Such studies focus on the effect integration has on trade or capital flows or product or asset prices. Such indicators suggest that global integration has increased in recent decades, but that considerable segmentation remains between national markets. One difficulty for outcome studies is disentangling the separate influences of the many forces affecting market outcomes. In what follows we review some of the techniques for measuring global integration. Such efforts may send contradictory signals, however.
Globalization is far from complete.
This is especially the case when comparing countries that are only beginning to open their doors to the global market. Border barriers Indicators of average tariffs and nontariff barriers help to identify countries that have policies conducive to global integration. But such indicators may be incomplete or misleading. Other problems arise in aggregating tariffs on individual products into a summary measure. Simple averages ignore the differing economic importance of product lines, and import-weighted averages understate the significance of the tariffs that have been most successful in reducing imports.