Global Trends in Economics

• What is the topic of ECON330 Contemporary Issues in Economic Policy?

  Global trends in economics
• What is sustainability in the context of economic policy?

  Balance between economic growth and environmental preservation
• What is the problem with the definition of property rights in the context of sustainability?

  Externality problem
• What is the concept of "resource optimism"?

  Rise in price of resources leads to substitution by more abundant resource
• How does technical progress affect the use of resources?

  Increases efficiency of resource use
• Who raised the question of sustainability in the context of coal?

  William Stanley Jevons
• What is the trend in life expectancy over the past few centuries?

  Life expectancy has increased
• What is the relationship between human imagination and natural resources?

  Human imagination can substitute natural resources
• What are the factors that explain the demographic transition?

  Falling child mortality, wealth, female emancipation, urbanization
• What is the demographic transition?

  Transition from high mortality and high fertility to low mortality and low fertility
• What is the relationship between birth rates and economic freedom?

  Negative correlation between birth rates and economic freedom
• What is the expected size of the world population by 2100?

  11 billion
• What is the environmental Kuznets curve?

  Relationship between per capita income and environmental degradation
• What is the trend in extreme poverty over the last 30 years?

  Decrease in extreme poverty
• What is the effect of population growth on urban areas?

  Land, water, and fuelwood shortages, urban health crisis
• What is the relationship between fertility and poverty?

  High fertility is often blamed for problems attributable to poverty
• How can environmental destruction be reduced?

  Increasing incomes of the poor
• What is the trend in food production?

  Increasing food production
• What is the effect of the industrial revolution on living standards?

  Improved living standards
• What is the Malthusian trap?

  Population growth outstrips resource availability
• What was the impact of the Black Death on population growth?

  Population decline
• How does trade and specialization affect population growth?

  Allows more people to subsist on available resources
• What is the relationship between population growth and economic growth?

  Complex and dependent on various factors
• What is the quasi-Malthusian trap?

  Population growth is limited by resource availability, but not as severely as predicted by Malthus
• How do institutions and policies affect population growth and environmental degradation?

  Can address population growth and environmental degradation through effective policies and institutions
• What improved during the industrial revolution?

  Living standards
• What happened to poverty during the industrial revolution?

  It decreased in severity
• What happened to the gap between the richest and poorest during industrialization?

  It narrowed
• What happened to deaths from infectious diseases during the industrial revolution?

  They fell steadily
• Why is it difficult to determine what constitutes a forest?

  Because there is a gradual transition from dense rainforest to savanna to bush steppe
• What is happening to the world population from 2040/50?

  It will start to decrease
• What is the estimated annual tropical forest loss according to President Carter's environment report, Global 2000?

  2.3-4.8%
• What is global greening, and what is causing it to happen faster in recent years?

  Global greening is the increase in forest area, and it is happening faster due to the increase in CO2
• Why is biodiversity important?

  Because it provides many benefits, including a source of medicine and genetic diversity for crops
• What percentage of all species that have ever existed are now extinct?

  More than 95%
• What are the six most important forms of air pollution?

  Particles, sulfur dioxide, ozone, lead, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide
• How has air pollution changed over time?

  It is an old phenomenon that has been getting better and better
• What is the main cause of oil pollution in the oceans?

  Routine oil pollution from tankers using seawater as ballast
• What is the Environmental Kuznets Curve?

  A concept that describes the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution
• What is the conclusion about the costs associated with curing urban ills caused by congestion?

  They will increase faster than the increase of population