HGAP unit 7

Industrial Revolution:

The rapid transformation of the economy through the introduction of machines, new power sources, and new chemical processes in Europe and the United States between 1760 and 1830.

Textile:

A fabric or cloth woven from the fibers of wool, cotton, or flax.

Labor productivity:

The average amount of goods or services produced per worker per unit of time.

Fossil fuels:

Natural fuel derived from the fossilized remains of living organisms.

Crude oil:

A yellowish-black liquid fossil fuel found in geologic deposits.

Commercial farmers:

Farmers who raise crops and livestock to sell in the market at a profit rather than raising them for their own consumption.

Wage labor:

A socioeconomic relationship in which an employer pays a worker to complete a task, sometimes by the day or by the hour.

Capitalist class:

People who own the means of production and pay the wages of workers.

Middle class:

People who are either salaried professionals (such as lawyers, educators, and physicians) or office wage workers (such as bank tellers and store clerks).

Working class:

The people in an industrial economy who depend on wage labor to obtain the necessities of life.

Labor unions:

Associations of workers in particular industries established to collectively bargain with capitalists.

Mass production:

The machine manufacture of large quantities of identical products

Assembly line:

A system of manufacturing in which parts and procedures are added one step at a time through a series of workstations until a finished product is assembled.

Mass consumption:

The purchase of large amounts of mass-produced goods by large numbers of people.

International division of labor:

The situation in which the labor forces of different countries and world regions play complementary roles in an interdependent global economy.

Economic sectors:

Groupings of industries based on what is produced and the activities of the workforce.

Primary sector:

Industries that extract natural resources from the environment.

Secondary sector:

Industries that process the raw materials extracted by primary industries, transforming them into finished, usable forms.

Tertiary sector:

Industries that provide services to businesses and consumers, including all the different types of work necessary to transport and deliver goods and resources.

Quaternary sector:

The portion of the economy dedicated to intellectual and informational services, such as scientific research and development.

Quinary sector:

The portion of the economy where the highest-level management decisions are made in the areas of business, government, education, and science.

Base industry:

An industry of disproportionate economic importance and on whose existence other industries and employment sectors depend.

Semi-periphery:

Countries or regions whose economies have elements of both the core and the periphery.

Break-of-bulk point:

A location where cargo is transferred from one mode of transportation to another.

Shipping containers:

Standardized, stackable, intermodal metal boxes used to transport goods by ship, railroad, or truck.

Containerization:

The system of intermodal freight transport using shipping containers.

Least-cost theory:

Alfred Weber’s theory that transportation costs and labor costs play a strong role in determining the location of manufacturing facilities.

World systems theory:

Wallerstein’s theory of economic development that regards world history as moving through a series of socioeconomic systems, culminating in the modern world system by about the year 1900.

Dependency theory:

The theory that the periphery is poor because it was economically dependent on the core in a disadvantageous relationship originally established under colonialism and imperialism.

Commodity dependence:

Occurs when commodities account for more than 60 percent of the value of a country’s total exports.

Gross national product (GNP):

The total value of all the goods and services made by a country’s residents and businesses in a specific time period, regardless of the country or location in which they were made.

Gross domestic product (GDP):

The total value of all goods and services produced within a country over a specific period, regardless of the producer’s national origin.

Gross national income (GNI):

The total income of a country’s residents and businesses, including investment income, regardless of where it was earned, as well as money received from abroad such as foreign investment and development aid.

GDP per capita:

A country’s GDP divided by its total population.

Purchasing power parity (PPP):

Measures how much a common “basket of goods” costs locally in the currency of each country being compared.

Gender Inequality Index (GII):

A statistical measure of gender inequality that combines data on reproductive health, empowerment, and labor-market participation.

Human Development Index (HDI):

A statistical measure of human achievement that combines data on life expectancy at birth, education levels, and GNI per capita (PPP) population.

Formal sector:

The part of the economy that is officially recorded with the government.

Informal sector:

The part of any economy that is not officially recorded, monitored, or taxed by the government.

Income distribution:

How a country’s total GDP is distributed among the individuals in its population.

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM):

A measurement of gender equality that includes the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments, the percentage of women in economic decision-making positions, and women’s versus men’s share of earned income.

Gender parity:

A way of documenting progress toward gender equality using measures such as relative access to education, average incomes for women versus men, and workforce participation.

Microloan:

A very small loan to people with little income or collateral intended to help them establish or expand a small business.

Mercantilism:

A theory of trade stating that each country strives to export more than it imports in order to accumulate wealth.

Protectionism:

Trade rules that restrict imports in order to protect domestic industries.

Absolute advantage:

A country’s ability to produce a good or service more efficiently than another country.

Comparative advantage:

A country’s ability to produce one product much more efficiently than it can produce other products within its economy.

Complementarity:

A measure of how well one country’s export profile matches another country’s import profile.

Transnational corporation (TNC):

A firm with the power to coordinate and control operations in more than one country, even if it does not own those operations.

Competitive advantage:

A firm’s relative ability to outperform other TNCs in its industry.

International Monetary Fund (IMF):

International organization that seeks to foster global monetary cooperation, achieve financial stability, facilitate international trade, and promote sustainable economic growth.

World Bank:

An international financial organization that provides funding and expertise to promote sustainable economic growth in developing countries.

World Trade Organization (WTO):

An international organization that regulates trade among 184 member states, providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and resolving trade disputes.

Free-trade agreement:

A treaty between two or more countries that reduces tariffs and promotes foreign investment.

Tariff:

Tax on imported goods and services.

Customs union:

A free trade agreement among two or more member countries, combined with a single, common external trade policy for nonmembers.

Mercosur:

Spanish acronym for the Southern Common Market, a South American customs union that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay as its full members.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC):

An international trade agreement designed to regulate the output of oil.

Trade embargo:

An official ban on trade with a specific country or of a specific good.

Financial market:

Marketplace where financial instruments are traded; stock markets, bond markets, and foreign exchange markets are all financial markets.

Debt crisis:

Occurs when a government’s debts exceed its tax revenues to the point that it cannot meet its loan payments.

Import substitution industrialization (ISI):

An economic development policy intended to replace imported goods with domestically produced goods as a way to spur industrialization and reduce dependence on other countries.

Fordism:

The economic and social arrangement based on the mass production of standardized goods, high labor union membership rates, stable and full-time manufacturing employment, and high factory wages that enable mass consumption.

Corporate disinvestment:

A process in which companies stop investing in factory construction, equipment, and improvement and begin selling off assets, such as machinery, buildings, and land.

Offshoring:

The relocation of manufacturing and support services from one country to another.

Outsourcing:

The transfer of part of a firm’s internal operations to a third party.

Deindustrialization:

The decline, and sometimes complete disappearance, of employment in the manufacturing sector in the core’s industrial centers.

Special economic zone (SEZ):

Specific area within a country’s borders where business and trade laws are different from those in the rest of the country.

Export processing zone (EPZ):

Industrial zone with special incentives to attract foreign investment to places where imported materials undergo processing or assembly before being re-exported.

Free-trade zone (FTZ):

Specially designated duty-free area that provides warehousing, storage, and distribution facilities for goods intended for trade or re-export.

New international division of labor:

The spatial shift of manufacturing from developed countries to developing countries, including the global scaling of labor markets and industrial sites.

Post-Fordism:

The shifts from manufacturing centers to spatially dispersed production sites, from standardized mass production to specialized batch production, and from a permanent workforce to temporary and contract workers.

Just-in-time manufacturing (JIT):

The production of small batches of goods as needed by customer demand.

High-technology industry:

An industry that develops and uses the most advanced technologies available and has the highest levels of research and development.

Agglomeration economies:

Occur where firms cluster spatially in order to take advantage of geographic concentrations of skilled labor and industry suppliers, specialized infrastructure, and ease of face-to-face contact with industry participants.

Multiplier effects:

The creation of new business and jobs in other industries as the result of investment in a different industry.

Growth pole:

Geographically pinpointed center of economic activity organized around a designated industry, commonly in the high-tech sector.

Sustainable development:

Development that meets present consumption needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their consumption needs.

Resource depletion:

The consumption of natural resources faster than they can be replenished.

Environmental pollution:

The contamination of the physical (air, water, earth) and biological components of the environment to the point that normal functions are negatively affected.

Point source pollution:

Any single identifiable source from which contaminants are discharged, such as a pipe or smokestack.

Nonpoint source pollution:

Contamination originating from multiple, diffuse sources.

Climate change:

A long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns.

Cogeneration:

Producing two forms of energy from one fuel.

Carbon neutrality:

Achieving zero CO₂ releases through a combination of emissions reduction and carbon removal.

Carbon offsets:

Processes that remove or sequester (store) carbon from the atmosphere to make up for CO₂ emissions elsewhere.

Ecotourism:

Travel to natural areas of ecological value in support of conservation efforts and socially just economic development.