The Fall of the Globalization Age

Abstract

Abstract The chapter argues that the logic of the industrialization process in the course of the Globalization Age—linking together the Global North and South on productive grounds—has been hinging upon quite exceptional conditions, and that the gradual vanishing of such conditions asks for a rethinking of that logic. In the years following the great financial crisis, major changes relate to the slowdown in world output growth and in the return of distance as a key determinant of firms’ strategic decisions. In this connection the chapter pays attention in particular to the following issues: (1) the structural reasons behind the worldwide slowdown of manufacturing growth; (2) the fall of external demand as a driver of manufacturing development; (3) the decoupling of Chinese productions from global sourcing (as well as some evidence of supply-side disengagement coming from advanced economies in terms of back-shoring); (4) the resurgence of regionalism in international trade; (5) the economic consequences of the advancements of the digital and green transitions.