whole introduces certain changes in the composition of its main indicators.
The leading indicators in the analysis of the level of economic development are indicators GDP/GNP per capita. They form the basis of international classifications that divide countries into developed and developing countries. For example, developed countries in 2000 included countries with a per capita GDP of more than $9,000 per year (high-income countries).
In some developing countries (Saudi Arabia), GDP per capita is at a high level, corresponding to developed industrial countries, however, according to the totality of other indicators (sectoral structure of the economy, production of basic products per capita, etc.), such countries cannot be classified as developed.
Another indicator is sectoral structure of the economy. Its analysis is carried out on the basis of GDP calculated by industry. First of all, the ratio between the large national economic sectors of material and non-material production (according to the share of the manufacturing industry in the country's economy) is taken into account.
characterize the level of economic development of the country and indicators of production of some main types of products, which are basic for the development of the national economy; they make it possible to judge the possibilities of meeting the needs of the country in these basic types of products.
First of all, such indicators include the production of electricity per capita. The electric power industry underlies the development of all types of industries, and therefore, this indicator hides the possibilities of technical progress, and the achieved level of production and quality of goods, and the level of services, etc. The ratio of this indicator between developed countries and least developed countries is currently 500:1, and sometimes more.
The statistics also single out steel smelting and the production of rolled products, metal-cutting machine tools, automobiles, mineral fertilizers, chemical fibers, paper, and a number of other goods.
Close to those indicated are the indicators of availability (or production in the country) per 1000 population or per average family of a number of durable goods: refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, cars, video equipment, personal computers, etc.
The standard of living of the population of the country largely characterized by the structure of GDP by use. Particularly important is the analysis of the structure of private final consumption (personal consumer spending). A large share in the consumption of durable goods and services indicates a higher standard of living of the population and, consequently, a higher overall level of economic development of the country.
An analysis of the standard of living of the population is usually accompanied by an analysis of two interrelated indicators: "consumer basket" and "living wage".
The standard of living is also assessed by indicators:
a) workforce status(average life expectancy, level of education of the population, per capita consumption of basic foodstuffs in calories, in protein content, skill level of labor resources, number of pupils and students per 10,000 population, share of expenditures on education in GDP);
b) development of the service sector(the number of doctors per 10 thousand people, the number of hospital beds per 1 thousand people, the provision of the population with housing, household appliances, etc.).
Economic efficiency indicators characterize the level of economic development, as they show the quality, condition and level of use of the country's fixed and circulating capital, labor resources.
Among them are:
1) labor productivity (in general, for industry and agriculture, for individual industries and types of production);
2) the capital intensity of a unit of GDP or a specific type of product;
3) return on assets of a unit of fixed assets;
4) material consumption per unit of GDP or specific types of products.
An important condition in the analysis of this group of indicators is the need to consider their relationship with each other. Thus, high labor productivity can be achieved at the cost of excessive intensification of labor or huge capital expenditures and material resources.
Despite all attempts to formulate an aggregate indicator of the effectiveness of the functioning of the national economy, which would also reflect the level of economic development of the country, such an indicator has not been created due to numerous difficulties in bringing together cost and natural values, the costs of skilled and unskilled labor, etc. However, there is a general approach is to construct an indicator that allows you to correlate the total results of the company's labor for the reporting year (GDP / GNP, NI) with the total costs of all factors of production, given for the same reporting year.
The higher the level of the country's economic development, the more active and diverse the forms of its foreign economic relations. Consequently, a country's participation in international economic relations may partly reflect the level of its economic development.
International economic integration- this is a process of economic and political unification of countries based on the development of deep stable relationships and division of labor between national economies, the interaction of their reproductive structures at various levels and in various forms. On the microlevel this process goes through the interaction of the capital of individual economic entities (enterprises, firms) of neighboring countries through the formation of a system of economic agreements between them, the creation of branches abroad. On the interstate level integration occurs on the basis of the formation of economic associations of states and the harmonization of national policies.
The development of intercompany relations gives rise to the need for interstate (sometimes supranational) regulation aimed at ensuring the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor between countries within a given region, at coordinating and conducting joint economic, scientific, technical, financial and monetary, social, external and defense policy. As a result, the creation integral regional economic complexes with a single currency, infrastructure, common economic proportions, financial funds, common supranational or interstate governments.
The simplest form of economic integration is Free trading zone, within the framework of which trade restrictions between the participating countries and, above all, customs duties are abolished.
Another form is Customs Union: along with the functioning of the free trade zone, a single foreign trade tariff and the implementation of a single foreign trade policy in relation to third countries are established.
In both cases, interstate relations concern only the sphere of exchange in order to provide the participating countries with equal opportunities in the development of mutual trade and financial settlements.
More complex form Common Market, providing its participants, along with free mutual trade and a common external tariff, freedom of movement of capital and labor, as well as the coordination of economic policy.
But the most complex form of interstate economic integration is economic (and monetary) union, combining all the above forms with the implementation of a common economic and monetary policy.
Economic integration provides conditions for interacting parties: 1) business entities (commodity producers) get wider access to resources: financial, material, labor, to the latest technologies throughout the region, as well as the ability to produce products based on the capacious market of the entire integration group; 2) privileged conditions are created for firms of countries participating in economic integration, they are protected from competition from firms of third countries; 3) integration participants jointly solve the most acute social problems: leveling the conditions for the development of backward areas, easing the situation on the labor market, providing social guarantees, etc.
Until November 1, 1993, the leading integration grouping of Western European countries was officially called the European Community (EC). It appeared after the merger in 1967 of the bodies of three previously independent regional organizations: the European Coal and Steel Community - ECSC (1952), the European Economic Community - EEC (1958); European Atomic Energy Community - Euratom (1958).
On February 7, 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was signed in the Dutch city of Maastricht, which provided for a gradual transition from the already established single market to a full economic and monetary union (EMU), the creation of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the replacement of national banknotes with the single euro currency, the establishment citizenship of the European Union. FROM November 1, 1993 after the entry into force of the Maastricht agreements, the European group received the official name European Union (EU). Within the framework of the EU, a common policy is implemented in the field of diplomacy, justice, police, and defense.
At the end of March 1998, the European Commission announced the final composition of the Economic and Monetary Union - it included 11 EU states (with the exception of Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Greece). On January 1, 1999, the management of monetary policy in these countries passed to the European Central Bank (ECB), located in Frankfurt am Main (Germany).
Since January 1, 2002 euro entered circulation and replaced the national currency.
Currently full members of the EU are 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, UK, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, France, Sweden. The strategic plans of the EU provide for the expansion of its membership in the next 10-15 years to 30 countries. These plans are embodied in the EU integration activities. Already since 1998, the EU Commission (ECE) has been negotiating with officially recognized candidates for EU accession - these are 8 states belonging to the "candidates of the first stage" (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey), and 5 states - "candidates of the second stage" (Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria).
A single legal space has been formed within the EU.
In the field of foreign trade and agricultural policy, trade and civil law (freedom of competition, monopolies and cartels), tax law (convergence of income tax systems; turnover tax and direct contributions to the EU budget), European Union legislation supersedes national laws.
Conducted jointly structural policy(industry and regional). Supranational regulation is applicable to the least competitive industries and backward regions.
The greatest successes have been achieved in pursuing a joint agrarian policy. Its financing represents the largest expenditure item in the Union's budget. The basis of the common agrarian policy is the subsidization of domestic and export prices. As a result, the EU has become the world's second largest agricultural exporter after the US.
In January 1989 came into force US-Canadian Free Trade Agreement. As a result, a free trade zone was created, covering bilateral trade of almost $200 billion a year. At the same time, both sides reserved the right to impose their own import restrictions on trade with third countries.
In June 1991, at the initiative of Mexico, negotiations began between this country, the United States and Canada, culminating in the signing on December 17, 1992 of an agreement on the creation North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA), entered into force on January 1, 1994. Key elements of the agreement:
Elimination of all customs duties in mutual trade until 2001;
Gradual elimination of a significant number of non-tariff barriers in mutual trade in goods and services;
Relaxation of the regime for US-Canadian investment in Mexico;
Liberalization of conditions for the activities of US and Canadian banks in the Mexican market;
Creation of the US-Canadian Arbitration Commission.
In contrast to the Western European integration model, NAFTA does not have tools for coordinating economic policy and operating supranational institutions; significant differences persist in the levels of economic development of states. Unlike the EU, which provides financial assistance to less developed countries and regions from joint budgetary funds, NAFTA does not provide such support to Mexico.
According to experts, participation in NAFTA will allow Mexico to shorten the period of reforming its economy and reaching the level of developed countries from 50 to 10-15 years. Mexico's biggest beneficiary of joining NAFTA is a surge in foreign capital inflows, primarily from the United States. In terms of foreign direct investment, which is of paramount importance for the development of production, by the beginning of the XXI century. Mexico ranked first among Latin American countries.
However, US business circles have high hopes for NAFTA, due to the significant expansion of US exports and the resulting increase in the number of jobs. The transfer of labor-intensive, material-intensive and environmentally expensive industries from the United States to Mexico allows to reduce the level of production costs and increase the competitiveness of many products of the American industry. In the long term, with the help of participation in NAFTA, American TNCs expect to expand their economic participation in Latin America, and Canada - to expand sales markets, reduce production costs and increase the profitability of new high-tech industries (computers, telecommunications, etc.). In addition, the formation of a liberalized market space on a continental scale stimulates the inflow of direct and portfolio investment into Canada from third countries, mainly from Japan and EU member countries.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the most significant integration associations are ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and APEC.
ASEAN was established in 1967 after the signing of the Bangkok Declaration; it includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines (currently Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and Vietnam are also members of ASEAN). The purpose of the creation of this association is to promote the social and economic development of the member countries of the Association, cooperation in industry and agriculture, and conduct scientific research.
Economic crisis of 1997–1998 left an imprint on the development of the ASEAN member countries. In December 1998, the main ASEAN member countries at a conference in Vietnam discussed and outlined several ways out of the crisis: 1) financial assistance from Japan (in the amount of $ 30 billion from the Structural Reform Assistance Fund organized by Japan for this purpose). In reality, only Malaysia and Thailand were able to use it, having received $1.85 billion each; 2) the introduction of a collective currency of the ASEAN member countries, control over the migration of capital and strengthening the state regulation of national economies in general. However, this path has not yet received universal approval, but is not removed from the agenda for the future development of the region.
In November 1989, the first conference of ministers of foreign affairs and trade took place in the Asia-Pacific Region, which established a new integration economic grouping - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, uniting 18 states of the region (Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Canada, China, Kiribati, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Singapore, USA, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Chile), then to these states were joined by Vietnam, Peru and Russia.
Thus, APEC includes countries - members of NAFTA, ASEAN, the Australian-New Zealand Free Trade Area (ANSERT).
From the very beginning, APEC was given a consultative status, i.e. all decisions are made by consensus. However, in fact, within the framework of its working bodies, regional rules for conducting trade, investment and financial activities are developed, meetings of sectoral ministers and experts on cooperation in various fields are held. Such bodies are committees on trade and investment, industrial research and technology, telecommunications, transport, human resources development, energy cooperation, etc.
At a meeting of heads of government in 1994 (Indonesia), it was decided to create a free trade zone and liberalize the investment sphere by 2020 (for developed countries - until 2010), reduce barriers to trade in goods and services in accordance with the principles of the WTO .
APEC is superior to other regions of the world: it (together with the NAFTA countries) accounts for 40% of the world's population, about 60% of the gross world product and investment, and more than 40% of world exports.
The place and role of any country in the world economy, MRI and in the internationalization of economic life depend on the following factors: the level and dynamics of the development of the national economy, the degree of its openness and involvement in MRI, the progressiveness and development of foreign economic relations (FER), the ability of the national economy to adapt to the conditions of international economic life and at the same time influence them in desired direction.
The inclusion of Russia in the MRT and world economic relations will ultimately depend, firstly, on the improvement of the country's economy on the path of its structural reorganization and transition to market economic conditions, and secondly, on the creation of effective legislative, organizational, material and technical prerequisites for this.
The key to creating a viable transition economy in Russia is its openness. In an open economy, world market prices directly and indirectly determine the prices of domestic products and do this much more efficiently than any government agency. In this case, Russian producers have only one main way to prosper - improving the quality and competitiveness of products, expanding their production while reducing costs. The transition to an open economy is a purposeful process, carried out in stages, so that external competition does not turn into a force that destroys the Russian economy instead of a creative factor.
The formation of prices for products in the Russian economy in transition under the influence of the world market brings to the fore mechanism for assessing the main factors of production– natural resources, capital and labor. At the same time, however, the estimates will deviate from the criteria of the world market, since a collision with the world market will reveal their uncompetitiveness and unprofitability.
Hence the task of the state is the centralized redistribution of financial resources, aimed at creating conditions that ensure the survival of the domestic economy in the face of its ever greater openness. Required economic revaluation and economic protection of all public resources- land, natural resources, funds, stocks of raw materials, materials, finished products. The main asset of Russia in the transitional period is its natural resources. They require rational use, evaluation in accordance with the criteria of the world market.
Demography studies the size, territorial distribution and composition of the population, the patterns of their changes based on social, economic, biological and geographical factors, causes and conditions.
home a task demography as a science - the identification and knowledge of demographic laws, patterns, relationships. Among practical tasks There are three main demographics:
1) based on the collection and demographic analysis of information, the study of trends and factors of demographic processes;
2) development of demographic forecasts;
3) development of measures for demographic statistics.
Various research methods are used in demography, among them a descriptive method, statistical and mathematical methods of analysis, an abstract analytical method, a comparative method, analysis and synthesis, generalization, induction and deduction methods, a method of putting forward hypotheses and testing them, extrapolation and modeling, sociological methods studies of demographic behavior, cartographic methods, etc. At the same time, statistical and mathematical methods of analysis occupy the main place in demography.
Among the actual demographic methods most commonly used in demographic scientific and practical work are the cohort method, longitudinal and transverse demographic analysis, the potential demographic method, methods for standardizing demographic coefficients, etc.
Demographic models are widely used in scientific and practical work; demographic forecasting (especially often carried out by the method of shifting by age) is usually an integral part of most works with demographic plots.
Modern demography is a complex science of population (population), or more precisely, it is a whole system of interacting sciences that jointly study the reproduction of the population and individual demographic processes. The internal differentiation of demographics is gradually becoming more complex. Three main criteria are distinguished, on the basis of which internal differentiation in demography is substantiated; at the same time, the allocation of subdisciplines and sections within demography is based on the joint application of all these criteria. Among them:
1) theoretical level of scientific interpretation of observed phenomena;
2) objective-subjective criterion;
3) connection with practice, the degree of focus on solving practical, applied problems.
In demography, as in other sciences, there is a process specializations. Among the branches of demography, for example, demographic statistics, descriptive demography, formal demography, theoretical demography, historical demography, economic demography, social demography and a number of other sections are distinguished.
There are several areas of work in demography: demographic theory, collection of primary data on the population and demographic processes, description of demographic processes, pure - or formal - demography (considers the quantitative correlations of demographic phenomena, processes, structures, changes in the size and composition of the population under their influence), demographic analysis, historical demography, etc. As a result, seven main components in the system of demographic sciences can be distinguished:
1) theoretical demography, history of demography, descriptive demography, economic demography, modeling of socio-demographic processes, i.e. a kind of theoretical foundation of science;
2) sectoral demographic sciences: medical demography, ethnic demography, military demography, political demography, etc.;
3) sources of information and methods: sources of data on the population, methods - statistical, mathematical, sociological, cartographic, etc.;
4) regional demography;
5) applied demographic research;
6) socio-demographic forecasting;
7) theoretical foundations of demographic policy.
Demography has close relationships with other sciences. Demographics interact especially closely:
1) with socio-economic and historical sciences that study population economics, sociology, social psychology, social and migration policy, population geography, ethnography, etc.;
2) mathematics and statistics (formal demography and statistical demography);
3) biological sciences: population genetics, evolutionary biology, epidemiology, biological prediction of population development, etc. Demography uses methods and draws on the facts established by these sciences. In turn, other sciences use demographic data to better understand their subject of study.
The closest is the connection of demography with history, since it is the consideration of reproduction as a historical process that makes it possible to reveal its social conditioning, dependence on specific socio-economic processes of a particular period of development of society. With the help of ethnography, demography reveals the impact on the processes of reproduction of the population of the characteristics of the culture and life of different peoples. Of the economic sciences most closely connected with demography are those that study employment and relations in the sphere of distribution. Of the sociological sciences, the closest to demography is the sociology of the family. Social psychology helps demography understand the patterns of demographic behavior. Since such behavior is also regulated by legal norms, there are areas in demography related to jurisprudence. Demographic processes usually have significant regional differentiation, and also depend on the types of settlements and settlements. Therefore, demography draws on information and methods of population geography.
Statistical and mathematical methods are extremely important in demography. It is with their help that most of the data on the population is collected, and then these data are checked and corrected (errors are identified, standardization is carried out, etc.). It is no coincidence that demographics first appeared as part of statistics. The main part of the data is provided by demography, population statistics and medical statistics.
Many demographic processes are based on a biological component. This explains the use in demography of the methods and results of studies of genetics, human physiology, psychology, gerontology, anthropology and other biological sciences. The state of people's health, the impact of working and living conditions on morbidity and mortality is studied by the science of social hygiene, which is also associated, therefore, with demography.
