D2.Eco.15.9-12: How Globalization Trends and Policies Affect Different Nations

Overview

Lesson Procedure

70-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice20 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Look at the label on something you are wearing or carrying. Where was it made? List every step you can guess between the raw material and you: where it was grown or mined, where it was made, how it reached you. For one of those places, name one person who probably gained from making it and one who might have paid a cost."

   Collect a few answers and map the countries named on the board. Ask: are the people who gain and the people who pay in the same country? Tell students that the standard asks them to explain these effects across six areas and in different nations, and that they will use real data to test claims, including ones they already believe.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Trends and policies. Separate what is happening from what governments choose to do about it.

   • Trends: more trade in goods and services; global supply chains, in which a product is designed in one country, assembled in a second from parts made in a third, and sold in a fourth; foreign direct investment, when a company builds or buys a factory abroad; migration of workers; the fast spread of technology and information.
   • Policies: trade agreements that lower tariffs; export zones with tax breaks for foreign firms; rules on foreign investment; international labor standards and national labor laws; bans on imports made with forced labor; environmental rules; help for workers who lose jobs to imports; tariffs and quotas that protect home industries.

   Six effects. For any trend or policy, ask what it does to each area, and in which nation:

   The six-effects chart: what to look for

   Effect	Possible gains	Possible costs	Evidence on this page
   Economic growth	New export industries, investment and technology raise output per person	Growth can depend on a few exports and stall if demand abroad falls	Table A, Table B
   Labor markets	New jobs that pay more than the work people had before	Jobs lost in industries that compete with imports; pressure on wages	Sources 2 and 4
   Rights of citizens	Trade partners and buyers can press for labor rights	Weak rules on unions, child labor or forced labor in supply chains	Sources 2, 3 and 4
   Environment	Cleaner technology spreads; richer nations can afford cleanup	Pollution and emissions rise where production grows	Table A, Source 4
   Resource distribution	Access to energy, food and materials from many places	Some nations or regions use far more resources than others	Table A, Diagram 1, Source 4
   Income distribution	Poorer nations can catch up with richer ones	Gaps can widen inside a nation between regions or skill groups	Table C, Sources 1 and 4

   Table A. Six nations, 2000 and 2024 (real data). Real GDP per person in 2017 U.S. dollars, from the USDA Economic Research Service International Macroeconomic Data Set; carbon dioxide (CO2) from energy use in million metric tons, and energy use per person in million Btu, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. World energy use per person in 2024: 74.3 million Btu.

   Nation	Real GDP per person, 2000	Real GDP per person, 2024	CO2 from energy, 2000	CO2 from energy, 2024	Energy use per person, 2024
   Vietnam	1,213	3,954	41.9	313.4	40.9
   Bangladesh	841	2,633	29.9	127.8	11.3
   Poland	7,382	17,237	302.9	256.2	102.9
   Mexico	8,972	9,772	382.1	461.4	59.5
   Italy	33,033	34,553	451.6	292.0	94.5
   United States	49,966	69,261	5,888.7	4,782.3	278.5

   Table B. U.S. imports of goods from four nations, millions of current dollars (real data, U.S. Census Bureau, trade in goods by country). The dollar values are not adjusted for inflation.

   Nation	2000	2025
   Vietnam	821.3	193,879.3
   Mexico	135,926.3	534,314.9
   Poland	1,041.2	14,053.3
   Bangladesh	2,417.5	9,473.5

   Table C. Gini index of U.S. household income (real data, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Table H-4). 0 would mean every household has the same income; 1 would mean one household has all of it.

   Year	Gini index
   2000	0.462
   2025	0.490

   Work the examples with the class. Each one uses the tables to answer a "how much?" question and then asks what the number can and cannot show.

   • Trend: trade (Table B)

     How many times as large were U.S. imports of goods from Vietnam in 2025 as in 2000?

     Result: 193,879.3 / 821.3 = about 236 times. Trade between the two nations was very small in 2000 and grew into a large flow by 2025. The values are in current dollars, so part of any rise reflects inflation, but inflation cannot explain a change this large.

   • Growth in different nations (Table A)

     By what percent did real GDP per person grow in Vietnam and in Mexico from 2000 to 2024?

     Result: Vietnam: (3,954 - 1,213) / 1,213 = 2,741 / 1,213 = about 2.26, or 226%. Mexico: (9,772 - 8,972) / 8,972 = 800 / 8,972 = about 0.089, or 8.9%. Both nations sell large amounts of goods to the United States (Table B), yet their growth was very different, so trade alone cannot explain growth. Starting point, investment, education and domestic policy also matter.

   • Environment (Table A)

     Compare how CO2 emissions from energy changed in Vietnam and in Italy from 2000 to 2024.

     Result: Vietnam: 313.4 / 41.9 = about 7.5 times the 2000 level. Italy: (292.0 - 451.6) / 451.6 = -159.6 / 451.6 = about -0.353, a fall of about 35%. Emissions rose fastest where industry was growing fastest; some richer nations cut emissions while their output still grew. Possible reasons include cleaner energy, more efficient machines, and importing goods that are made, and whose emissions are counted, elsewhere; the table cannot tell which matters most.

   • Resource distribution (Table A)

     How many times as much energy did the average person in the United States use in 2024 as the average person in Bangladesh?

     Result: 278.5 / 11.3 = about 24.6 times. The world average was 74.3 million Btu per person. Energy is one of the clearest measures of how unevenly resources are shared between nations.

   • Income distribution (Table C)

     How much did the U.S. Gini index change from 2000 to 2025, and by what percent?

     Result: 0.490 - 0.462 = 0.028, and 0.028 / 0.462 = about 0.061, a rise of about 6.1%. Household income became less evenly shared. The table cannot show the cause: trade is one explanation economists study, along with technology, education, taxes and family patterns. The Census Bureau also changed its survey questions and processing during these years, so small changes should be read with care.

   Close the instruction with the key caution of the lesson: a table shows what changed, not why. When students write "globalization caused X," ask them for the mechanism (how the trend or policy would produce X) and for the other causes they ruled out.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read Source 1 aloud. Keynes, a British economist, wrote it in 1919 about the world before the First World War. Gloss: amenities = comforts; beyond the compass of = more than could be had by; adventure his wealth = invest his money; municipality = city government (he means buying its bonds); aberrant = abnormal; internationalization = connection across nations. Keynes uses "man" and "his" for everyone, as writers of his time often did.

   1What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man that age was which came to an end in August, 1914! The greater part of the population, it is true, worked hard and lived at a low standard of comfort, yet were, to all appearances, reasonably contented with this lot. But escape was possible, for any man of capacity or character at all exceeding the average, into the middle and upper classes, for whom life offered, at a low cost and with the least trouble, conveniences, comforts, and amenities beyond the compass of the richest and most powerful monarchs of other ages. The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep; he could at the same moment and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world, and share, without exertion or even trouble, in their prospective fruits and advantages; or he could decide to couple the security of his fortunes with the good faith of the townspeople of any substantial municipality in any continent that fancy or information might recommend. He could secure forthwith, if he wished it, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate without passport or other formality, could despatch his servant to the neighboring office of a bank for such supply of the precious metals as might seem convenient, and could then proceed abroad to foreign quarters, without knowledge of their religion, language, or customs, bearing coined wealth upon his person, and would consider himself greatly aggrieved and much surprised at the least interference. But, most important of all, he regarded this state of affairs as normal, certain, and permanent, except in the direction of further improvement, and any deviation from it as aberrant, scandalous, and avoidable. The projects and politics of militarism and imperialism, of racial and cultural rivalries, of monopolies, restrictions, and exclusion, which were to play the serpent to this paradise, were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper, and appeared to exercise almost no influence at all on the ordinary course of social and economic life, the internationalization of which was nearly complete in practice.

   1. Trends then. Prompt: list four things the inhabitant of London could do. Which are trade, which are investment, and which are travel or migration? Teacher note: ordering goods from "the whole earth" is trade; investing in "natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world" and lending to a city abroad are investment; travel "without passport" is the movement of people.
   2. Who was "he"? Prompt: Keynes contrasts two groups in the first sentences. What does the contrast suggest about how the gains from this world economy were shared? Teacher note: let students find the two groups themselves; push them to connect the contrast to income distribution.
   3. The end of an era. Prompt: Keynes says the Londoner thought this world "normal, certain, and permanent." What happened in August 1914, and why does Keynes call the man's view a mistake? Teacher note: the First World War began, and Keynes says the age "came to an end" then. Ask what the lesson might be for anyone who assumes today's trends will last.

   Now read Source 2, the opening of the part of the 1919 peace treaty that created the International Labor Organization. Gloss: privation = lack of basic needs; freedom of association = the right to form groups such as unions; high contracting parties = the nations signing the treaty.

   1Whereas the League of Nations has for its object the establishment of universal peace and such a peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice;

   2And whereas conditions of labor exist involving such injustice, hardship, and privation to large numbers of people as to produce unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperiled; and an improvement of those conditions is urgently required: as, for example, by the regulations of the hours of work, including the establishment of a maximum working day and week, the regulation of the labor supply, the prevention of unemployment, the provision of an adequate living wage, the protection of the worker against sickness, disease, and injury arising out of his employment, the protection of the children, young persons, and women, provision for old age and injury, protection of the interests of workers when employed in countries other than their own, recognition of the principle of freedom of association, the organization of vocational and technical education, and other measures:

   3Whereas also the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labor is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the conditions in their own countries;

   4The high contracting parties, moved by sentiments of justice and humanity as well as by the desire to secure the permanent peace of the world, agree to the following.

   Ask pairs to sort the protections named in paragraph 2 into labor-market rules (hours, wages, unemployment) and rights (association, protection of children). Then ask: is the treaty describing a trend or a policy? (A policy: nations agreeing to common labor standards.) Students will return to paragraph 3 in the homework.

4. Independent Practice20 minutes

   Students read Source 3, a description of a current U.S. policy, and then work alone with Tables A-C. Gloss: punitive = meant to punish; catalyst = something that speeds up change; due diligence = careful checking before a business decision; supply chain = all the steps and companies that make and deliver a product.

   1The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) maintains a list of goods and their source countries which it has reason to believe are produced by child labor or forced labor in violation of international standards, as required under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005 and subsequent reauthorizations. The List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor comprises 204 goods from 82 countries and areas, as of September 5, 2024.

   2The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2018 directs that the List include, "to the extent practicable, goods that are produced with inputs that are produced with forced labor or child labor."

   3ILAB maintains the List primarily to raise public awareness about forced labor and child labor around the world and to promote efforts to combat them; it is not intended to be punitive, but rather to serve as a catalyst for more strategic and focused coordination and collaboration among those working to address these problems.

   [...]

   4Publication of the List has resulted in new opportunities for ILAB to engage with foreign governments to combat forced labor and child labor. It is also a valuable resource for researchers, advocacy organizations and companies wishing to carry out risk assessments and engage in due diligence on labor rights in their supply chains.

   5The countries on the List span every region of the world. The most common agricultural goods listed are sugarcane, cotton, coffee, tobacco, cattle, rice, and fish. In the manufacturing sector, bricks, garments, textiles, footwear, carpets, and fireworks appear most frequently. In mined or quarried goods, gold, coal and diamonds are most common.

   Students answer in writing:

   1. Paragraph 2 says the List should include goods "produced with inputs" made with forced or child labor. Why does that matter in a world of global supply chains? Give an example with a T-shirt or a phone.
   2. Is the List a trend or a policy? Which two of the six effects does it aim at most directly?
   3. From Table A, pick the two nations whose CO2 emissions grew the most in percent terms. Did their real GDP per person also grow the most? Show the numbers.
   4. From Table A, rank the six nations by energy use per person in 2024. Which nations are above the world average?

   Circulate and ask each student to say which effect in the six-effects chart they now think is easiest to measure and which is hardest.

5. Closure10 minutes

   Read Source 4 together. It is invented: Ardova, Portmara, the Sela River, the dunar and both advisers are made up, so students can argue about a policy without arguing about a real government.

   1Ardova is an invented country of about 30 million people. In 2015 its government opened the Portmara Export Zone next to its main port. Companies in the zone may import machines and fabric without paying tariffs, and they pay no tax on their profits for ten years, as long as they sell at least 80 percent of what they make abroad.

   2By 2025 the zone had 140 factories and 90,000 workers, most of them young women from farming villages. A zone job paid 6,300 dunars a month; farm work in the villages paid about 3,600. Ardova's exports of goods grew from $3.2 billion in 2014 to $11.6 billion in 2025.

   3The zone has its own rules. Strikes are banned, and a union may form only with the permission of the zone authority, which had approved none by 2025. Dye from the factories drains into the Sela River, and the fish catch downstream fell from 12,000 tons a year to 8,000. The factories also use about one-fifth of the province's electricity, and nearby villages report more power cuts.

   4Average household income in Portmara province rose from 48,000 dunars a year in 2014 to 81,600 in 2025. In the inland provinces it rose from 40,000 to 46,000.

   5Mira Tol, an adviser at the finance ministry, says: "These are the best jobs our villages have ever had. Factories like these have been the first step for many countries that later grew rich. We can tighten the rules as incomes rise, but if we tighten them now, the companies will go somewhere else."

   6Joss Renard, an adviser at the labor ministry, says: "The zone is growing, but the gains stop at the zone gate. Workers have no voice, the river is dying, and the inland provinces are falling further behind. Let workers form unions, make factories clean their water, and use part of the zone's earnings to build roads and power lines inland. Good companies will stay."

   Exit ticket. On an index card, students fill a mini six-effects chart for the Portmara Export Zone with one sentence per effect, then write one sentence: "If I were Ardova's leader, I would ___ because ___." Any position earns credit if it uses evidence from Source 4 and answers one point from the other adviser.

   Teacher notes. Sources 1 and 2 were written in 1919 in the language of their time. Keep the discussion of real nations on the data: Table A shows outcomes, not blame, and Source 3 describes a U.S. government list without the page judging any country. Students who want to know which goods and countries are on the List can read the full page; the lesson does not quote the country entries.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which of these is a globalization trend rather than a globalization policy?

   AA treaty that lowers tariffs between two nations BMore products made in chains that cross borders CA ban on imports made with forced labor DTax breaks for foreign firms in an export zone

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which policy is aimed most directly at the rights of citizens in exporting nations?

   ALowering tariffs on imported factory machines BPaying subsidies to firms that export more CLetting foreign companies own local factories DBanning imports made with forced labor

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Use Table A. By about what percent did Bangladesh's real GDP per person grow from 2000 to 2024?

   AAbout 68% BAbout 313% CAbout 213% DAbout 1,792%

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Use Table A. How did Poland's CO2 emissions from energy change from 2000 to 2024?

   AThey fell about 15.4% BThey rose about 18.2% CThey fell about 84.6% DThey fell about 46.7%

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which statement does Table A support?

   AEvery nation whose GDP per person more than doubled cut its emissions BMexico's emissions grew faster than its GDP per person CItaly's emissions fell because its GDP per person fell DThe United States had the fastest-growing emissions

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Use Table A. About how many times as much energy per person did the United States use as Vietnam in 2024?

   AAbout 237.6 BAbout 0.15 CAbout 3.7 DAbout 6.8

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Use Table B. By about what percent did U.S. imports of goods from Mexico grow from 2000 to 2025?

   AAbout 293% BAbout 393% CAbout 75% DAbout 29%

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The Gini index of household income in an invented nation falls from 0.40 to 0.35. Which statement fits this change?

   AAverage household income must have fallen BMore households had no income at all CIncome became more evenly shared DPrices rose faster than income

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A student writes: "Table C proves that globalization made U.S. income less equal." What is the strongest objection?

   AThe Gini index does not measure income at all BThe table shows a change, not its cause CTable C covers only households in 2025 DThe Gini index fell between 2000 and 2025

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to Source 1, which group enjoyed the "conveniences, comforts, and amenities" of the world economy before 1914?

    AThe greater part of the population BThe richest monarchs of earlier ages CWorkers who moved to other countries DThe middle and upper classes

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source 1, what does Keynes say would "play the serpent to this paradise"?

    AMilitarism, rivalries and trade restrictions BThe telephone and other new kinds of technology CCheap travel abroad without any passports DInvestment in new enterprises in other lands

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 2, paragraph 3, gives a reason for nations to agree on labor standards. Which statement best restates it?

    ABetter labor conditions will always raise a nation's exports BWorkers abroad should earn the same wages everywhere CPoor conditions in one nation hold back reform elsewhere DOnly nations at war need rules about the hours of labor

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to Source 3, what is the Department of Labor's List of goods "not intended to be"?

    AA list of goods and source countries BPunitive, or meant to punish CA tool for raising public awareness DA resource for companies and researchers

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to Source 3, paragraph 4, how can companies use the List?

    ATo set the prices of the goods they import BTo avoid paying tariffs on the goods they import CTo choose which countries to invest in first DTo check supply chains for labor-rights risks

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use Source 4. By what percent did a zone job pay more than farm work? Explain how this difference could change Ardova's labor market, and name one cost to workers or to the villages.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use Source 4. Name one effect of the export zone on rights of citizens and one effect on the environment. Include the percent change in the downstream fish catch.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use Source 4, paragraph 4. How did the export zone policy change the distribution of income between Portmara province and the inland provinces? Show the percent change for each and the gap in each year.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    State the strongest argument of each adviser in Source 4, then say which policy you would choose for the zone and why. Answer one point from the adviser you disagree with.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Keynes says the Londoner of 1914 saw the world economy as "normal, certain, and permanent." Using Source 1 and Table B, describe one way globalization today resembles the world he describes and one way it is different.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Source 2 (1919) and Source 3 (today) both describe policies about labor in other nations. Compare the two policy tools, and explain one strength and one weakness of each.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to D2.Eco.15.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.