Growth and International Trade: Introduction and Stylized Facts

Abstract

This chapter introduces the reader to the amazing phenomenon of exponential economic growth of the world economy and to the enormous increase in international trade within and between the three major trading blocs European Union, North America and Asia. Based on the research of Maddison (The world economy. A millennial perspective. Paris: OECD, 2001; Contours of the world economy: I-2030 AD: Essays in macro-economic history. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), and in line with Kaldor’s (Capital accumulation and economic growth. In F.A. Lutz, D.C. Hague (Ed.), The theory of capital. London: Macmillan, 1961) and Kuznets’ (American Economic Review, 45 (1), 1–28, 1955) “stylized facts”, the country-specific and region-specific growth performance, as well as the structural change in the world economy over long time periods are empirically characterized. By means of “internationalization facts” and “globalization facts” the international integration of national economies in the world economy over the past 40 years is also empirically documented.