3.7: development

• development gap

  social and economic disparity between the wealthy and poor which occurs globally (countries) and locally (regions)
• "rich are getting richer whilst the poor are not"
• billionaires got 54% richer during pandemic sparking calls for a wealth tax - number of billionaires gre by 13.4% in 2020
• economic (single) indicators of development

  • GNP
  • GDP
  • GNI
  • income per capita
• GNP (gross national product)

  • economic value of all finished goods and services annually

  strength: compares a country's wealth, considers all economic activity

  limitation: does not express per capita - doesn't take population size into account so does not show who has the income
• GDP (gross domestic product)

  • total value of goods and services within country annually

  strength: considers domestic economic activity - measures change over time

  limitation: does not express per capita
• GNI (gross national income)

  • total amount of money earned by an individual nation annually

  strength: recognises all income - when per capita, gives an average for country

  limitation: does not express per capita
• income per capita

  • mean average income of a group of people

  strength: provides average so allows comparison between countries with different population sizes

  limitation: can't see who has the money - one rich person can skew data
• economic sector balance

  a country/regions economy can be divided into 4 economic sectors whos relative importance changes as a country develops - country's economic sector balance can be used as part of the annual GDP calculation
• price level/ cost of living varies between countries so generates a different quality of life - PPP (purchasing power parity) is a popular way of comparing economic development
• PPP (purchasing power parity)

  • comparison of living costs in a country by looking at what the same amount of money can buy based on specific items

  strength: clear idea on cost of living/QoL in a country compared to others

  limitation: does not take non tradable goods into account
• social (composite) indicators

  • HDI (life expectancy, education, income)
  • GIII
  • environmental quality
• HDI (human development index)

  • measures development through indicators (life expectancy, access to education, income per capita)

  strength: combines social and economic development, few rich people cannot distort life expectancy etc, countries have rank positions for HDI and income

  limitation: hard to understand calculation and only 3 indicators
• life expectancy


  number of years a person is expected to live birth
• access to education


  based on average number of years in school
• income per capita


  measure of wealth from GNI of a country
• GII (gender inequality index)

  • measurement of reproductive health, participation in work force and empowerment (politics)

  strength: reveals disparity between men and women

  limitation: does not mention equality at the workplace
• reproductive health - maternal mortality rate and fertility rate (indicators of womens status in society)
• norway - high GII of 0.067 (2014) - 39.6% of seats in parliament held by women

  pakistan - low GII of 0.536 (2014) - 19.7% of seats is parliament held by women
• environmental quality

  • air pollution data - environmental quality is poor in developing/ emerging economies
  • improves as economic/social development occurs (industrial to post industrial forms of economic activity)
• how is inequality measured

  lorenz curve (gini coefficient) - measures inequality and wealth shared across a population and scores a country from 0 to 100

  
• trends in widening income inequality globally and nationally (measured using gini coefficient) show globalisation has created winners and losers
• how has globalisation created winners for PEOPLE

  • 2016 - 800 billionaires worldwide who made wealth through ownership of global TNCs
  • encouraged western companies (virgin media) to gravitate towards Asia for cheap manufacturing/outsourcing - built benefits for asian countries such as india who have seen improvements in infrastructure, wages, poverty reduction, education etc - higher income as they have gained outsourced and offshored jobs
  • abundance of resources - saudi arabia have physical oil resources which produce lots of wealth through trade
• how has globalisation created LOSERS for PEOPLE

  • isolated rural populations in Asia/sub-saharan Africa where subsistence farming still dominates and few global connections
  • deindustrialisation (job loss due to reduction in industry) - in developed countries which produces social/environmental issues such as dereliction. high unemployment, depopulation etc
  • workers in sweatshop factories in emerging countries suffer exploitation - forced to work in poor conditions for low pay
• how has globalisation created WINNERS ENVIRONMENTALLY

  • large scale global flows of cheap food are good news or european/north american consumer nations
• how has globalisation created LOSERS for the ENVIRONMENT

  • transformation of 40% of earths terrestrial surface into productive agriculture land has led to habitat loss and biodiversity decline
  • negative impacts of large agribusiness operations penetrate deeply into many of worlds poorer regions (east africa)
  • intensive cash cropping, cattle ranching and aquaculture bring damaging environmental effects - ranging from groundwater depeletion to removal of mangrove forests which increase flood risk in coastal areas