Research Findings on the Evolution of the World Economy and Its Links with Transport

10 Research findings on the evolution of the world economy and its link with transport 2 SUMMARY Globalisation is linked to wage disparities between different economic regions. These disparities are set to remain in place for at least another decade, even if the very process of globalisation will eventually eliminate them. However, the differences between economic regions and areas will continue to be based on their respective abilities to innovate. Globalisation is driven by efficiency gains in transport, movements of people and flows of information. These efficiency gains primarily arise through a reduction in the generalised cost of freight transport, which is attributable more to time and reliability gains in the transport of goods than in possible reductions in the relative prices of transport. Globalisation is mainly based on maritime shipping. As the unit value of goods transported increases, the impact of the cost of maritime shipping on the price of the final goods made available to consumers is low, and in most cases will remain so. Furthermore, maritime shipping is not the mode of transport that is most sensitive to energy costs: oil consumption in the sector is relatively low given that it is used to transport the lion's share of world trade (measured in tonnages). This means that for a long time to come, even though most experts concur that demand for oil products will in all likelihood exceed supply, particularly because oil is supplied by cartels, maritime shipping, and therefore globalisation, will not basically be challenged by the increased price of oil products. This has prompted certain experts to declare that in fact " globalisation is only just starting. " It nonetheless remains true that some regions such as North America or the European Union, which are highly integrated in economic terms, are areas where internal trade is particularly highly developed and where the issue of inland transport remains as topical as ever. This might suggest that to a certain extent the globalisation " battle " is being waged inland. Moreover, the transport services proposed will have to be economically efficient. Increased competition, that is to say liberalisation of the services market, is synonymous with organisational and technological innovation, as well as commercial dynamism. The whole of economic history bears witness to the beneficial action of market competition in improving the performance of services, particularly in the transport sector. In this respect, the example of air transport …