*  *  *  Introduction Globalisation - understood as the internationalisation of political, social and economic affairs - affects both policymaking as well as our daily lives. The idea that we live in a “global village” is perhaps suggested by the fact that on our satellite television we can immediately watch events which are unfolding in very distant places.
Or perhaps it is a subtler feeling gradually coming into our minds while we fill in an e-mail order to buy a new book listed in a far-off country. However, there is ample evidence that the world we live in is not yet the fully globally integrated system often portrayed in economics textbooks.