Perspectives on Global Concentration and Public Policy

This paper is an essay in political economy. It defines globalization and discusses its key role in economic development over the past two centuries as well as today. Globalization may have broadened markets, thereby affecting the nature of competition within those larger markets, or it may have simply introduced more trade or foreign direct investment to existing markets. One conclusion is that there is no global market for high value food, or for any particular high value food. To date the impacts of multinational firms in political forums at the state, regional or national as well as the global level have been in many instances as important as their impacts on economic markets. Issues and concerns discussed range from general observations on governance of the global economy to the impact of global concentration on specific problems in the agricultural and food markets of the United States. We conclude that the scope and extent of public policy is a direct function of the degree of development and globalization in an economy.