10.1-10.2 Economic Development Notes

Learning outcome

10.1.1- Explain the concepts of development, developed, and developing countries, and the Human Development Index

• Development: process of improving conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology.

• Developed & Developing countries.

• HDI measures level of development from 0 to 1 based on standard of living, life expectancy, and access to knowledge.

• Developed regions: (Higher HDI) North America & Europe

• Developing regions: (Lower HDI) Latin America, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Southwest Asia & North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa

• Individual countries within these regions may be more or less developed.

10.1.2- Explain the HDI standard of living factor

• Standard of living is measured by Gross national income (value of output of goods and services produced in a country in a year)

  • GDP (gross domestic product) does not account for money entering and leaving a country.

  • GNI per capita measures potential for high standard of living, but not the exact standard of living for each person.

• Job sectors:

  • Primary: directly extracts materials from earth

  • Secondary: Manufacturing & assembling raw materials

  • Tertiary: Providing goods and services in exchange for payment

  • Contribution to GNI between sectors varies between developed and developing countries

• Productivity: value of a particular product compared to the amount of labor needed to make it

  • Measured by GDP number of persons employed

  • Developed countries have a higher productivity because they have better access to technology vs human and animal power.

10.1.3- Explain the HDI education factors

• Years of schooling = most critical measure of access to knowledge.

  • Years of schooling for today’s adults

  • Expected years of schooling for today’s youth

• Other measures:

  • Pupil/teacher ratio

    • More of the teacher’s time can go to each student the lower the ratio

  • Literacy rate

  • Students in developing countries are at a disadvantage because their textbooks are not published in their native language.

10.1.4- Identify HDI health factors

• Life expectancy at birth is the measure of health for the HDI

  • A goal of development is to provide the nutrition and medical services people need to lead long healthy lives.

• Healthcare reduces infant mortality

• Developing countries use their wealth for transportation, communications, and other consumer goods.

  • Cell phone towers and other pieces of infrastructure are difficult to install in

• Developing countries can use their wealth to provide health services and public assistance.

  • Not all countries generate enough tax revenue for these services.

Learning outcome

10.2.1- Describe the U.N’s measures of inequality

• Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI): modifies HDI to account for inequality.

  • The greater the difference between HDI and IHDI, the greater the inequality

  • Highest inequality is in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Developed countries have the most equality.

  • Brazil and Turkey have similar HDI’s, but Brazil has a higher IHDI meaning more inequality.

• Core countries: developed countries

• Periphery countries: developing countries

• Semi periphery: intermediate level of economic development/close to core and periphery countries

• Global investment starts at the core through hierarchical diffusion of decisions made by transnational corporations.

• Forward Capital: moving the capital to create more equality within a country.

• World Systems theory limitations:

  • Attempts to represent complex global dynamics

  • Neglect or undervalue cultural, class, and political factors

  • Fail to address intra-regional differences.

10.2.2- Describe patterns of regional inequality within developing and developed countries

• Inequality exists within both developed and developing countries.

  • Can be measured by IHDI and differences in GDP per capita among states/provinces within a country.

  • Contrasts among neighborhoods within cities.

  • New England is the richest part of the U.S and Appalachia is the poorest.

• Since 1980, inequality has increased in most developed countries.

  • Stop and Reflect: Potentially due to technology and decrease in government welfare policies in the U.S and UK since the 1980s. Also increase in large corporations and less manufacturing jobs that were done by the middle class.

  • The internet has increased inequality within developed countries.

10.2.3- Describe the U.N’s measures of gender inequality

• There is no country with complete gender equality.

• Gender inequality index (GII):

  • Reproductive health

  • Labor market

  • The higher the GII, the greater the inequality

  • GII is higher in developing countries than developed countries.

  • The U.S may have a greater inequality because of reproductive health

  • GII has declined since the 1990s

• Gender development index (GDI)

  • Income

  • Education

  • Life expectancy

  • Countries are ranked based on their deviation from gender parity in the three dimensions of the HDI

10.2.4- Describe empowerment-related components of gender inequality

• Employment: Women in developed countries are more likely to have full-time jobs outside the home than in developing countries.

• Empowerment: ability of women to achieve economic and political power.

  • Measured by high school completion and number of seats in the national legislature..

  • More women than men vote in most countries

• I think the lower than expected percentage of women in the legislature of the United States may be due to the election process and the two party system where women are less likely to be nominated because of the perception that they will not be elected and people are less likely to vote for them. In turn, this may lead to a cycle where people do not see women as qualified for elected positions.

10.2.5- Describe the reproductive health elements of the GII

• Adolescent fertility: Number of birth per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19

  • It is higher in the U.S than in most developed countries because of lack of economic opportunities for African Americans and Hispanics.

• Maternal mortality rate: Number of women who die giving birth per 100,000 births in developed countries and 171 in developed countries.

  • In the U.S, it has increased since 1990

• The relationship between development and gender inequality is relatively close. Developed countries tend to have much lower GII than developing countries. However, there are still exceptions.