Glossary on the course “Control Theory” General terms

A small group of developing countries are transforming the global economic landscape. Led by China, India, and Brazil, these rising economic powers pose varied challenges and opportunities for U.S. economic interests and leadership of the global economy. They also raise significant policy issues for Congress, including the future direction of U.S. trade policy and negotiations, as well as for the multilateral economic institutions that have historically served as the foundation of an open and rules-based global economy.

This report addresses ongoing shifts in global trade and finance and projected future trends resulting from the emergence of these economies. It is the first of a three-part CRS series that focuses on how the Rising Economic Powers are affecting U.S. interests and raising challenges for congressional oversight of U.S. international trade and financial policies.

The major trends in the global economy identified and discussed in this report are:

• The balance of global economic power is shifting from the United States and Europe to a number of fast-growing and large developing countries. These economies account for rising shares of global GDP, manufacturing, and trade, including a significant expansion of trade among the developing countries

(South-South trade). These shifts are driven by growing economic integration and interdependence among economies, particularly through new global production

and supply chains that incorporate inputs from many different countries.

• Rising economic powers are becoming more important players in international finance. They have increased holdings of foreign exchange reserves, established sovereign wealth funds, borrowed capital from international capital markets, and attracted substantial foreign investment. Their multinational corporations, many state-owned, are investing assets globally and are competing with U.S. firms for natural resources and access to other developing-country markets.

• The long-standing distinction between advanced and developing countries, particularly for rising economic powers, is blurring. The advanced countries may still be the richest countries in terms of per capita income, but their economies may no longer be the largest, the fastest-growing, or the most dynamic. Rising economic powers are exerting greater influence in global trade and financial policies and in the multilateral institutions that have underpinned the global economy since World War II. These developments, in turn, have implications for U.S. global leadership that are subject to debate.

• While the impact of the rising economic powers is considered by most

economists to be strongly positive for the U.S. economy overall, not all groups of

Americans have benefitted equally. Highly educated workers are seen gaining more job opportunities and higher wages than workers with less education.

Issues for Congress on the international trade and finance policies raised by the changing global landscape could include:

• Seizing full advantage of growing markets for U.S. manufacturers, service providers, agricultural producers, and their workers, including preparing for increased competition.

• The future direction of U.S. trade negotiations and the global trading system, as well as specific policies and issues raised by the global economy. These might include the increasing role of state-owned enterprises, access to developing country markets for services and government procurement, the future role of the dollar as the primary reserve currency, and U.S. participation in global supply chains, among other issues.

• The evolution of international frameworks for financial integration, as well as multilateral and bilateral frameworks for foreign direct investment and sovereign wealth funds.

This report will be updated as events warrant.

Introduction

The global economy has undergone dramatic changes over the past 60 years. In the early 1950s, the world economy was essentially divided between developed or industrialized countries in the “North” and developing or non-industrialized countries in the “South.” Developed countries, excluding Japan, at that time accounted for 90% of world manufacturing output and 90% of world exports of manufactured goods. Production remained largely enclosed within national boundaries and trade patterns reflected the respective country specializations. Inputs for most products were sourced within national borders. In addition to a large imbalance in the structure of production

and exports, there was a dramatic imbalance in living standards and political power as well.1

From the 1950s to the mid-1990s, these imbalances began to reverse gradually. By 1995, for example, the advanced countries’ share of manufacturing output had fallen to 80%. But the narrowing of the great 20th century divide between advanced and developing countries accelerated rapidly over the past two decades with traditional production, trade, and finance patterns being replaced by new and more balanced configurations.

Spurred by the information technology (IT) revolution, trade liberalization and other economic reforms, the entry of an estimated 2 billion people into the labor force as a result of the breakdown of the Soviet bloc and the opening of China, and the freer movement of capital and technology from developed countries to developing countries, the size of the global economy doubled over the decade preceding the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, increasing from $31 trillion in 1999 to $62 trillion in 2008. While the growth reached practically every region of the world and encompassed dozens of developing countries, a handful of large developing countries—led by China, India, and Brazil—accounted for a major share of the global growth. Other emerging economies with large populations, such as Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam, also grew at a rapid pace.

Glossary on the course “Control Theory” General terms

1.Process. The device, plant or system under control.

2.System. An interconnection of elements and devices for a desired purpose.

3.Control system is an interconnection of components forming a system configuration that provides a system response.

4.Open-loop control system. A system that utilizes a device to control the process without using the feedback. Thus the output has no effect upon the signal to the process.

5.Close-loop control system. A system that utilizes a device to control the process with using the feedback. Thus the output has effect upon the signal to the process.

6.Feedback signal. It is an output signal which returns to the process input and influences the process behavior.

7.Control Theory. It is a part of engineering science which describes control system characteristics and behaviors and allows defining efficient control methods.

8.Automation. It is a process of substitution of human recourses by technical mechanisms and devises.

9.Comparison/summator/adder. It is a control system component which compares input and feedback signals.

10.Block diagram. It is a type of mathematical representations of control systems.

11.Transfer function. It is a mathematical relationship between the input signal x(t) and the controlled/output signal y(t).

12.Heaviside operator. It is describeв as letter p and means/substitutes differentiation.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 999