Economic world - general

Question 1

What is quality of life?

Answer 1

This is the individual’s perception of their position in life in context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals

Question 2

What is development?

Answer 2

This is a description of how far a country has grown economically and technologically and the quality of life people have.

Question 3

Give one way of classifying countries economically.

Answer 3

Low income country (LIC) - countries that have a GN per capita of $1045 or less according to the World Bank. These include poorer countries that depend on primary jobs like farming and mining.
High income countries (HIC) - a country that has a GNI per capita of $12 735 or above. They are more dependent on service and high technology jobs.
Newly Emerging Economies (NEEs) - a country with an intermediate level of income. GNI between $1046 and $12735. They are more dependent on manufacturing industries.

Question 4

What are the two types of measures that can be used to figure out a country’s development?

Answer 4

• Social - relating to the development of the people and the place
• Economic - relating to the finances and wealth of the place

Question 5

Definition of GNI (gross National income)

Answer 5

Total income earned by citizens and residents and includes money received from sources outside a country - its a measure of the country’s wealth

Question 6

GNI per head

Answer 6

the GNI divided by the population of that country. It is also normally given in US$ and is sometimes called GNI per capita.

Question 7

GDP

Answer 7

A part of GNI - this is the total value of goods and services a country produces within a year.

Question 8

Birth rate

Answer 8

The number of live births per thousand of the population every year

Question 9

What do we often find with the birth rates in HICs and LICs?

Answer 9

LICs tend to have higher birth rates and HICs tend to have lower birth rates. This is because of the high replacement rates to compensate for high infant mortality, poorer access to family planning and contraception, and a tradition for large family size to supplement a larger workforce.

Question 10

Death rate

Answer 10

The number of deaths per 1000 of the population.

Question 11

How useful is the death rate measure of development? What would be better to look at than death rate?

Answer 11

Not very useful as they are starting to fall due to imported medicines and technology in many poorer countries. It would be better to look at the cause of death, as HICs would have more wealth and age-related illnesses.

Question 12

Infant mortality rate

Answer 12

The number of babies who die under 1 years old, per thousands of babies born.

Question 13

People per doctor

Answer 13

how many people there are for every doctor in a country or place. Good measurement of the availability of training and recruitment of doctors and the knock on effect on the well being of people.

Question 14

Literacy rate

Answer 14

What percentage of the country is able to read and write as adults.

Question 15

Access to safe water

Answer 15

what percentage of people have access to safe and sanitary water that is free from bacteria and parasites. It is a social measure.

Question 16

Life expectancy

Answer 16

the average age that a person can expect to live to

Question 17

How is life expectancy useful?

Answer 17

It gives and overall indicator of how good food security, water quality, shelter and medical care are in a country.

Question 18

Human development index (HDI)

Answer 18

This is a number that is calculated using life expectancy, education level and income per head. Every country has a HDI value between 0 (least developed) and 1 (most developed). This is by far the best development indicator to be used on its own

Question 19

__________ indicators can be ___________ when used on their own. Why?

Answer 19

Individual; misleading; because as a country develops, some aspects develop before others, so it might seem that a country is more developed than it actually is.

Question 20

What is the global development gap?

Answer 20

The difference in development between more and less developed countries is called the global development gap.

Question 21

Limitations of GNI per capita?

Answer 21

• if there is a significant gap between the earning of the rich and the poor, the income of the more wealthy will skew the GNI.
• people may not tell the truth about their earnings
• large scale migration and conflict or natural disasters make it difficult to accurately record population and earnings in one place.

Question 22

Limitations of birth rate?

Answer 22

Birth rates can be changed by government policies, this doesn’t always mean that a country is developed.

Question 23

Limitations of death rate?

Answer 23

Not very useful as they are starting to fall due to imported medicines and technology in many poorer countries. It would be better to look at the cause of death, as HICs would have more wealth and age-related illnesses.

Question 24

Limitations of HDI?

Answer 24

• does not consider measurements of the natural environment, which is also important for the long term sustainable development
• it also omits measures of human rights (e.g: gender equality)

Question 25

Limitations of infant mortality rate?

Answer 25

Not all births are recorded in poor countries. Also, the deaths of children are not always recorded.

Question 26

Limitations of life expectancy?

Answer 26

Where infant mortality is high, the life expectancy for those people who survive childhood is much higher than the mean life expectancy suggests.

Question 27

Limitations of people per doctor?

Answer 27

In some rural areas in NEEs, people use their mobile phones to get medical advice, which is not included in official data.

Question 28

Limitations of literacy rate?

Answer 28

conducting surveys in war zones or areas of natural disaster can be difficult.

Question 29

Limitations of access to safe water

Answer 29

Water quality can change rapidly as a result of flooding. As water becomes more expensive in cities, less wealthy people may be forced to use unsafe water.

Question 30

General limitations?

Answer 30

- Leads to generalisations - may be out-of-date - can be inaccurate - only takes formal economy into account, ignores informal economy

Question 31

What is the Brandt line?

Answer 31

This is the line that is used to divide the planet into the rich north and the poor south. However, the world has changed a lot in the past 20 years, and the brandt line is now too simplistic. For example, China and India are no longer seen as poor countries

Question 32

What is the demographic transition model (DTM)?

Answer 32

A model showing how populations should change over time in terms of their birth rate, death rates and total population size.

Question 33

Describe the characteristics of stage 1 of the demographic transition model.

Answer 33

- birth and death rates are very high largely due to poor healthcare provision, a lack of contraception and the need for large families as infant mortality rates are very high. - little economic development + population size remains fairly constant.

Question 34

Describe the characteristics of stage 2 of the DTM.

Answer 34

- death rates are falling due to global approaches to tackling malnutrition and disease - birth rates remain high due to high infant mortality rates - infant mortality is still high and children are needed to earn money working - infant mortality may also decrease due to improved healthcare leading to less still births and improved health of mothers.

Question 35

Describe the characteristics of stage 3 of the DTM?

Answer 35

- birth rates are rapidly declining as fewer people live a subsistence lifestyle (growing their food to survive) - contraception is available due to advances in healthcare

Question 36

Describe the characteristics of stage 4 of the DTM?

Answer 36

- improvements in healthcare and lifestyle lead to low death rates - more female rights means that women have careers and have fewer children

Question 37

Give some examples of the development gap.

Answer 37

- the world's richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people. - almost half of humanity is living on less than $5.50 per day - everyday 10,000 people die because of the lack of access to unaffordable healthcare - men own 50% more of the world's wealth than women, and the 22 richest men have more wealth than all the women in Africa

Question 38

What are the physical cause of uneven development?

Answer 38

- climate = for farming: low temps allow a wider variety of crops to grow and livestock farming to take place. in contrast, extreme temperatures are more difficult areas to develop - natural resources = found in certain places such as fertile soils and coal or oil. More development in areas with more natural resources - location = provides access to other areas for trade around the world - natural hazards = may occasionally slow rates of development - being landlocked by bad neighbours - regular conflict/ huge payments, this can severely limit development.

Question 39

What are the economic causes of uneven development?

Answer 39

- Trading - not all countries have the resources for trading e.g: reduced ability to make products. It can also be unfair, with richer countries gaining and poorer countries losing in trade agreements - Foreign direct investment (FDI) - helps countries because businesses from other countries spend money building factories and bringing machinery and new ideas. - spending on education and health - improves the skills and abilities of workforces, helping businesses to be more efficient and make more money.

Question 40

What are the historical causes of development?

Answer 40

- colonial expansion by European countries led to many of the poorer parts of the world being politically controlled and economically dominated by the European countries

Question 41

What are the consequences of uneven development?

Answer 41

- Disparities in wealth = 13% of the world's population live on less than US$ 1.90 per day Many people in LICs or NEEs are stuck in a cycle of poverty, which is difficult to break out of without an input of money. - Disparities in health - 9% of the world's population lack access to clean safe water, and about 32% do not have good access to sanitation, leading to higher incidences of disease and lower life expectancies - Migration - people may move to find better economic opportunities, other move to flee dangerous situations.