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Introduction to the CSGR Globalisation Index

This web site allows you to download and find out more about the CSGR globalisation Index. Our Index measures the economic, social and political dimensions of globalisation for many countries on an annual basis over the period 1982 to 2001, and combines these into an overall globalisation index, or score, for each of these countries during this time period. These indices are also available by region of the world (as defined by the World Bank). 

Our index (and the economic, social, and political sub-indices) are constructed  so as to be consistent both over time and across countries. The same variables are used to calculate the index in every year and for every country, and the variables are normalized so as to be comparable across time and countries. So, our index enables us to address questions such as: is a particular country more globalized than in was twenty or thirty years ago? Which were the most and lest globalized countries of the last decade? And the decade before that/ and before that?

Also, this comparability allows us to investigate in depth the relationship between globalisation and key economic variables such as economic growth, inequality, and government spending. Some of our findings about these links are already on the website, and more will be added as time goes by.

We also encourage visitors to download the data and work with it. All we ask is that you cite the index in the way described on this page (see the citation link). If our index turns out to be useful, and you publish a paper using it as part of your data, we would be pleased to provide a link to your paper from this page. Just email michela.redoano@warwick.ac.uk.

You may be aware that Foreign Policy magazine has, for the past four years, published an annual globalisation Index. Our Index is intended  to be complementary to theirs. As stressed above, our Index is explicitly designed to be comparable across time and countries. Also, our procedure for combining the different variables together includes some methodological innovations, such as optimal statistical weighting and controlling for fixed country geographical characteristics, that are described elsewhere on the website. So, our Index is probably more suitable for academics and others who wish to do statistical or econometric analysis of the relationship between globalisation and other key economic variables.

On the other hand, we have built on the work of Foreign Policy and the consultancy A.T.Kearney in constructing the index: our selection of many of the variables, especially for the social and political sub-indices, has been inspired by their work. Also, if you are interested in the performance of a particular country in the recent past, the Foreign Policy Index and the commentary on that index at the Foreign Policy website will provide you with an in-depth analysis that it is simply not feasible for us to replicate.