Developed Country
A country that has progressed relatively far along a continuum of development.
Developing Country
A country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of development.
Development
A process of improvement in the conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology.
Fair Trade
A variation of international trade that provides greater equity to workers, small businesses, and consumers, focusing primarily on products exported from developing countries to developed countries.
Female Labor Force Participation Rate
The percentage of women holding full-time jobs outside the home.
Gender Development Index
An indicator constructed by the U.N. to measure the gender gap in the level of achievement in terms of income, education, and life expectancy.
Gender Inequality Index
An indicator constructed by the U.N. to measure the extent of each country's gender inequality in terms of reproductive health, empowerment, and the labor market.
Gross Domestic Product
The value of the total output of goods and services produced in a country in a year, not accounting for money that leaves and enters the country.
Gross National Income
The value of the output of goods and services produced in a country in a year, including money that leaves and enters the country.
Human Development Index
An indicator constructed by the U.N. to measure the level of development for a country through a combination of income, education, and life expectancy.
Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index
A modification of the HDI to account for inequality.
Literacy Rate
The percentage of a country's people who can read and write.
Microfinance (Microcredit)
Provision of small loans and financial services to individuals and small businesses in developing countries.
Millennium Development Goals
Eight goals adopted by the U.N. in 2002 to reduce disparities between developed and developing countries by 2015.
Purchasing Power Parity
The amount of money needed in one country to purchase the same goods and services in another country.
Structural Adjustment Program
Economic policies imposed on less developed countries by international agencies to create conditions that encourage international trade.
Sustainable Development Goals
Seventeen goals adopted by the U.N. in 2015 to reduce disparities between developed and developing countries by 2030.
World Systems Theory (Wallerstein's World Systems Theory)
Theory developed by Immanuel Wallerstein that in an increasingly unified world economy developed countries form an inner core area whereas developing countries are found on the periphery and semi-periphery.
Non Governmental Organization (NGO)
Private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development that operates outside of the formal political arena, but still is influential.
Island of Development
Place built up by a government or corporation to attract foreign investment and which has relatively high concentrations of paying jobs and infrastructure
Horizontal Integration
Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in the same level of production and sharing resources at that level
Vertical Integration
An approach typical of traditional mass production in which a company controls all phases of a highly complex production process.
Special Economic Zones
Region offering special tax breaks, eased environmental restrictions, and other incentives to attract foreign business and investment.
Vectored Disease
A disease carried from one host to another by an intermediate host.
Rostow's Ladder of Development
The process of economic growth in five stages Traditional Society; Preconditions for Take-Off; Take-Off; Drive to Maturity; and Age of High Mass Consumption.
Dependency Theory (neo-colonialism)
Economic neocolonialism extracts the human and natural resources of a poor country to flow to the economies of the wealthy countries. A Foreign power indirectly controlling or influencing a territory and its people, usually through financial means cpntinues economic dependence on and exploitation of former colonial countries
Development Gap
The difference in standards of living and wellbeing between the world's richest and poorest countries (between HICs and LICs).
Brandt Line
Division of the world between MDCs and LDCs (MDCs in north have relatively high HDIs while southern countries have lower indexes).
Core
\n The core-periphery model describes regions as core, semi-periphery, and periphery areas. It also describes four areas: the industrial core, upward transition, downward transition, and resource frontier. The model can be used from a worldwide scale down to an urban scale to analyze city zones.
Semi-Periphery
National or global regions where economic power, in terms of wealth, innovation, and advanced technology, is concentrated.
Periphery
Countries that have a very low standard of living and low levels of industrial productivity