Social consequences of economic globalization: experience of developed and developing countries and perspectives of optimization

Purpose: The purpose of the research is to determine the social consequences of economic globalization based on experience of developed and developing countries and to determine the perspectives of optimization of this process through regulation. Design/methodology/approach: The research method is correlation analysis, for it allows determining dependencies between the indicators without requirements to their close mutual dependence. The research objects are top ten developed and top ten developing countries as to the KOF globalization index in 2019. Findings: It is determined that, contrary to high economic risks, social risks of globalization are very low. Instead of this, in the course of globalization the social advantages increase – they are expressed in the form of harmonization of the labor market, development of digital society and increase of population's quality of life – in particular, provision of balance of the global society by leveling the social disproportions between developed and developing countries. It is substantiated that consequences that stimulate the increase of population's quality of life in developing countries are more expressed than in developed countries. This means that developing countries, which are traditionally more inclined to limiting the influence of globalization on them due to economic reasons, have to reconsider their foreign economic policy and include the measures on stimulation of globalization in the interests of social development. Other than that, the differences in consequences for developed and developing countries are minimal. There is no imbalance of consequences that is peculiar for the economic sphere, in which the main advantages are obtained by developed countries, and developing countries bear most of the costs. From the social point of view, globalization could be characterized as a positive phenomenon of modern times. Originality/value: The offered authors' recommendations will allow optimizing the influence of globalization on the social environment in developed and developing countries and ensuring usage of economic globalization as a mechanism of implementation of the global goals in the sphere of sustainable development. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.