Measuring Development Flashcards
define ‘real GDP per capita’
per head value of goods and services produced by people of a country over a given year
Lucas (1988)
income growth has to be key instrument to achieve higher well-being, otherwise need to reach poor through taxation and redistribution which is politically more difficult
what is the exchange rate method
exchanging local currencies for a benchmark currency to allow for comparisons
problems with exchange rate method
1) market exchange rates determined by demand and supply of currencies in financial exchange markets
- affected by range of factors such as macroeconomic fundamentals, inflation, interest rate differentials and trade
2) prices for goods may not be appropriately reflected in exchange rates
- non-traded goods (services) don’t affect exchange rate as exchange rate depends only on commodities that cross international borders
- in poor countries, non-traded goods likely to be cheaper
- large proportion of earnings generate for self-consumption so missed in GPD figures
purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rate between two currencies is…
rate at which both currencies buy same quantity of goods and services in each country
advantages of PPP
- more stable as not affected by volatile market rates
- takes account of non-traded goods
disadvantages of PPP
- hard to measure
- limited data available or lack of resources to send data
- infrequent price comparisons as they’re only every 5 years
- not all countries included
what does HDI measure
health
- life expectancy at birth
education
- mean number of years in education adults over 25 have received AND number of expected years of education children attending school can expect
standard of living
- GNI per capita
what is GNP
GDP + net factor income from abroad
what is GNI
GNP - (depreciation + indirect business tax)
characteristics of countries with high human development
- scores > 0.788
- GNI $40,000 per capita or more
- 13 years education
- 80+ life expectancy
characteristics of countries with low human development
- scores < 0.48
- GNI of $1000 per capita or less
- 10 years or less of education
- life expectancy in 60s
advantages of HDI
- simple
- understood by public press so has political power
- general correlation between economic and social development but one doesn’t mean the other
- concerned with human welfare
disadvantages of HDI
- health, education and living standard all in one index
- still only provides limited indication of social development
- only health and education covered
- other ways to measure health and education
- poor data
- limited data from certain countries
- measurement errors in variables included
- adds little to GDP figures
- HDI can disguise lack of social development
Streeten (1994) HDI advantage
stronger impact on the mind and draw public attention