GlobalisationGoing backwards

HOW integrated countries are with the rest of the world varies more than you might expect. And the world is less integrated in 2012 than it was back in 2007. These are the conclusions of the latest DHL Global Connectedness Index, which found that the Netherlands is the most globalised of 140 countries (see chart), just ahead of Singapore; landlocked Burundi is the least. (North Korea was not ranked.)

The index measures both the depth of a country’s connectedness (ie, how much of its economy is internationalised) and its breadth (how many countries it connects with). The economic crisis of 2008 made connections both shallower and narrower. The depth measure has rebounded since 2009, and is now 10% higher than it was in 2005—though it remains below what it was in 2007. But the breadth of connectedness has continued to slip, and is now 4% lower than in 2005.

At first, as the economic crisis took hold, both trade and capital flows became less globalised, but since 2009 trade has bounced back whereas capital flows have continued to become less globalised, says DHL. This seems to reflect a fall in the number of places into which companies from any given country are willing to put their foreign direct investment.

Even the Netherlands could benefit a lot by becoming more globalised, says Pankaj Ghemawat of IESE Business School, who oversees the index. Mr Ghemawat conducts surveys of popular views of globalisation. He finds that people consistently assume that the world is much more interconnected than it really is. This is why they underestimate the gains that could be made by further globalisation, he argues. Intriguingly, no group overestimates global connectedness more than company bosses. Perhaps this is why their efforts to expand abroad so often stumble.