ABSTRACT
The last 20 years have seen major changes in the economic structure of many developed countries. The period of the 1950s and 1960s saw rates of economic growth unparalleled in history, but this was brought to an abrupt end in 1973 when the price of oil was quadrupled. The 1970s also saw several LDCs notably in South-east Asia starting to compete with the developed countries in the production of many mass-produced industrial products.
