Globalization index

It is hard to measure the level of globalization of countries. The Foreign Policy magazine created its globalization index in 1999 and published yearly its ranking of 62 countries. The magazine’s globalization index has four dimensions: economic, political, technological and personal. The level of economic globalization is measured by trade openness and the relative importance of foreign direct investment in a country. Telephone use, cross-country travel and remittances measure the level of personal globalization. The level of technological connection is approximated using the number of internet users, internet hosts and secure servers. Lastly, global political engagement is measured by membership in international organizations, involvement in UN peacekeeping missions, acceptance of treaties and government transfers. This measure of globalization is evidently not perfect, but at least it includes not only economic measures of globalization, like previous indices.

The Foreign Policy Magazine also published an index of cultural globalization in 2004 and a list of the most globalized cities in 2010.

A New Globalization Index was recently published in the Atlantic Economic Journal listing 70 countries. This new measures uses more, 21 variables to measure the level of globalization in different countries. It includes more variables to emphasize the multidimensionality of globalization. For example, it includes a variable accounting for international student mobility. In addition, this new index weights the measure of trade flows by the distance between the trading countries, acknowledging the fact that many small countries heavily rely on their neighbours when it comes to trade but are less globalized overall. As a result of this change many small European countries disappear from the top 10 list of globalized nations.

Vujakovic, Petra. "How to measure globalization? A New Globalization Index (NGI)." Atlantic Economic Journal 38.2