ABSTRACT
The world economy is an exciting topic. The two oil crises of the 1970s, the Great Depression in the 1930s, the failure of Latin America in the lost decade of the 1980s, the collapse of the centrally planned economies at the end of the 1980s, the success of the Asian ‘tigers’ in spite of their temporary financial crises in 1997/1998 and the rise of China – these are all fascinating issues (section 1.1). The world economy is becoming more global. The segmentation of markets is being reduced. Many catalysts are at work for globalization (section 1.2). Then, the reader will be introduced to the most important variables of the world economy, notably world gross product and its composition from the production and the expenditure side as well as its regional structure (section 1.3). The world economy is in a process of continuous change. Thus, the newly industrializing countries have succeeded in becoming more integrated into the international division of labor (section 1.4). Some of them have reached remarkable places in the ranking of competitiveness (section 1.5). Rising out of poverty is the solution for the low-income countries; it is an answer to the equity issue (section 1.6). For these issues and other problems we take a global view, looking at the world as being analyzed from outer space (section 1.7).
