Transformations  in
Business & Economics

The Impact of Globalisation to Transitional Economies: Evidence for Lithuania
Laimute Urbsiene

ABSTRACT. The current economic crisis constituted a serious test for the merits of globalization. More and more authors express their doubts whether the more globalized societies enjoy additional stability or are these societies more exposed and vulnerable to shocks; whether the benefits of globalisation outweigh threats and downsides that it causes. The paper presents the results of the empirical study and assesses, whether more globalized European countries are less vulnerable to the current crisis as less globalized European countries including Lithuania and whether more globalised countries are doing better in terms of sustainable development.

The article presents the concept of globalization, discusses a problem of the measurement of globalization and examines two opposing positions on key areas of the globalization debate: vulnerability and sustainability of globalised economies. It discloses the variety of indicators, which are used to measure such multidimensional phenomena as the globalization and aims to compare and assess the main multidimensional indices of globalisation. The concept of sustainable development is discussed and the main sustainability measures that represent the different aspects of sustainable development.

KEYWORDS: globalisation, globalisation index, globalisation measurement, macroeconomic vulnerability, sustainability.

JEL classification: F6, F62, G01, Q01, E6.