Question

1. what extent is globalization driven by multinationals? Use data to argue your answer. Remember the definition of Multinational. There are exporting companies that are not multinational, they just export.

Choose a Multinational corporation and a foreign country where the company operates

2.How many jobs have been created by the company in the foreign country since it has been established there? What are the jobs main conditions? Did they hire any local politician?

3.How has the company related with the natural resources of the foreign country? Are there records of any environmental issues?

4.Has the company invested in developing the foreign country’s infrastructure, educational system or health system?

5.Identify if the multinational receives any support or special treatment from the local or foreign government: export subsidy, VAT reductions, other tax reductions, labor conditions, environmental standards, etc.

Answer 1

3.

Sustainable development has been defined variously as (a) living on nature's income instead of depleting its capital, (b) meeting the needs of today's population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs, and (c) managing natural, human, and financial assets to increase human health and well-being over the long term. By whatever definition, moving toward sustainable development is clearly in the vital interest of societies everywhere.

Trouble arises when the indices by which we try to measure improvements in living standards ignore the loss of natural resources and the services that they provide. Policy makers, who inevitably rely on these flawed measures of economic development, can get very misleading signals, leading to temporary improvements in consumption that are "purchased" by permanent losses in wealth and productive capacity.

The fundamental definition of income encompasses the notion of sustainability. In accounting and economic textbooks, income is defined as the maximum amount that can be consumed in a given period without reducing the amount of possible consumption in a future period (Hicks, 1946). Business income is defined as the maximum amount that a firm could pay out in current dividends without reducing net worth. This income concept encompasses not only current earnings but also changes in asset levels: Capital gains represent income increase and capital losses income reduction. The depreciation account reflects the fact that unless the capital stock is maintained and replaced, future consumption possibilities will inevitably decline.

Environmental problems may grow progressively worse not only from depletion but also from degradation. If the world economy continues to expand at historical rates, doubling in size every 20-25 years, the biosphere will suffer

4.

Infrastructure is an organizational system of resources that is needed for a society or business to run. Infrastructure can be classified as hard or soft. Hard infrastructure consists of physical systems that are needed to operate a country, such as transportation, telecommunications, energy, and water supply and sanitation. Soft infrastructure refers to institutions that maintain the health, economic, and social standards of a country, such as education, financial, government, emergency, and healthcare systems. Business are primarily concerned with hard infrastructure because it has a direct impact; however, soft infrastructure has a secondary impact and is important as well.

Different companies have different requirements of what is needed for their own critical infrastructure. Just as the name implies, critical infrastructure is infrastructure which is critical to a business. If a disaster hits, this is the minimal system needed to functionally operate.

Hard Infrastructure

• Transportation

For developing countries, the lack of roads and highways can be a difficult and costly obstacle to overcome. For example, Papua New Guinea's two largest cities are not connected by roads due to the rugged terrain. Businesses rely on planes and cargo boats to transport goods throughout the country. Some even maintain separate facilities in both cities in order to keep transportation prices down. Coca-Cola, for example, has a bottling plant in both cities, even though they are less than 200 miles apart.

Developed countries, however, have existing road systems and highways. For these countries, it becomes an issue of quality of roads, capacity, and limiting of back-ups and traffic. Walmart, for example, has one of the largest trucking fleets in the United States. They rely on the highway system to transport their goods to all the stores across the country, so delays or poor road quality would significantly impact their availability of products.

• Telecommunications

Telecommunications has significantly changed businesses all over the world. India, for example, was historically known for their textiles and clothing. Since the telecommunication infrastructure has developed, India is now recognized for outsourced telemarketing, customer service hotlines, and other phone-related industries. In addition, they are able to provide website development, hosting, and other information technology services at a lower price than most other countries, due to the combination of lower wages and information technology infrastructure.