The paper analyzes
the level of globalization of the two key factors of production - capital and
labor - during the period of rapid globalization of the world economy in
1990–2022. Using the sum of global inward foreign direct investment stocks as a
share of the world’s total fixed capital as a proxy for capital globalization,
and the global migrant population as a share of total world population as a
proxy for labor globalization the study investigates trends and asymmetries in
internationalization of capital and labor. Drawing on data from the World Bank
and the United Nations, it finds that capital globalization expanded rapidly until
2008 and then stabilized, while labor globalization followed a steadier,
incremental rise. The data show that the level of capital globalization
expanded nearly five-fold between 1990 and the mid-2000s before levelling after
the global financial crisis, while labor globalization increased by roughly
one-quarter over the same period, with limited cyclical variation. The results suggest that structural
barriers and policy asymmetries produce a persistent gap between capital
mobility and labor mobility. The analysis integrates empirical data with
theoretical perspectives on global economic integration, governance, and
economic inequality. The findings contribute to understanding post-Cold War
economic integration and its uneven outcomes across factors of production.
