that allowed the development of the Japanese
automotive industries in the middle of the 20 th
century, when companies were allowed and
encouraged to import production technology from
abroad, but nevertheless required to produce 90%
of components locally.
Modern computer simulation tools may help
shed some light on the processes that take place
in complex systems, by carrying out increasingly
large scale agent-based simulations. In these
simulations, agents must represent businesses
that interact with each other, and also with the
“landscape” that represents the world. The test of
the validity of the model is obviously its ability to
predict financial and economic situations that are
observed in practice. Notable attempts to develop
such agent-based, complex systems models of
global wealth flows have been reported [12].
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSION
The different aspects of globalisation touched
upon in the brief outline presented here stand
in complex, interactive relationships with each
other. The size and complexity of the modern
global economy, finance, manufacturing and
engineering design present a great challenge
to politicians, economists and engineers alike.
Under the umbrella of such complex systems,
decisions made by significant players may have
effects that are profound and often difficult to
predict. Therefore, efforts aimed at identifying
and developing network metrics would seem
well-placed, e.g. measures of impact of particular
decisions on the global system.
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