Revise Theme 4 with interactive flashcards written to the Edexcel A (9EC0) specification — globalisation and trade, poverty and inequality, emerging and developing economies, the financial sector and the role of the state in the macroeconomy. Flip each card to check yourself, rate how well you knew it, and the deck brings back the cards you found hard. Every card links to the revision notes page that teaches it, and the deck is growing.
84 cards · 21 topics · Edexcel A Theme 4: A Global Perspective
Define globalisation — and what characterises it?
Globalisation: the increasing integration and interdependence of the world's economies.
Its characteristics: increased free trade in goods and services across borders; increased foreign direct investment (FDI) and capital flows; increased foreign ownership of firms through multinational and transnational corporations; and increased freedom of movement of labour between countries.
Country A can make 40m cars or 80m tonnes of wheat; Country B can make 10m cars or 60m tonnes of wheat. Calculate each opportunity cost — who should specialise in what?
Opportunity cost of a car: A gives up 80 ÷ 40 = 2 tonnes; B gives up 60 ÷ 10 = 6 tonnes. Of a tonne of wheat: A gives up 0.5 cars; B gives up 10 ÷ 60 ≈ 0.17 cars.
A has the lower opportunity cost in cars, B in wheat — so A specialises in cars and B in wheat, even though A has an absolute advantage in both.
Show comparative advantage using two countries' PPFs.
Germany's PPF runs from 150mn T-shirts to 20mn chips; Vietnam's from 200mn T-shirts to 10mn chips — each has an absolute advantage in one good. Opportunity costs: a chip costs Germany 7.5 T-shirts but Vietnam 20; a T-shirt costs Vietnam 0.05 chips but Germany 0.13.
Each specialises where its opportunity cost is lower: fully specialised, they produce 20m chips and 200mn T-shirts — beating the 15m and 175mn made without specialisation — and by trading, both consume beyond their own PPFs.
These three are a taste of the deck. The full 84-card deck loads right here — flip, rate and shuffle the cards, with your progress saved on this device.