The Role of Resources in Global Competition

World trade since the end of the Second World War has been characterized by dramatic levels of growth in both scale and scope. For example, since 1950, world exports of manufactured goods have risen by a factor of sixteen compared with output growth of around seven (Buckley and Brooke, 1992). With this increasing trade has come new centres of economic power. If the World Bank’s forecast for economic growth to the year 2020 is correct, China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy and, in addition, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan will all feature in the world’s top ten economies (The Economist, 1994). Institutional developments have helped foster these changes. Regional harmonization is continuing in Europe since its landmark year of 1992 and also in North America and East Asia. Growing levels of democracy have created new factor and product markets in Central and Eastern Europe.