Developmental Economics Flashcards
economic development
Amartya Sen - process of improving individual well being and quality of life, including
higher SOL
better health and ed
alleviating poverty
greater economic freedom
Characteristics of highly developed economies
- high per capita income
- established economic institutions
- advanced capital, infrastructure and productivity
- strong tertiary sector
- stable or declining populations (top heavy dependency ratio)
- low rural-urban migration
characteristics of lowly developed economies
- low per capita income
- reliance on fewer products
- larger primary sector
- poor capital and productivity
- weak economic instutitons
- natural rate of increase in population (bottom heavy dependency ratio)
- high rural-urban migration due to dual economies
why is productivity low in LEDCs?
human and physical capital!
lower levels of education and health means poorer human capital
fewer skills means less capable of producing valuable output
fewer skills also stops the adoption of modern tech that could improve productivity
low savings and investment in capital
how could primary sector dependence limit growth and development?
- low value added sector relative to manufacturing/processing, e.g. Ethiopia exports unprocessed coffee beans which are roasted after export
- unsustainable! non-renewable
- primary commodity price volatility due to price inelastic demand and supply and vulnerability to D and S shocks
- LT decline in TOT - low YED
reason for CA deficit in LEDCs
these are just the reasons for low productivity!
- lack of savings means low investment in capital for manufacturing/processing - unable to produce high-value goods and services, reducing value of exports
- Poor human capital - insufficient spending on education causes low productivity and high unit labour and uncompetitive exports
- lack of the skills necessary for higher skill jobs in higher value added sectors
what is the savings gap and why does it exist in LEDCs?
- high levels of extreme poverty, high MPC and lack of financial instituitons mean very low savings to provide loanable funds for investment projects that will boost prod., incomes and further savings
- creates difference between savings and spending needed for investment, and reliance on overseas borrowing
why is low savings a barrier to development?
- low savings means less loanable funds for business investment in capital/new businesses
- less loanable funds for households to spend - growth through multiplier effect
- households cannot fund education/healthcare for children
reason for high unemployment in LEDCs
- low productivity due to poor human capital (education, skills, health)
- cultural barriers - e.g. women cannot study or work
- rapid population growth due to natural rate of increase - simply not enough jobs being created in formal labour market
- limited govt funds to support vocational training and support enterprise start ups
reason for high inflation in LEDCs
- faster economic growth in some emerging economies - +ve output gap and DP inflation
- volatile ERs, lack of CB to operate monetary policy - they tend to run CA deficits so large depreciation will cause imported inflation - essentials like food, energy and capital
CP inflation due to rising global demand for raw materials
key external sources of finance for LEDCs
- remittance income
- aid
- debt
- inward FDI flows
define export led growth
economic growth achieved through the exploitation of economies of scale, by focusing on exports to reach a wider
market than would be available within the domestic economy
apart from export-led growth, what contributed to the East Asian Tigers’ success?
- nurtured their human capital
- attracted foreign investment
- Their governments intervened to influence the direction of the economies but also encouraged markets to operate effectively
- developing good infrastructure
- all of this fostered macroeconomic and political stability
- balanced growth (internal and external, range of sources,
why is the population structure of LEDCs a challenge for development?
the population has been growing too
fast for education and healthcare services to keep up - key pillars of development
Malthus suggested there would be diminishing returns to labour - as population of a country increases, the average wage would fall, since a larger labour force would be inherently less productive - lower income means lower SOL
idea of an optimum population
might counter by saying people themselves are a resource, but depends on population relative to available resources
explain what the Kuznets curve shows
the relationship between a country’s stage of development and the level of inequality given by gini coefficient
at low levels of development, income is fairly equally distributed with everyone living at a relatively low income level.
as development begins to increase there will be some individuals at the forefront of enterprise and development, and their incomes will rise more rapidly. worsening inequality. No welfare system in place
At a later stage of development, society will
eventually be able to afford to redistribute income through taxation and transfers to protect the poor, so all enjoy benefits of development
why don’t developing countries have welfare systems?
they cannot afford them - people do not make enough income to pay taxes
ineffective collection or corrupt governance
classification according to income
GNI per capita but also GDP and NNI(both per capita)
high income economy - world bank
GNI of 12376 USD and above
low income - world bank
1025
monetary indicators of development
GNI, GDP and NNI per capita, PPP
what is PPP
a way to compare international living standards by using an exchange rate based on the amount of each currency needed to purchase the same basket of goods and services. The exchange rates for 2 countries are at PPP when they have the same purchasing power
non-monetary indicators
life expectancy, infant mortality, expected years of education, etc
composite index
both monetary and non-monetary indicators
HDI
Measurable Economic Welfare
Multidimensional Poverty Index
what does the HDI measure
GNI per capita
education (by expected and mean years of schooling)
healthcare (by life expectancy)
scale of HDI
closer to 1 means higher human development
very high human development - Switzerland at 0.962
low human development - South Sudan at 0.385
why might HDI ranking not match GNI per capita ranking?
GNI is only one of 3 aspects of the HDI so the other 2 might improve or worsen its HDI ranking compared to GNI
e.g. Qatar has higher GNI than HDI possibly due to poor wages and working conditions of immigrant workers
what does MEW measure
adjusts GDP for factors that might improve and reduce living standards
e.g add value of informal production, reduce value of externalities
what does MPI measure
deprivation in terms of the proportion of households lacking requirements for a reasonable standard of living
grouped into the three key
components of the HDI, including school
attainment, child mortality and access to resources like
cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets
how can classifying countries by development be useful?
- different indicators may reveal reasons for differences in living standard - e.g MPI can help to see why people are poor
- governments and itl organisations can target economies in need of help and aid
- world bank - use national income to set a reasonable interest rate on loans
problems with comparing economic growth rates over time
- official real GDP/GNI/NNI may understate true change in output due to changes in the shadow economy
- low literacy levels - people are unable to fill out tax forms correctly or at all
- quantifying value of non-material goods, and services
- non-marketed goods and services - e.g homemakers, subsistence farming, DIY projects
- errors and omissions
- does not consider the nature of growth, e.g. sustainability of very high growth rate
shadow economy
output of goods and services hidden from the authorities for tax evasion purposes or because it is illegal activity, like smuggling
issues with comparing SOL over time (GDP/GNI)
- ignores income inequality - increase in GNI/capita doesnt mean everyone’s income rose
- important to use real GDP to account for inflation
- does not reflect changes in hidden and informal economy
- does not factor in changes in the products made (capital/consumer/demerit), how they are made (externalities) and their quality (same quantity but better quality makes people better off)
- non-material indicators like working conditions, working hours ( output remains constant but working hours fall), pollution, economic freedom and choice (Sen and Todaro)
- changes in defensive expenditure - cleaning environmental damage, policing growing levels of crime - will increase income but clearly not improving SOL
issues with comparing SOL between countries
- cannot do this without converting to GDP per capita PPP, or will exaggerate differences
- differences in the quality of data collected as methods may not be as reliable
- informal economy - prevalent in many LDCs, e.g. subsistence agriculture so GNI is lower than it really is
- important to use PER CAPITA income to account for differences in population size - large population is likely to produce more than small population but output has to be shared among more people so living standards not necessarily higher
- Tastes and needs can be different in different countries - e.g. cold climate requires greater spending on heating than warm countries to enjoy the same standard of living.
- just GNI/GDP doesn’t account for differences in non-material living standards (e.g. Qatar and Nepal)
population structure of developing countries
natural increase in population due to birth exceeding death rate
high dependency ratio (young)
population structure of developed countries
natural rate of decrease of population
high dependency ratio (old)
may experience net immigration due to higher income and SOL prospects
reasons for differences in population structures
education - work
knowledge and availability of birth control
healthcare and sanitation - infant mortality
using children to work
women’s role in society
costs of raising children
income foregone by having children
what is the optimum population
the size of population that maximised GDP per capita given current state of technical knowledge and quantities of factors of production
if population is below optimum, underpopulated
why does GDP per capita rise then fall as population grows
diminishing marginal returns! better utilisation of FOP lead to GDP growth before overpopulation reduces efficiency