AP Human Geo Unit 7 Notes

10.1 Why does development vary among countries?

10.1.1 Development & Geography

  • The UN defines development as the process of enlarging people's ability to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge, and to have access to resources needed for decent standard of living

  • with access to these three elements people have greater opportunities to be productive, self-respect, and guaranteed human rights

  • Developing countries can be divided by the UN into high, medium, and low developing

    Human Development Index

  • the HDI measures the level of development for each country by 3 factors: decent standard of living, long and healthy lives, and access to knowledge

  • each country gets an overall score on the combination of the 3

  • Highest possible score is 1 or 100%

    Development Regions

  • HDI scores divide world into 2 developed regions and 7 developing regions

  • N America and Europe are the 2 developed regions

  • 7 developing are:

    • Latin America, .76 most are high

    • E Asia, .75 China is high

    • S Asia, .64 most medium

    • SE Asia, .69 most medium

    • C Asia, .72 most medium, but wide variation between high (Iran) and low (Afghanistan)

    • SW Asia & N Africa, .7 medium, but wide variation Saudi Arabia (high) and Yemen (low)

    • Sub-S Africa, .54 most low

  • Sub-s Africa and S Asia have the lowest scores

  • some distinctive areas: Japan and South Korea; South Pacific is a mix; Russia in between

10.1.2 A Decent Standard of Living

    Income

  • UN measures the standard of living through index called Annual gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity

  • GNI is output of goods and services produced in a country each year, including money that leaves and enters

  • PPP is an adjustment to GNI to account for difference among countries in the cost of goods

  • ex. country A resident has the same income country B resident but must pay more for a Starbucks coffee, the resident of country B is better off

  • GNI/total population=average individual contribution toward generating a country’s wealth

    • ex. US GNI in 2018 was $22 trilion/330 million= GNI per capita abt $60,000

  • per capita GNI was approx $44,000 in dd to $12,000 in dv

  • GDP is output of goods and services, but not money that enters/leaves

  • per capita GNI doesn’t perfectly measure level of development, but it shows average wealth

  • Dv and dd countries each have around half the world’s total GNI

    Economic Structure

  • the share of GNI accounted by the primary sector has decreased in dv countries but it remains higher than in dd

  • share of GNI from the secondary sector has decreased in dd countries and is now less than in dv

  • from the tertiary sector is relatively high in dd and is now growing in dv

    Productivity

  • dd is more productive than dv

  • World Bank measures productivity by: total GDP/number of persons employed

  • GDP per employee exceeds 100,000 in N America and Europe, while sub-S Africa is at 10,000

10.1.3 Access to Knowledge

  • UN considers years of schooling to be most critical to have access to knowledge

    HDI Education Measures

  • UN combines two measures of years in schooling

    • Years of schooling for today’s adults:

      • # of years the average person 25+ spent in school

      • average of 12.2 in dd and 7.3 in dv

    • Expected years of schooling for today’s youth:

      • predicts an average 5-year-old in dd will have 16.4 yrs

      • in dv, average of 10.1 years

    Other Education Indicators

  • Pupil/teacher ratio: the fewer pupils a teacher has, the more likely each will receive effective instruction

  • literacy rare

  • higher % of GNI may be spent on education in dv, but still less is spent on education than dd

  • most books are published in dd, so students have to learn a lot in there non-native language

10.1.4 Health & Welfare

  • a goal of development is to provide nutrition and medical services needed for long and healthy lives

    A Long & Healthy Life

  • UN selected life expectancy at birth (average # of years a newborn can expect to live at current mortality rates) to be the contributor to the HDI

  • ex. a baby born in 2018 would be expected to live to 72 world wide, 80 in dd, and 61 in sub-S

  • dd have a higher percentage of older people who have retired and received public support, and a lower percentage of children under 15 who are too young to work and must be supported by employed adults

  • # of young ppl is 6 times larger than the # of older ppl in dv

  • #s are almost the same in dd

  • 95% of infants survive in dv, while 99.5% in dd

    Consumer Goods

  • cars provide individuals with access to jobs and services and permit businesses to distribute their products

    • # of motor vehicles per person is approx 580 in dd and 102 in dv

  • Phones enhance interaction with providers of raw materials and customers for goods and services

    • # of cell phones also greater in dd than dv

  • internet facilitates the sharing of information with buyers in suppliers

    • Internet users: 900 in dd to 400 in dv

  • Transportation and communication products are vital to the economies functioning and growth in dd countries

  • in dv, those who have these products are clustered in urban areas, those who don’t, in the countryside

10.2 Where are Inequalities in Development Distributed?

World Trade

  • most countries liked the alternative of international trade during the late 2th to 21st

International Trade Triumphs

  • trade increased more rapidly than wealth

  • other countries succeeded, dv had many raw materials, and there was competition

Shortcomings of Self-Sufficiency

  • rejected bc of:

  • inefficient industries, lack of competitiveness, corruption, and the black market

India under self-sufficiency

  • limited foreign companies from importing and strong control over Indian ones

  • controlled imports by:

  • licenses, import limits, taxes, and nonconvertible currency

  • controlled its own by:

  • permits, subsidies, and government ownership

India under International Trade

  • adopted trade in 1990s

  • dismantled permits, taxes and quotas, and competition

  • increased quality of products

  • GDP increased from $80 to $300 to $1,900

Financing Development

  • dv countries get financial help mainly from direct investment or loans

Foreign Direct Investment

  • FDI has grown rapidly from $172 billion in 2002 to $646 billion in 2016

  • only 1/3 went to dv and 2/3 dd

  • 1/3 of FDIs for dv went to China and 1/3 Singapore, Brazil, Russia, and Mexico

  • major source transnational corps

International Monetary Fund

  • major lenders are IMF and World Bank

  • IMF loans bc of balance-of-payments problems and do not fund specific projects

World Bank

  • funds mey to projects as well as support

  • money is from the sales of bonds to private investors

  • around $40 billion given annually with around:

  • 14% to India, 5% each to CHina, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam

  • World Bank and IMF were made at 1944 UN conference in New Hampshire to promote economic stability after WW2

Microfinance for Development

  • many dv business owners can’t qualify for regular bank loans, so microfinance

  • ex. Grameen Bank specializes in making loans to women, mostly artisans in Bangladesh and has grown to neighboring countries

Structural Adjustment

Loan Debt and Repayment

  • dv borrow money to make new infrastructure to make it more favorable for domestic and foreign businesses

  • World Bank has judged half its projects in Africa to be failures bc:

  • either projects didn’t function as intended bc of faulty engineering, the nations squander or spend the loan on weapons, or new infrastructure doesn’t attract anything

  • debt exceeds annual income in multiple countries and they cant repay

Stimulus or Austerity

  • Stimulus-

    • downturn, govt should spend more money than they collect in taxes

    • they need to stimulate the economy with infrastructure projects

    • once economy recovers, will be more in a position to pay off debts

  • Austerity-

    • govt should sharply reduce taxes so that ppl can revive the economy by spending tax savings

    • cut spending on govt programs

  • In US, stimulus strategy was put in place by Bush and Obama

  • after success of Tea Party candidates in 2010, more attention to austerity

  • European countries divided, may result in the demise of the euro

  • for dv to apply for debt relief, they must adopt an austerity program

Structural Adjustment Programs

  • Austerity is imposed through policy framework paper that outlines a structural adjustment program

  • reforms include:

  • spending only what it can afford, directing benefits to poor, diverting from military to health and education, investing scarce resources where they have most impact, productive private sector, and reforming the govt

  • critics claim poverty worsens by:

  • cuts in healthy, education, and social services that benefit poor, higher unenployment, loss of jobs, and less support for those most in need

  • some are considering return to self-sufficency

  • IMF and World Bank now are supporting programs to reduce poverty and corruption

Debate It! Return to Self Sufficiency or No?

  • return:

    • trade causes the loss of some home jobs

    • unfair competitors that pay less and protect the environment less

    • not good protection against thefts of patents and intellectual property

  • don’t return:

    • trade generates more economic growth in long run

    • benefits consumers through lower prices