Characteristics Of A Global City

A global city, according to Saskia Sassen, author of The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, is a significant production point of specialized financial and producer services that make the globalized economy run. In the age of globalization, cities are no longer isolated and their influence on the global economy cannot go overlooked. Many factors are taken into consideration when deciding whether a city is global or not; such factors include being a home to major stock exchanges and indexes, having an influence in international political affairs, and being centers of new ideas and innovation in business, economics, culture, and politics.

For a city to be “global” it has to meet the requirements of global flows and its economic state should

One example is the Global Cities Index, a list published by the American journal Foreign Policy, in conjunction with the Chicago-based consulting firm A.T. Kearney and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, based on consultation with Saskia Sassen. The Global Cities index has five criteria upon which cities are ranked : Business Activity, Human Capital, Information Exchange, Cultural Experience, and last but not least Political

This criteria is measured by the number of headquarters of important and major international corporations and top business service firms , the value of the city’s market, the number of international events held there each year, and the flow of goods through ports and airports. A number of major global corporations are situated in DC;for example the National Aeronautics and Space Administration also known as (NASA) , the International Monetary Fund (IMF),and the World Bank. The World Bank concentrates on long-term investment projects, institution-building, and on social, environmental, and poverty issues while the IMF focuses on the functioning of the international monetary system, and on promoting sound macroeconomic policies as a precondition for sustained economic growth.Thus, both play a powerful role in controlling money flows around the world and aiding the process of globalization in developing countries. Other international companies are based outside the U.S. with a division headquartered in DC such as Airbus Group, Inc.,Lafarge North America , Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems Inc. ,Nestlé USA , and Volkswagen Group of America. Important international events are held in the city each year including the annual meetings of the WBG and IMF to discuss a range of issues related to poverty reduction, international economic development and finance. Cities often