3.7 widening development

Question 1

consequences of globalisation on development

Answer 1

globalisation has led to increased development in some countries but has also widened the gap between rich and poor both internally (widening income inequalities within countries) and externally (different countries on a global scale) creating larger area of inequality

Question 2

measuring the gap

Answer 2

1. economic measures
2. social development indicators
3. enviromental quality indices

Question 3

widening gap?

Answer 3

whilst there is a gap between the economic growth rates in diff global regions, widening income inequalities develop within countries too.

Question 4

The Lorenz curve

Answer 4

the Lorenz curve was developed to show and measure any inequlity is graphical form. (it assumes that in an equal world, 10% of population would have 10% of the wealth and so on, this is called the line of perfect equality)

plotting a Lorenz curve shows how much inequality actually exists in a situation. the further way from the line of perfect equality, the greater the inequality will be.

Question 5

gini index and coefficient

Answer 5

the gini index measures the inequality of wealth distribution (the area between the Lorenz curve and a line of perfect equality) expressed as a % of the max area under the line.

lower index= more equal distribution, 0 =perfect equality and higher index= more UNequal distribution

gini coefficient is the same thing as the gini index except it divides it by 100. (between value of 0-1)

advantages!

• arguably + reliable: measures inequality rather than presenting uniform picture of an entire population
• used to compare diff. kinds of inequality within a country: rural vs urban or diff. sections of population
• easy to use to detect trends over time: in ideal world, GI would increase as GDP does, sjowing that population shares in + wealth. if this is not happening, evident wealth is becoming more concentrated in the hands of a few
• inequality above 40/0.4 is frequently assoc. with growing social tensions & political instability

Question 6

Chinas economic and enviro. inequalities

Answer 6

most of China’s growth is based on exporting low-value products and the chinese people have been used as cheap labour so even despite rising wages, many chinese workers are not much better off than they were before industrialistion. East- west divide now exists in China as incomes decline further inland ( or west) you go.

Chongqing is at the heart of economic developments- 30 mill. people now live there. it is one of Chinas dirtiest cities- its filthy air causes thousands of premature deaths- air quality doesnt even reach the governements own safety standards. China may be doing well economically- but is it at the expense of the enviroment?

Question 7

GDP and EPI

Answer 7

scatter graphs show that GDP and EPI (environmental performance index) are linked: generally, the higher the GDP, the higher the EPI. wealthier, more developed countries such as USA and Denmark are scoring higher than poorer countries such as Malawi and Ethiopia. this is due to the privilege developed countries have. developed countries have already undergone their industrialisation progress that enabled their wealth and developedness so now they are able to focus on greener solutions such as planting trees, using renewables etc. developed countries have also outsourced manufacturing and the pollution that comes with it to somewhere else (most likely a developed country and their EPI score will suffer as a result of this)

Question 8

economic measurements

Answer 8

used for global comparison, single indicators include:
- GNI (Gross National Income: value of goods and services earned by a country incl. overseas earnings)
- GDP (same as GNI but excl. foreign earnings)
- Per capita (divided by population size to caculate avergae pp)
- PPP (Purchasing Power Parity: spending power within a country, reflects local cost of living)

Question 9

social development indicators

Answer 9

• HDI (uses 4 indicators: life expt. education (literacy and avg. no of years in education) & GDP per capita)
  devised by UN: linking GDP to education and health shows how far people are benefitting from economic growth. however health and education data tend to lag behind economic data.
• GII (Gender Inequality Index: reproductive health, empowerment, education and employment)
  in no country (regardless of its development) are women equal to men: in LICs arranged marriages and limited education is common, in HICs women do not earn as much as men.

Question 10

environmental quality indices

Answer 10

• air quality indices (calculated by recording air pollutants) most HICs hace the privilege to improve their air quality by outsourcing the problem overseas.
  the way in which it is calculated differs by country so international comparisons are difficult.