Business Without Borders? The Globalization of the California Economy

Publication Date: June 2003

Publisher: Public Policy Institute of California

Author(s): Howard J. Shatz

Research Area: Trade

Type: Report

Coverage: California

Abstract:

State policymakers have long focused on boosting California exports and attracting foreign companies, but global economic integration is likely to provide new challenges and opportunities. This report describes California’s global exposure with special emphasis on goods and services trade, foreign direct investment, and port activity. It finds that the California economy does not differ markedly from the rest of the United States in some standard measures of economic globalization, but that California firms are at the leading edge of several emergent trends. Compared to the rest of the United States, California exports more services and manufactured goods, and its ports ship more exports by air than by land or sea. Also, California manufacturers are more likely to use production sharing than other U.S. firms.