HUGE ch 10 vocab

commodity chain

Series of links connecting the many places of production and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is then exchanged on the world market.

developing

With respect to a country, making progress in technology, production and socioeconomic welfare.

gross national product (GNP)

The total value of all goods and services produced by a country's economy in a given year. It includes all goods and services produced by corporations and individuals of a country, whether or not they are located within the country.

gross domestic product (GDP)

The total value of all goods and services produced within a country during a given year.

gross national income (GNI)

Calculates the monetary worth of what is produced within a country plus income received from investments outside the country.

per capita GNI

The GNI divided by the population of the country.

formal economy

The legal economy that is taxed and monitored by a government and is included in a government's GNP; as opposed to an informal economy.

informal economy

Economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government; and is not included in that government's GNP; as opposed to a formal economy.

modernization model

A model of economic development most closely associated with the work of economist Walter Rostow. The modernization model (sometimes referred to as modernization theory) maintains that all countries go through five interrelated stages of development, which culminate in an economic state of self-sustained economic growth and high levels of mass consumption.

context

The geographical situation in which something occurs; the combination of what is happening at a variety of scales concurrently.

neo-colonialism

The entrenchment of the colonial order, such as trade and investment, under a new guise.

structuralist theory

A general term for a model of economic development that treats economic disparities among countries or regions as the result of historically derived power relations within the global economic system.

dependency theory

A structuralist theory that offers a critique of the modernization model of development. Based on the idea that certain types of political and economic relations (especially colonialism) between countries and regions of the world have created arrangements that both control and limit the extent to which regions can develop.

dollarization

When a poorer country ties the value of its currency to that of a wealthier country, or when it abandons its currency and adopts the wealthier country's currency as its own.

world-systems theory

Theory originated by Immanuel Wallerstein and illuminated by his three-tier structure, proposing that social change in the developing world is inextricably linked to the economic activities of the developed world.

three-tier structure

With reference to Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems theory, the division of the world into the core, the periphery, and the semi-periphery as a means to help explain the interconnections between places in the global economy

Millennium Development Goals

A declaration with the goal of improving the living conditions of people in the least developed countries. The goals were: (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) achieve universal primary education, (3) promote gender equality and empower women, (4) reduce child mortality, (5) improve maternal health, (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, (7) ensure environmental sustainability, (8) develop a global partnership for development.

trafficking

When a family sends a child or an adult to a labor recruiter in hopes that the labor recruiter will send money, and the family member will earn money to send home.

structural adjustment loans

Loans granted by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to countries in the periphery and the semi-periphery in exchange for certain economic and governmental reforms in that country (e.g. privatization of certain government entities and opening the country to foreign trade and investment).

neoliberalism

Derives from the idea that government intervention into markets is inefficient and undesirable, and should be resisted wherever possible. Popular during the late twentieth century, structural adjustment loans were often part of neoliberalism.

vectored diseases

A disease carried from one host to another by an intermediate host.

malaria

An infectious disease spread by mosquitoes that carry the parasite in their saliva. It kills about 150,000 in the periphery each month.

export processing zones (EPZs)

Zones established by many countries in the periphery and semi-periphery where they offer favorable tax, regulatory, and trade arrangements to attract foreign trade and investment

maquiladoras

The term given to zones in northern Mexico with factories supplying manufactured goods to the U.S. market. The low-wage workers in the primarily foreign-owned factories assemble imported components and/or raw materials and then export finished goods

special economic zone (SEZ)

Specific area within a country in which tax incentives and less stringent environmental regulations are implemented to attract foreign business and investment

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Agreement entered into by Canada, Mexico, and the United States in December, 1992 and which took effect on January 1, 1994, to eliminate the barriers to trade in, and facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and services between the countries.

desertification

The encroachment of desert conditions on moister zones along the desert margins, where plant over and soils are threatened by desiccation--through overuse, in part by humans and their domestic animals, and, possibly, in part because of inexorable shifts in the Earth's environmental zones.

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.

nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)

International organizations that operate outside of the formal political arena but that are nevertheless influential in spearheading international initiatives on social, economic, and environmental issues.

microcredit program

Program that provides small loans to poor people, especially women, to encourage development of small businesses.