Macro 19 - Development Issues Flashcards
Define the term economic growth
Economic growth is defined as the rate of change of real GDP
What is economic development?
Economic development is the sustainable increase in living standards for a country, typically characterised by increases in life span, education levels, & income
What are the key elements of economic development?
- To increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic life sustaining goods for all in the population
- To raise the standards of living
- Expand the range of economic and social choices
What are the three different measurements of development?
- Human development index (HDI)
- The Inequality-adjusted HDI
- The Multi-Dimensional poverty index
What is the Human development index (HDI)?
The HDI is a composite index of development and includes three elements. Each element has an identical weighting
What are the three elements of the HDI?
- Education (as measured by average and expected years in school)
- Health (as measured by life expectancy)
- Income (as measured by real GNI per capita, using the principle of purchasing power parity, PPP)
The higher the HDI value …
the higher the level of development
What are the advantages of the HDI?
- It is a composite indicator which provides a more useful comparison metric than single indicators do
- It incorporates three of the most important metrics for households
- It is widely used all over the world which provides an opportunity for meaningful comparisons
- It provides a goal for governments to use when developing their policies
- It provides citizens with an understanding of how their quality of life compares to other countries
What are the disadvantages of the HDI?
- The HDI does not take account of inequality. Figures used are mean averages. If income is unevenly distributed, then GNI per capita will be an inaccurate measure of the monetary well - being of people
- The HDI only takes account of the number of years in education on average. There is no account of the quality of education children receive or the inequality in education provision
- The HDI also does not take into account other qualitative factors such as political freedom, gender opportunities and the hidden economy in developing countries
What is the Inequality adjusted HDI (IHDI)?
The IHDI is the HDI adjusted for inequalities in the distribution of achievements in each of the three elements of the HDI (health, education and income)
What is the relationship between the IHDI and the HDI value when there is no inequality?
When there is no inequality the IHDI will be equal to the HDI, but the IHDI will fall below the HDI value as inequality rises
What does the difference between the IHDI and HDI value represent?
The difference in the IHDI and HDI value represents the loss in potential human development due to inequality and can be expressed as a percentage
What is the Multi-dimensional Poverty index (MPI)?
The global MPI is an internationally comparable measure of acute poverty for over 100 developing countries including a range of components
What is meant when a person is declared multi-dimensionally poor?
A person is multi-dimensionally poor if the weighted indicators in which they are deprived add up to at least 33%
What are some of the components of the MPI?
Nutrition, child mortality, access to drinking water and a toilet, access to electricity, years of schooling and children enrolled in school