ABSTRACT
In the last two decades, the acceleration in economic integration has affected the quality of life and the standard of living. The elimination of barriers to trade in goods and services, the liberalization of capital markets, the transnational mobility of workers, the worldwide diffusion of information and communication technologies boosting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the outsourcing of production processes in newly developing areas constitute an unprecedented clustering of technological and institutional innovations. More generally, a variety of structural changes in international politics have hugely narrowed the distance among nations as well as among individuals. In most advanced countries, economic integration has also been fostered by the expanding role of the market after privatization programmes, pro-market legislation and the rolling-back of redistribution and stabilization policies.
