Global production systems and third world development

Abstract

Over the past several decades, the world economy has undergone a fundamental shift toward an integrated and coordinated global division of labor in production and trade. In the 1950s and 1960s, production tended to be organized within national boundaries. International trade consisted, to a large degree, of raw materials flowing from the periphery to the industrialized core of the world economy, while manufactured exports were sent by U.S., European, and Japanese firms from their home bases to all corners of the globe. Direct foreign investment in manufacturing emerged as a response to the protectionist policies implemented by core and peripheral nations alike that wished to diminish the foreign exchange drain of an excessive reliance on imports and augment the employment benefits from locally based production.