- G -
G-3 1. The United States, European Union, and Japan.
2. The United States, Germany, and Japan.
G5 Sahel An organization of five countries of the Sahel region of Africa to coordinate their responses to terrorism. The countries are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.
G-6 1. Six of the largest largest and richest countries of the world: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
2. The six largest countries of the European Union, ministers from which sometimes meet to discuss issues of common concern. The countries are France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
3. A group of countries that met several times to resolve disagreements that prevented progress in the Doha Round. The group includes Australia, India, Japan, the United States, the European Union, and either Brazil or China (I've seen both mentioned).
G-7 A group of seven major industrialized countries whose heads of state began to meet annually in 1976 in summit meetings to discuss economic and political issues. The seven are United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy (plus the EU).
G-8 The G-7 plus Russia, which met as a full economic and political summit from 1998 to 2013.
G-10 Group of Ten.
G-15 Group of Fifteen.
G-20 1. Originally, an international forum of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 countries and the EU, plus the IMF and World Bank. Created in 1999 by the finance ministers of the G-7, it meets several times a year to discuss financial and economic concerns.
2. Beginning with the financial and economic crisis of 2008, the same G-20 countries have held annual summit meetings of their heads of state. This G-20 mix of industrialized and large emerging-market economies has supplanted the G-7/G-8 as the primary venue for addressing global economic problems.
G-20 (Developing) A Cancún Ministerial of the WTO's Doha Round, especially for elimination of developed-country agricultural subsidies. Membership fluctuated, but the name G-20 stuck. The continued role of this G-20 after the demise of the Doha Round is unclear.
G-20 Trade Ministers The trade ministers of the G-20 countries met for the first time in April 2012 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and have met since then on average once a year, in various places and by various means (virtual in 2020).
G-24 A group of developing countries established in 1971 with the aim of taking positions on monetary and development finance issues.
G-33 A negotiating group in the Doha Round, also called the Friends of Special Products in agriculture. Its members were a variable number (as high at 48) of developing countries, dominated by India. It advocated for special treatment of agricultural products. [Source]
G-77 A coalition of developing countries within the United Nations, established in 1964 at the end of the first session of UNCTAD, intended to articulate and promote the collective economic interests of its members and enhance their negotiating capacity. Originally with 77 members, it now (February 2024 ) has 134.
G-90 "The smallest, poorest, and least developed countries in the world." "The G90 Countries were announced in 2003" at the Cancún Ministerial.
G-SIB Global systemically important bank
GAAP Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
GAB General Arrangements to Borrow
GAD Global Antidumping Database
GAFTA Greater Arab Free Trade Area
GAIN Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition
Gains from trade The net benefits that countries experience as a result of lowering import tariffs and otherwise liberalizing trade.
Gains from trade theorem The theoretical proposition that (in the absence of distortions) there will be gains from trade for any economy that moves from autarky to free trade, as well as for a small open economy and for the world as a whole if tariffs are reduced appropriately. Due to Samuelson (1939, 1962).
Game A theoretical construct in game theory in which players select actions or strategies and the payoffs depend on the actions or strategies of all players.
Game theory The modeling of strategic interactions among agents, used in economic models where the numbers of interacting agents (firms, governments, etc.) are small enough that each has a perceptible influence on the others. Begun by von Neuman (1928).
Gamma function A standard mathematical function, that is an extension of the factorial function. For an integer, n, Γ(n) = (n−1)!. For a positive real number a, Γ(a) = ∫ 0∞xa−1e−xdx. The gamma function is used frequently in EK models of trade.
GASSA Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum
Gastarbeiter German for guest worker.
Gastastrophe 1. This term may first have been used to describe effects of a fart in a small, enclosed space. [Source]
2. It then appeared more frequently to describe the effects of Europe allowing Russia to control most of its supply of natural gas and the resulting shortages after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. [Source]
Gate price mechanism A policy that is essentially a variable levy on imports, although it was introduced into Japan in 1995 to replace a variable levy on imports of pork, apparently differing primarily in the choice of the price that was to be maintained. [Source]
Gates Foundation The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GATT Articles The individual sections of the GATT agreement, conventionally identified by their Roman numerals. Most were originally drafted in 1947, but are still included in the WTO.
GATT Codes Plurilateral agreements negotiated under GATT auspices in the Tokyo Round to limit certain nontariff barriers. Most of these were replaced by the single undertaking of the Uruguay Round and the WTO. An exception was the Agreement on Government Procurement.
GATT discipline The GATT disciplines are the obligations undertaken by signatories of the GATT and members of the WTO. Key GATT disciplines are nondiscrimination, national treatment, and transparency.
GATT ministerial A ministerial meeting conducted under the GATT.
GATT Round Trade Round
GATT-Speak Variation on GATT-think.
GATT-Think A somewhat derogatory term for the language of GATT negotiations, in which exports are good, imports are bad, and a reduction in a barrier to imports is a concession. Similar to mercantilism. Due to Krugman (1991b).
Gaucho A currency that was proposed to be used by Argenina and Brazil to make payments between them. A protocol of economic integration mentioning this was signed in 1987, but no further action was taken, and the currency was not mentioned when Mercosur was formed in 1991. [Source]
Gavi Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, was formed in 2000 as "the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation" with help from the Gates Foundation and others, "to encourage manufacturers to lower vaccine prices for the poorest countries in return for long-term, high-volume and predictable demand from those countries."
GBTT Gross barter terms of trade
GCC Gulf Cooperation Council
GDAE Global Development and Environment Institute
GDI 1. Gross domestic income
2. Global Development Initiative
GDO Gross domestic output
GDP Gross domestic product
GDP deflator The implicit price deflator for GDP, thus the ratio of nominal GDP to real GDP (usually multiplied, as with a price index, by 100).
GDP function Same as revenue function.
GDP per capita GDP divided by population.
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
Geese See Flying Geese.
Gender equality ranking See Global Gender Gap Index.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade A multilateral treaty signed in 1948 by the 23 intended members of the International Trade Organization, to implement many of the rules and negotiated tariff reductions that would be overseen by the ITO. When the ITO was not approved, the GATT became the means of regulating trade policy until it was incorporated into the WTO in 1995.
General Agreement on Trade in Services The agreement, negotiated in the Uruguay Round, to bring international trade in services into the WTO. It requires countries to provide national treatment to foreign service providers in service sectors they specify to be covered.
General Arrangements to Borrow A supplementary borrowing arrangement agreed to by the Group of Ten in 1962 "that can be invoked if the IMF's resources are estimated to be below a member's needs." [Source]
General Data Protection Regulation The European Union's regulation that "is the toughest privacy and security law in the world" for data, imposing "obligations onto organizations anywhere, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the EU." It went into effect May 25, 2018. [Source]
General equilibrium Equality of supply and demand in all markets of an economy simultaneously. The number of markets does not have to be large. The simplest Ricardian model has markets only for two goods and one factor, labor, but is a general equilibrium model. Contrasts with partial equilibrium.
General tariff The tariff on a product levied against imports from a country that is not granted most favored nation status and is not subject to a preferential arrangement. In the US, these are Column 2 tariffs.
General Tariff of 1932 The tariff imposed on imports to the UK in 1932. It was 10% ad valorem on most industries, but with tariffs on some industries higher and others exempt. [Source]
General trading company A particular type of company that seems to be unique to Japan. Called sogo shosha in Japanese, this is actually a large and tight group of companies with extensive cross-ownership, centered on a trading company that coordinates and manages the trading activities of the group.
Generalized System of Preferences Tariff preferences for developing countries, begun in 1971, by which developed countries let certain manufactured and semi-manufactured imports from developing countries enter at lower tariffs than the same products from developed countries. See enabling clause. [Source]
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles The accounting principles set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and required for use by United States companies. Contrasts with International Financial Reporting Standards used in Europe and other countries.
Genetically modified organism Plants or animals (or products thereof) whose genetic makeup has been determined or altered by genetic engineering. Trade in GMOs has been the source of disagreement and controversy between the US and the EU.
Geneva Ministerial 1. The second ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, held in Geneva, Switzerland, May 18-20, 1998. It did not do much.
2. The WTO's seventh ministerial, also held in Geneva, November 30 - December 2, 2009. Held during the Global Financial Crisis and during a period when the Doha Round was stalled, the theme of the meeting was "The WTO, the Multilateral Trading System and the Current Global Economic Environment."
3. The WTO's eighth ministerial, also held in Geneva, December 15-17, 2011.
4. The WTO's twelfth ministerial November 29 - December 2, 2021, originally scheduled for Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan June 8-11, 2020, but put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then rescheduled for Geneva.
Geneva Round The first (1947) and fourth (1955-56) of the trade rounds conducted under the auspices of the GATT.
Gentle commerce Doux commerce [Source]
Genuine progress indicator An alternative to gross domestic product that is intended to take account of costs that are not internalized by economic agents, such as crime and pollution.
Geo-blocking 1. Denying access to something on the internet based on its location. [Source]
2. See unjustified eo-blocking.
Geoeconomics "The interplay of international economics, geopolitics and strategy." Includes both "the use of economic tools [for]] geopolitical objectives" and use of "geopolitical muscle ... for economic results." [Source]
Geographical indication A label identifying where a product is produced or grown, and implying characteristics or quality particular to that location. Use of such labels by producers from other countries has increasingly been the subject of international dispute.
Geography See New Economic Geography.
Geopolitics "The struggle over the control of geographical entities with an international and global dimension, and the use of such geographical entities for political advantage." [Source]
GEP Global Economic Prospects.
Gephardt Amendment A proposal in the mid-1980s that would penalize countries that run and then do not reduce "excessive" bilateral trade surpluses with the US by levying a 25% surcharge on their exports. It influenced but was not included in the Omnibus Act of 1988. [Source]
German Marshall Fund The German Marshall Fund of the United States is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1972 through a gift from Germany as a memorial to the Marshall Plan. It "contributes research and analysis and convenes leaders on transatlantic issues relevant to policymakers."
GFFA Global Forum for Food and Agriculture
GFSEC Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity
GI Geographical indication
Giffen good A good that is so inferior and so heavily consumed at low incomes that the demand for it rises when its price rises. The reason is that the price increase lowers income sufficiently that the positive income effect (because it is inferior) outweighs the negative substitution effect.
Gilt More formally a "gilt-edged security," it is a bond viewed as extremely safe, usually because it is the debt of a strong government. Traditionally it referred to gold-edged bonds issued by the Bank of England, or sometimes bonds of other Commonwealth countries.
GILTI Global intangible low-taxed income.
Gini coefficient 1. A measure of income inequality within a population, ranging from zero for complete equality, to one if one person has all the income. It is defined as the area between the Lorenz Curve and the diagonal, divided by the total area under the diagonal. Due to Gini (1912).
2. The Gini coefficient could be applied to data other than incomes, to indicate the extent to which they are concentrated in a small fraction of the possible categories.
3. Instead, the name Gini coefficient of concentration has been given incorrectly to a different measure due to Hirschman (1945). See concentration of exports and imports.
Given year 1. In a price index, the year whose prices are being evaluated, relative to a base year.
2. The year of the data whose real value is being determined in terms of a base year.
Glass Ceiling Index An index compiled by The Economist ranking countries by how well women are treated at work, based on nine indicators.
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition With 9 country offices where it delivers the majority of its programs in South and Southeast Asia and East Africa, "GAIN's mission is to advance nutrition outcomes by improving the consumption of nutritious and safe food for all people, especially the most vulnerable to malnutrition."
Global Antidumping Database A compilation of data on the use of anti-dumping duties, compiled by Bown (2015) and maintained at the World Bank.
Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum An agreement being negotiated by the EU and US as of October 31, 2021, to increase trade in "green" steel and Aluminum -- i.e., "produced in a way that emits lower greenhouse [gasses] than when produced" conventionally. Aka, a "Green Steel Club"" [Source]
Global citizen The idea that, in a globalized world, individuals either do or should consider themselves citizens of the world, not only of their own particular part of the world, and that they should act in the interests of the world population.
Global competitiveness Competitiveness, applied internationally.
Global Competitiveness Index An index of the competitiveness of the nations in the world, compiled each year by the World Economic Forum. It is a weighted average of many different components, measured in publicly available data as well as surveys.
Global Development and Environment Institute An institute at Tufts University, founded in 1993, to combine research and curricular activities in the areas of sustainable development and environmental policy, stressing the "limitations of the mainstream economic paradigm." In collaboration with UNCTAD, it has modelled and criticized both TPP and TTIP.
Global Development Initiative A September, 2021, initiative of the government of China, the "Global Development Initiative aims to support the timely achievement of all 17 SDGs ... by revitalizing global development partnership, and promoting stronger, greener and healthier global development."
Global Economic Prospects An annual publication of the World Bank.
Global factory, the An early term for fragmentation, due to Grunwald and Flamm (1985).
Global Financial Crisis The collapse of credit and consequent global recession that began in 2008 as over-extended financial institutions, especially banks, had their assets devalued by defaulting debtors, especially owners of houses whose values had fallen below their mortgages due to the bursting of the housing bubble.
Global Forum for Food and Agriculture An "international conference on central issues of vital importance for global agricultural and food policies. It is held in Berlin on an annual basis."
Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity An "international platform to discuss and find collective solutions to the challenge of excess capacity and enhance market functioning in the steel sector." It was initiated by The G-20" and the OECD. It met first in 2017.
Global Gateway Announced December 1, 2021, this is "the new European Strategy to boost smart, clean and secure links in digital, energy and transport and strengthen health, education and research systems across the world." It is said to be a rival to China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Global Gender Gap Index Introduced in 2006 by the World Economic Forum, this "compares countries' gender gaps across four dimensions: economic opportunities, education, health and political leadership."
Global imbalance The existence of large trade deficits and large trade surpluses in different parts of the world, perceived to be a situation that cannot be sustained and requiring rebalancing.
Global intangible low-taxed income Income earned by affiliates of US corporations outside the US from intangible assets. It is subject to special treatment by the US tax code, presumably only (or especially) if it is taxed at a low rate abroad.
Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index An index and ranking of countries by their manufacturing competitiveness, produced by Deloitte based on survey responses from senior manufacturing executives around the world.
Global north Comprising the US and Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, this is the richer parts of the world. The term is largely a synonym for the first world and contrasts with global south.
Global optimum An allocation that is better, by some criterion, than all others possible; optimum optimorum. "Global" here refers to the range of all possibilities, not to the Earth.
Global production network The linkages across countries formed when multinational corporations source inputs from sources in multiple countries.
Global production sharing Trade in intermediate inputs; thus an aspect of fragmentation. Term used by Feenstra and Hanson (2003).
Global quota An import quota that specifies the permitted quantity of imports from all sources combined. This may be without regard to country of origin, and thus available on a first-come-first-served basis, or it may be allocated to specific suppliers.
Global recession 1. A recession for the global economy, defined in terms of a decline in world real GDP.
2. The recession that resulted from the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and spread to enough countries of the world that global real GDP declined.
Global Rights Index An index of worker rights produced annually by the International Trade Union Confederation.
Global saving glut The observation by Bernanke (2005), then Chair of the Fed, that many countries of the world were saving more than could be readily accommodated by financial markets, contributing therefore to low interest rates and, in the United States, a current account deficit.
Global south Comprising most of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, this is the poorer parts of the world. The term is largely a synonym for the third world and contrasts with global north.
Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable An initiative of the G20 in 2023, co-chaired by the IMF, World Bank and G20 Presidency, "that brings creditors (including China) and borrowers together to seek consensus on standards and processes." [Source]
Global Steel Forum Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity
Global supply chain A production process that is distributed over multiple countries, with production in one country providing inputs to production in another, which in turn provides inputs to a third, and so on. An extreme form of fragmentation.
Global System of Trade Preferences An agreement among the G-77 developing countries to negotiate trade preferences among themselves. It went into force in 1989.
Global systemically important bank A bank classified by the FSB as important enough to the financial system to require special regulation to deter failure, based on indicators of "size, interconnectedness, lack of readily available substitutes or financial institution infrastructure, global (cross-jurisdictional) activity, and complexity."
Global Terrorism Index "A comprehensive study analysing the impact of terrorism for 163 countries."
Global Trade Alert An information service reporting government measures that affect international trade. It was begun in response to the global financial crisis of 2008 in an effort to track whether the crisis was causing an increase in protectionism.
Global Trade Analysis Project A project based at Purdue University, providing a data base and CGE modeling tools for analysis of global trade and trade policy.
Global Trade Atlas A subscription service that describes itself as "the world's most comprehensive trade database."
Global Trade Helpdesk "A multi-agency initiative jointly led by ITC, UNCTAD, and the WTO that aims to simplify market research for companies, and especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), by integrating trade and business information into a single online portal. "
Global Trade Information Services A subscription service that describes itself as "the leading supplier of international merchandise trade data."
Global Trade Watch See Public Citizen.
Global value chain Another term for fragmentation, used by the OECD.
Global Witness An NGO founded in 1993 to investigate and expose "environmental and human rights abuses in the oil, gas, mining, and timber sectors." It was the first organization to draw attention to the problem of blood and conflict diamonds. [Source]
Globalisation Adjustment Fund European Globalization Adjustment Fund
Globalism 1. The networks of inter-connections that span the world, across countries and continents, including economic, political, environmental, and other such connections.
2. A political orientation in which the interests of the world or of particular other countries take precedence over the interests of a single country.
Globalist A pejorative term for people who put foreign or global interests ahead of the interests of their own country.
Globalization 1. The increasing world-wide integration of markets for goods, services and capital that began to attract special attention in the late 1990s.
2. Also used to encompass a variety of other changes that were perceived to occur at about the same time, such as an increased role for large corporations (MNCs) in the world economy and increased intervention into domestic policies and affairs by international institutions such as the IMF, WTO, and World Bank.
3. Among countries other than the United States, especially developing countries, the term sometimes refers to the domination of world economic affairs and commerce by the United States.
4. See also first globalization.
Globalization Index A measure of openness to various dimensions of globalization. Most prominent is the KOF Globalisation Index.
GMO Genetically modified organism.
GMS Greater Mekong Subregion.
GNI Gross national income.
Gnomes of Zurich Term used by the British Labor government to refer to Swiss bankers and financiers who engaged in currency speculation that forced the devaluation of the British pound in 1964.
GNP Gross national product.
Go Out See Going Global.
Going Global Also called Go Out, this is the strategy that China initiated in 2000 "making the outward expansion of business enterprises a major strategic initiative for the future economic development of the country." [Source]
Gold bloc The countries that attempted to remain on the gold standard in the 1920s and 1930s after most others had abandoned it: Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. They finally did leave it in 1935-36. [Source]
Gold Exchange Standard A monetary system that sought to restore features of the Gold Standard in the 1920s and again in the Bretton Woods System, while economizing on gold. Instead of money being backed directly by gold, central banks issued liabilities against foreign currency assets (mostly U.S. dollars under Bretton Woods) that were in turn backed by gold.
Gold Pool The London Gold Pool was a commitment in November 1961 by eight countries to defend the price of gold at $35/ounce using a total of 240 tons of gold contributed by the countries. In March 1968 the arrangement collapsed, resulting in the two tier gold market. [Source]
Gold Standard A monetary system in which both the value of a unit of the currency and the quantity of it in circulation are specified in terms of gold. If two currencies are both on the gold standard, then the exchange rate between them is approximately determined by their two prices in terms of gold.
Gold tranche See tranche.
Gold window Informal name for the system in which the US Treasury committed to exchange dollars for gold at the price of $35 per ounce, though only with other governments and central banks. The practice was suspended by President Nixon on August 15, 1971, ending the Bretton Woods System. [Source]
Golden straitjacket Defined by Thomas Friedman as "all the rules set down by global markets for how a country has to behave economically if it wants to thrive in today's world." [Source]
Good A product that can be produced, bought, and sold, and that has a physical identity. Sometimes said, inaccurately, to be anything that "can be dropped on your foot" or, also inaccurately, to be "visible." Contrasts with service. Trade in goods is much easier to measure than trade in services, and thus much more thoroughly documented and analyzed.
Good Country Index An index that ranks countries by several dimensions of how they contribute to "the greater good of humanity."
Gordie Howe International Bridge The bridge portion of the New International Trade Crossing being built between Detroit, MI, US, and Windsor, ON, Canada. [Source]
Government budget 1. An itemized accounting of the payments received by government (taxes and other fees) and the payments made by government (purchases and transfer payments).
2. The net inflow (surplus) or outflow (deficit) of these payments.
Government debt The amount that a country's government has borrowed as a result of budget deficits, usually by issuing government bonds or, in developing countries, borrowing from from international financial institutions. Often called the national debt.
Government procurement Purchase of goods and services by government and by state-owned enterprises. Transparency in government procurement is one of the Singapore Issues.
Government Procurement Agreement Agreement on Government Procurement
Government Procurement Code Agreement on Government Procurement
Government procurement practice The methods by which units of government and state-owned enterprises determine from whom to purchase goods and services. When these methods include a preference for domestic firms, they constitute an NTB. Subject of a Tokyo Round Code, and later a WTO plurilateral agreement.
Government procurement regulation A law or rule restricting government procurement practices, such as a requirement that preference be given to domestic suppliers.
Government regulation Includes all of the government-imposed restrictions on, and requirements of, people, firms, and organizations in a country, including on foreign people and firms that travel or engage in business there. Regulation of the latter, especially, can constitute nontariff barriers to trade in goods and services.
GPA Government Procurement Agreement
GPA 1994 See Agreement on Government Procurement
GPA 2012 See Agreement on Government Procurement
GPI Genuine progress indicator
GPW Gridded Population of the World
Graduation Termination of a country's eligibility for GSP tariff preferences on the grounds that it has progressed sufficiently, in terms of per capita income or another measure, that it is no longer in need of special and differential treatment.
Graham's argument for protection The case for protection made by Graham (1923) based on the presence of decreasing costs. Formalized and named by Ethier (1982).
Graham's paradox The possibility identified by Graham (1923) that a tariff in the presence of decreasing costs may increase a country's welfare.
Grandfather clause A provision in an agreement, including the GATT but not the WTO, that allows signatories to keep certain of their previously existing laws that otherwise would violate the agreement.
Granularity 1. The size of the component bits of a material or collection. Unfortunately, "greater" and "smaller" granularity are ambiguous, as greater granularity may mean the bits are smaller, as in definition 2, or larger, as in definition 3.
2. The fineness of detail, as of a set of data: "The HS 10-digit classification is the most granular in the HS system."
3. The presence within an industry of large firms. Gabaix (2011) shows that random idiosyncratic shocks hitting such firms, unlike those hitting very small firms, can cause aggregate fluctuations, including in exports and the trade balance.
Grassman's Law The empirical observation by Grassman (1973) that 2/3 of trade is invoiced in the exporter's currency and 1/4 in the importer's currency. This contradicts the previous presumption that most trade is invoiced in US dollars.
Gravity equation An estimated equation of the gravity model.
Gravity model A model of bilateral trade flows similar to the law of gravity in physics: Tij = AYiYj /Dij, where Tij is exports from country i to country j, Yi,Yj are their national incomes, Dij is the distance between them, and A is a constant. Other constants as exponents and other variables are often included. Due independently to [Origin]
Gray area measure Grey area measure
Gray areas With regard to protection, a gray area is one where a legitimate case for protection can be made, but where this also creates opportunity for producers to argue for protection that is unwarranted. [Source]
Gray market Refers to goods that are sold for a price lower than, or through a distributor different from, that intended by the manufacturer. Most commonly, goods that are intended by their manufacturer for one national market that are bought there, exported, and sold in another national market. See parallel imports.
Grease payment Same as facilitating payment.
Great Debasement The actions taken by English kings Henry VIII and Edward VI in the mid-1500s to debase the currency by replacing gold and silver in coins with cheaper metals. [Source]
Great Depression The depression that began in 1929 and lasted well into the 1930s, in the United States, Europe, and other industrialized parts of the world. [Origin]
Great Firewall The term in English for China's system of internet censorship and restriction. China's government blocks access to thousands of websites from outside China, and also censors material that appears on permitted websites.
Great Inflation The period of rapid increases in prices from roughly 1965 to 1982, especially in the United States but also in many other countries.
Great liberalization The substantial reduction in average tariffs and other barriers to trade by many countries and many industries that occurred especially during the last decade of the 20th century. Term used by Estevadeordal and Taylor (2013).
Great Moderation The period from the late 1980s, when inflation abated, to about 2007, when the Global Financial Crisis hit. Rates of inflation remained low in most of the world, economic growth was steady and in many cases unprecedented, and most countries avoided prolonged recessions. [Origin]
Great Recession The world-wide recession that began with the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-9.
Great Trade Collapse The sharp decline in international trade that occurred in late 2008, following the Global Financial Crisis, the deepest since World War II and the fastest decline in history.
Greater Arab Free Trade Area A pact by members of the Arab League aimed at establishing a free trade area.
Greater Brazil Plan An industrial policy announced August 2, 2011, "aimed at improving local industry competitiveness." It included the goal of "strengthening trade remedies ... and restructuring investigations." [Source]
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere An attempt by Japan to form a group of neighboring countries that would cooperate for mutual military and commercial benefit. It sought exclusive control over raw materials and natural resources. [Source]
Greater Mekong Subregion The six countries sharing the Mekong river: Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and parts of the People's Republic of China (Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region).
Greek debt crisis A crisis that began in 2009 when an incoming government of Greece announced that its fiscal deficit was much higher than had been public. This triggered several years of fear that Greece might default and efforts by the Troika to manage the situation and limit its spread to other members of the eurozone.
Green box Category of subsidies permitted under the WTO Agriculture Agreement; includes those not directed at particular products, direct income support for farmers unrelated to production or prices, subsidies for environmental protection and regional development. See box.
Green exchange rate An exchange rate used within the EU's Common Agricultural Policy to convert subsidy and support payments into local currencies, avoiding the variability of the rate set in the exchange market.
Green field investment FDI that involves construction of a new plant, rather than the purchase of an existing plant or firm. Contrasts with brown field investment.
Green protectionism "The use of measures for narrow protectionist ends under the guise of addressing legitimate environmental goals." [Source]
Green room group A group of GATT/WTO member countries or their delegates -- including the larger countries and selected smaller and less developed ones -- that have met together during negotiations to agree among themselves, before taking decisions to the full membership for the required consensus.
Green Seal See eco-label.
Green Steel Club Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum
Green tariff carbon tariff
Green technology Technology that contributes to environmental sustainability, most often by reducing carbon emissions into Earth's atmosphere.
Green trade This term seems to be used with various meanings, but always associated positively with environmental sustainability.
Greenspan put Refers to the actions taken during crises by Alan Greenspan when he was Chair of the Fed in order to prevent or reverse falling prices of financial assets. These were viewed as providing insurance analogous to a put option. [Source]
Gresham's Law The proposition that "bad money drives out good." It means that if two moneys have equal value in exchange, perhaps by fiat, but different values for other purposes (as when melted down), then the more valuable money will disappear from circulation, perhaps by leaving the country. Named after Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579).
Grexit The possibility that Greece might exit from the eurozone, presumably by adopting its own currency. Word was coined by Buiter and Rahbari (2012). [Origin]
Grey area measure A policy or practice whose conformity with existing rules is unclear, such as a VER under the GATT prior to the WTO, which prohibited VERs. (WTO uses the British spelling, "grey," rather than "gray.")
Grey list The list of "jurisdictions under increased monitoring" by the Financial Action Task Force. They "are actively working with the FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing."
Gridded Population of the World A collection of data on world population counts and densities by geographic location, produced by the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center of NASA.
Gross Before deduction. Contrasts with net. Just what is deducted to get from gross to net depends on the context.
Gross barter terms of trade The ratio of the quantity of a country's imports, Qm, to the quantity of its exports, Qx, and thus the quantity that it recieves in exchange for the quantity that it sells: GBTT = Qm/Qx. If trade is balanced, so that PxQx=PmQm, then GBTT=NBTT. Both terms were coined by Taussig (1927). [Origin]
Gross capital formation Same as gross domestic investment.
Gross domestic income GDI is the measure of an economy's output taken from the income side: wages, salaries, interest, rents, and profits. In contrast, GDP measures more or less the same thing but from the expenditure side: consumption, investment, government purchases, and net exports.
Gross domestic investment The additions to the capital stock located within the country, without any deductions for depreciation of capital that had been previously produced.
Gross domestic output The arithmetic average of gross domestic product and gross domestic income. Said by the Obama administration to be a better indicator of both production and income, since the two separate measures differ only because of measurement error in both. [Source]
Gross domestic product The total value of new goods and services produced in a given year within the borders of a country, regardless of by whom. It is "gross" in the sense that it does not, in contrast to NDP, deduct depreciation of previously produced capital.
Gross exports Exports, as opposed to net exports.
Gross fixed capital formation The value of a firm's acquisitions, less disposals, of fixed assets (plant, equipment, etc.) during a time period. Differs from gross capital formation by not including change in inventories.
Gross international reserves International reserves, without any deduction for the fact that some of them may have been borrowed. Contrasts with net international reserves.
Gross investment The value of investment before deducting depreciation. For a country, it usually refers to gross domestic investment.
Gross national expenditure Total expenditures by a country's people, firms, and government. Differs from gross national product by including imports and excluding exports. The corresponding term net national expenditure is not standard.
Gross national income 1. National income plus capital consumption allowance.
2. Same as gross national product.
Gross national product The total value of new goods and services produced in a given year by a country's domestically owned factors of production, regardless of where. It is "gross" in the sense that, in contrast to NNP, it does not deduct depreciation of previously produced capital.
Gross output The total output of a firm, industry, or economy without deducting intermediate inputs. For a firm or industry, this is larger than its value added which is net of its own intermediate inputs. For an economy, gross output is greater than net output, which deducts the amounts of goods used as an intermediate inputs.
Gross substitutes Two goods are gross substitutes if a rise in the price of one causes an increase in demand for the other.
Grossraumwirtschaft Translated as "large space economy," this was Germany's 1934 set of "regional agreements among neighboring or related States able to supplement one another and to supply one another's wants." Unlike today's FTAs, this served only the interests of Germany, not the regional partners. [Source]
Groszy Subunit of the zloty.
Group of Fifteen The Summit Level Group of Developing Countries, or Group of Fifteen, is a group of developing countries, numbering 17 as of August 2018, formed in 1989 to meet regularly and issue "pronouncements reflecting their common standpoint on the major developments in the world economy and international economic relations." It is not clear that the G-15 has met since 2017.
Group of Seven (or Eight) G-7 (or G-8)
Group of Seventy-Seven G-77.
Group of Ten A group of ten IMF-member countries that agreed to the General Arrangements to Borrow, making resources available outside their IMF quotas. Later expanded to include Switzerland, the name remains. Since 1963 the governors of the G10 central banks have met on the occasion of the bimonthly BIS meetings. [Source]
Groupage Combining of shipments by different exporters into a single container for transport. This lowers cost compared to shipping a less-than-full container, but at customs it requires multiple forms, and if one shipment is delayed, then all will be.
Growth See economic growth.
Growth accounting Decomposition of the sources of economic growth into the contributions from increases in capital, labor, and other factors. What remains, called the Solow residual, is usually attributed to technology.
Growth model A model of an economy in which quantities of factors can expand over time. The model on which most others are based is the Solow Model.
Growth regression The attempt to ascertain the causes of economic growth by regression of country growth rates on country characteristics. The main pitfall is that many characteristics may themselves have been altered by growth, making causation ambiguous.
Grubel-Lloyd index The measure of the intra-industry trade suggested by Grubel and Lloyd (1975). For an industry i with exports Xi and imports Mi the index is I = [(Xi+Mi) − |Xi− Mi|]100/(Xi+Mi). This is the fraction of total trade in the industry, Xi+Mi, that is accounted for by IIT (times 100).
GSDR Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable
GSP Generalized System of Preferences
GSP social clause See social clause.
GSTP Global System of Trade Preferences
GTA Global Trade Atlas
GTAP Global Trade Analysis Project
GTIS Global Trade Information Services
Gucci exemption The exemption of luxury goods from the EU's initial sanctions on exports to Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. [Source]
Guest worker A foreign worker who is permitted to enter a country temporarily in order to take a job for which there is shortage of domestic labor.
Gulf Cooperation Council An agreement among six countries of the Persian Gulf region in 1981 with the aim of coordinating and integrating their economic policies. As of January 1, 2003, it formed a customs union.
GVC Global value chain
Gyosei-shido Administrative guidance