Contents :
Globalization has economic and social implications, particularlyfor Third World countries. The Arab countries,being part of the latter group, are subject to those likely impacts. Theobjective of this paper is to assess the most important economic and socialimplications of globalization on the Arab countries, and to suggest appropriatepolicies that can be applied to reduce the negative impacts, and maximize thepositive ones, on those countries.
This study will focus on assessing the likelyimpacts of globalization on economic growth (and sectoral structure) in theArab countries, and their vulnerability. Two aspects of the countries?vulnerability will be investigated in the study: (i) the implications ofglobalization on the evolution of the countries? international trade relativeto their GNP; and (ii) the implications for the financial markets and theirlikely impact on the countries? economies. With regard to the socialimplications of globalization, we shall be concerned with their potentialimpact on employment and poverty.
From a socio-economic perspective, the Arab countries are not homogenous inmany respects. There are considerable differences among them in economic sizeand structure, population size, income per capita, balance of payments, labourmarket, poverty, etc. Such differences will be reflected in the type ofproblems those countries may face, and in the policies they may adopt toaddress the challenges of globalization. Thus, to assess the likely economicand social impacts of globalization on the Arab countries, one has to getacquainted, first, with their main socio-economic features. The literatureoffers various definitions of the term ?globalization? which perhaps reflectdifferent perceptions of the phenomenon. Thus, we must first define the conceptof globalization, before attempting to assess its implications for the Arabcountries.
The study consists of five parts following the Introduction. Part Two willinclude a review of different definitions and perceptions of globalization asderived from the literature. In Part Three, we shall identify the main featuresof the Arab countries that are relevant to our assessment. Part Four willinclude the assessment of the economic implications of globalization withrespect to economic growth (and sectoral structure) and economic vulnerability.Part Five will comprise the assessment of the social implications ofglobalization regarding employment and poverty. Finally in Part Six, somepolicies will be suggested to enable the Arab countries to deal with globalizationmore effectively.