The world economy , or global economy , generally refers to the economy , which is based on economies of all of the world's countries ' national economies. Also global economy can be seen as the economy of global society and national economies – as economies of local societies, making the global one. It can be evaluated in various kind of ways. For instance, depending on the model used, the valuation that is arrived at can be represented in a certain currency , such as 2006 US dollars . It is inseparable from the geography and ecology of Earth , and is therefore something of a misnomer, since, while definitions and representations of the "world economy" vary widely, they must at a minimum exclude any consideration of resources or value based outside of the Earth . For example, while attempts could be made to calculate the value of currently unexploited mining opportunities in unclaimed territory in Antarctica , the same opportunities on Mars would not be considered a part of the world economy—even if currently exploited in some way—and could be considered of latent value only in the same way as uncreated intellectual property , such as a previously unconceived invention. Beyond the minimum standard of concerning value in production, use, and exchange on the planet Earth, definitions, representations, models, and valuations of the world economy vary widely. It is common to limit questions of the world economy exclusively to human economic activity , and the world economy is typically