Globalisation | A-Level Economics Notes

These revision notes cover everything you need to know about Globalisation for A-Level Economics. They're designed for students studying AQA A-Level Economics, Edexcel A-Level Economics, and Edexcel International A-Level Economics. Written by Jaisul Naik, UCL Economics graduate and A-Level Economics tutor since 2017.


What is globalisation?

Globalisation is the increased integration and interdependence between different economies.

What are the main causes of globalisation?

  1. better transport links
  2. better communication
  3. increase in multinational corporations
  4. increase in trade agreements

What are two advantages of globalisation?

One benefit of globalisation is an increase in specialisation

  1. one benefit of globalisation is that it allows countries to specialise in specific goods and services
  2. countries would choose to specialise in the good or service where they have a comparative advantage
  3. this is the good or service they can produce at the lowest opportunity cost
  4. specialisation leads to an increase in total output compared to the output if countries produced multiple goods and services.
  5. as an economy can produce more goods and services when all factors of production are fully employed, we can say that there is an increase in productive potential.
  6. this can be illustrated with a right shift in LRAS
  7. this means the economy is able to achieve long-run economic growth (potential growth), and also a fall in the price level.

Another benefit of globalisation is an increase in free-trade

  1. another benefit of globalisation is an increase in free trade
  2. this can be seen by a diagram showing the removal of tariffs.
  3. removing tariffs causes the price of imports to fall.
  4. this means that firms can benefit from lower costs of production.
  5. this can be shown by a right shift in short-run aggregate supply.
  6. this causes an increase in real gdp from y1 to y2, and this causes a decrease in unemployment due to