Large-Scale Open Economies: Typology and Analysis

Abstract

The article discusses the national economy’s identification by means of scale or openness indicators and provides a detailed analysis of macroeconomic indicators for developed countries. It is noted that the size of the economy influences the choice of the applied theoretical studies and models of economic growth, as well as external markets. It classifies the major world economies in accordance with GDP; export, import shares and foreign trade volumes. The features of the ratio of external openness and the size of the economy are found. It is proved that the assumption about the damping of oscillations of net outward direct foreign investment for large economies has not always been realized. The hypothesis about the dependence between macroeconomic indicators characterizing the size of the economy and indicators of economy openness within groups of larger countries has not been confirmed. By means of the rank correlation methods we showed that the main criterium of economic openness is the ability to influence prices on commodity markets. Databases of the World Bank, International Trade Centre and Eurostat were used for the empirical confirmation of hypotheses. It is “Greater” China, the USA and the EU that completely meet the proposed criteria of the large open economy. Refs 33. Tables 11. Figs 1.