11. Geography and climate Flashcards
How does Geography differ in its importance for development?
In contrast to institutions, geography is largely exogenous - it cannot be influence by humans/ human activity
What are some examples of exceptions to the rule than Geography cannot be changed?
Panaman and Suez canals
What are the two key aspects of geography?
- Physical geography
- Climate
What can physical geography be broken down into? (4)?
- Location specific physical features
- Geographical position
- Distance to coast/waterways
- Ruggedness
How does physical geography influence development?
It influences transaction (trade) costs, productivity and therefore economic outcomes
How can climate be broken down? (3)
- Temperature
- Agricultural suitability
- Disease environment
How does climate influence development?
Typically influences production costs and therefore influences economic outcomes
What is a key consideration about geography and why does it make it difficult to discern the impacts on development?
- Geography is almost completely time invariants and the local climate only changes very slowly thi smakes it complex disentangling the various channels through which geography and climate influence todays institutions
- Are they poor because of geography today or that geography put them on a different development path in the past
Why does geography’s impact matter?
Because we cannot be sure of policy implications without knowing how things work - how geography and climate effects economic growth
What are two potential geographical obstacles to trade?
- Distance to the coast (access to the sea)
- Ruggedness
Both factors are related to transportation and transaction costs
What is the relationship between the average distance of a country from the sea and GDP per capita?
There is a negative correlation between the average distance of a country from the sea and GDP per capita
Why is access to the sea more important than ever?
Because the world is increasingly globalised and more than 80% of traded goods are transported by sea
Why is access to the sea relevant for population distributions?
This is why we see that population and economic activity of large countries is concentrated in costal areas
How can we test the impact of access to the sea?
By looking at examples of when trade by sea changed massively namely: Market orientated policy reform in China from 1978 and improvements in Sea fearing technology and the discovery of the New world around 1500
How did Atlantic trade impact development in Europe comparitively?
The countries that participated in Atlantic trade urbanised more quickly than non-atlantic traders and Eastern European countries that were trading solely in the Med
How and why does ruggedness impact economic growth in general?
Ruggedness of terrain is thought to deter economic growth:
- Inhospitable
- Hinders trade as costly to traverse
- It’s hard to farm
What has been the impact of ruggedness in Africa and why?
There is an Africa specific positive effect because more rugged areas were less easily accessible to slave traders. The negative effects of the slave trade persist until today and are reflected in lower GDP levels
What is the on average relationship between climate and development?
Hotter countries are much poorer than countries located in temperate regions
On average give a statistic that shows the reduction in development from climate?
National income is reduced by 8.5% when average temperature increases by 1 degree celsius
What did Dell, Jones and Olken (2009) find about the impact of climate?
That temperature alone can explain 23% of the variation in cross-country income today
Why may temperature be an important determinant of economic development?
Changes in temperature immediately affect productivity and income per capita directly. These effects partly explain why hotter countries are poorer
What are some of the indirect channels that temperature may effect development through?
There are studies that have found correlations with
- Higher mortality
- Civil conflict risk
Define the disease environment
Climatic potential for disease transmission
Name some diseases that are harmful to humans that thrive in warm climates?
- Dengue fever
- Typhoid
- Yellow fever
- Malaria
Instead of using number of cases, how do studies commonly measure disease prevelance?
Looking at the malaria ecology. Higher the local suitability for parasite and mosquito development
What is the relationship between malaria environemnt and GDP per capita?
There is a strong negative relationship between the malaria environment and GDP per capita
What are the mechanisms that the disease environment can influence GDP per capita?
- Direct contemporaneous effects
- Indirect, history related effects
What are some of the Direct contemporaneous effects?
- Mortality and morbidity
- Investment in human capital
- Fertility
What are some of the indirect effects?
Institutional development
What are the direct effects of malaria?
- Productivty is reduced, Malaria largely impacts children which lowers human capital and therefore productivity later
- Fertility (if they think children may die, the fertility transition will be slower)
What is the fertility transition?
Parents favour quality over quantity children
What are the indirect effects of malaria?
The disease environment influenced settler mortality therefore it is likely to have an effect on institutional quality today
What is the Sachs vs Acemoglu et al debate?
Acemolgu - institutions most important reason they are poor
Sachs - Malaria in Africa is not just a consequence of poverty but also a cause
What are the policy implications of the Sachs and Acemoglu debate?
Sachs: the catchup of regions with high malaria suitability is very likely
Acemoglu et al: No or minimal effect of eradication on economic development
