Please use your homework on the World Bank, HDI and Gini Index.
Answers to be in by Wednesday the 6th of February. Some notes are provided below.
Good luck.
Mr Wickham
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Year 11 Blogspot 5. Development & Poverty
Question: Choose a country and outline why you consider this country to be a developing country. Discuss ways in which the government for this country can reduce poverty.
Please use your homework on the World Bank, HDI and Gini Index.
Answers to be in by Wednesday the 6th of February. Some notes are provided below.
Good luck.
Mr Wickham
Please use your homework on the World Bank, HDI and Gini Index.
Answers to be in by Wednesday the 6th of February. Some notes are provided below.
Good luck.
Mr Wickham
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A developing country is described as: A developing country is a country that has not reached the Western-style standards of democratic governments, free market economies, industrialization, social programs, and human rights guarantees for their citizens."
ReplyDeleteJamaica is an island located on the caribbean sea, composed of 10,990 square kilometers and has a population of 2.8 million people.
Yet, even though Jamaica has good athletes, is the land of the creation of reggae, has a good tourist rate and has the 7th largest harbor of the world, it is considered as a developing country.
Jamaica has a very high crime rate, with in 2005, Jamaica had 1,674 murders for a murder rate of 58 per 100,000 people. Furthermore, Jamaica has a weak justice system, "with little justification provided for obtaining additional funds in terms of achievement of agreed objectives and increased absorptive capacity". Moreover, it's insufficient health and educational resources cause it to be defined as a developing country with a death rate of 6.59 deaths/1,000 population. And a infant mortality rate of 14.30 /1000 deaths in 2012. Jamaica scored 59.9 on the Gini Index, a 88th out of 183 economies according to the World Bank, and a 0.727, which gives the country a rank of 80 out of 187 countries; proving it is a developing country, as it is mostly halfway between each of these and is not lowest, although Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates in the world, especially in the town of Kingston.
A way the Jamaican government can reduce its poverty would be to,for example, raise living standards and providing government with revenue to provide services such as health or education. Another method they could attempt would be to raise taxes so that through progressive tax, the rich pay more than the poor and redistribute money. Or through regressive tax, (not as recommended as there is a higher percentage of poor population in jamaica than rich) where the poor pay a higher percentage of tax, lowered through VAT, although may have negative effects such as discouraging efforts due to high taxation on a low-income earning population. Lastly, the government could take measures such as public distribution schemes for subsides food, cash payments on low-income families, subsidized zero-cost housing and education and minimum wage legislation for low paid workers, in order to foment working and motivation, and thus restoring (or aiming) the economy, and reducing its poverty.
China:
ReplyDeleteChina is a MIC or Middle-Income Country which means that the income of this country is middle compared to others and it is one of 3 groups (Low, Middle, High…) how to define countries income by the World Bank. World Bank like any other bank lends money, but in that case it subsidies the entire countries and is an agency if the United Nations. It subsidies countries that need help so it is likely to take money from HICs and give it to MICs and LICs.
China at the moment is in the Middle Income Trap. It is an economic development situation where a country, which attains a certain income stucks at that level. Usually occurs when developing economies find themselves stuck in the middle with rising wages and declining cost competitiveness.
China considered as a developing country. The average wealth of its citizens does not follow the HIC’s countries average wealth. In per capital terms, Chinese fresh water reserve is 1/3 of the world’s average, ½ of coal consumption and 1/5 of natural gas. In China 150 million people are caught by poverty living on the less than 1$ a day (2010). China developed a lot during the recent years but still not considered as a developed country.
Gini Index for China is 43.8% (2010), GDP: 6 417 $
China divides poverty into 3 groups: income poverty, humanity poverty and knowledge poverty.
To reduce the poverty China used One-child-policy which reduced the poverty not only in China, but in the other parts of the world too. By first 10 years (1980-1990) population has decreased from 542 to 375 millions (167), at the same time the poverty population of the whole world decreased by 98.3 million. In 1990s China’s poverty population decreased by 115 million, and the contributing rate is 122.8%
To reduce poverty there is a little influence of the sustained economic growth, considering the poverty and high GDP per head China, as their GDP per head is far higher than the average. High GDP does not necessarily mean high wages and high standard of living.
Redistribution of Income could help the economy to reduce the poverty, although the average income is 42,452 Yuan per year or 6 814 $ per year (2011), where as in USA it is around 42 979$ (2011). It that situation the redistribution of income can do little looking at the average income.
It could use policies targeted on reducing poverty, but it is an MIC so cannot do that much about it as would, for example, USA. However, it can subsidize goods to reduce the price, encourage businesses to lower the prices inside the country, provide cheap/free housing and education…
China has a policy of speeding up urbanization, because if people move to the urban areas they are more likely to earn more. From the period 1982-2000 206,750,000 people have moved which was 45.8% of the total labour force at this period.
China could develop tertiary sector, because in theory it is a more profitable sector, considering the fact that a lot of labour is in the factories. That could increase the income, probably make it an HIC country and that will reduce the poverty greatly. However, for the tertiary sector people need skilled workers, where as in China as a big number of people are working in the factories may not have these skills and that would lead to unemployment.
Depending on whether a country is developed or developing depends on what the world bank classifies it to be. The World bank splits each country into high,medium or low income. If it is medium or low income the world bank classifies it as a developing country. If it is High income it is classified as a developed country. The world bank plays an important role internationally, One of the things it does is to lend money to developing countries for projects that can help it become more developed. The world bank isn't really a bank but more of an agency of the United Nations. Countries are identified as developing or developed depending on factors which are infant mortality, Rates of population growth, levels of health care and education, infrastructure (roads,water supply,etc), over reliance on exports and productivity in the agricultural sector. A very important part of development for economists is freedom. Amartya Sen believes that development should be seen as a process of expanding freedom.
ReplyDeleteThere are different types of poverty which are absolute and relative. Absolute poverty is when someone is unable to meet their basic needs (food,water,shelter,sanitation,education and health services). Relative poverty is a comparison between the rich and the poor in a society.
Vietnam is a country found in southeast asia which has 90.3 million inhabitants with 331,210 kilometers squared. It has a GDP (gross domestic product) of $137.681 billion. On the Gini index it is classified as 91 and it's HDI is 0.593 (2011) and is considered by the world bank as a Developing country.
Vietnam is a developing country because its life expectancy is high however it's education,HDI (Human development index) and GDP per capita are low. This shows that it is still developing.
Vietnam can reduce poverty by having a sustained economic growth which can increase its GDP. The increase in GDP means that the Government has more revenue to spend on goods and services which increases its Standard of living. However this is not guaranteed since the wealth can be badly distributed and can make the country have more inequality. Another way of reducing Poverty is by redistributing the wealth by Taxing more the rich than the poor and then the government can redistribute some of the wealth to help the poor, However the issue is that if people pay more taxes they get discouraged to work. Also vietnam can reduce poverty by using policies that directly help the poor by subsidizing food, cash payment for poorer families, subsidize education and/or housing and can create a minimum wage legislation for low paid workers.
Peru is a developing country; a county is said to be developing when generally most of the citizens are poor and are mostly agricultural workers for example. But there are many ways in which we can say if a country is developed or developing. Economic development can mean rising living standards and the improved ability to produce more goods and services over time. There is a theory that states that development ina country means their people have freedom, because freedom is seen as an important part of development. It requires not having things such as poverty, lack of economic oprotunities, social deprevation and having basic public services available. These are typical factors that a developing coutry has. Many people living in these countries do not have enough money to meet their baisic needs. If income levels are generally low, then people are most likely to be poor in that area. Development is sometimes seen as rising incomes, but considering the income of a whole country, is not exactly fair because most of the times, in developin countries, a major problem is the distribution of income. A country may have a high income level, but the money may not be distributed well amongst the citizens, so most of the income is for the rich, so makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. For example in Brazil $1.562 trillion per year, but not all of its income is distributed properly, there is a massivesocial inequality, which is also a typical factor of a developing country.However, income can be distributed through taxation. Taxing the rich people more than the poor, this is called pregressive tax, such as income tax.
ReplyDeletePoverty has also its ways of being measured. Poor people are devided into two groups, absolute and relative porverty. Absolute povery is when someone can't meet baisic needs with their income such as an adequate didet, housing, sanitation, access to education and health services. Governments role generally can avoid poverty in a country from this aspect by providing public baisic necessieties such as health care or education. For exaple, you might be better off being a poor person in India, rather than in the USA. This is because the governments and aids and help to the poor is greater and more efficient over in India than in the USA where for example medical care is private, and very expensive, not all the popullation can afford it. The World Bank defines poverty as living on less than US $1.25 per day. Relative pverty involves making comparisons between poor and rich people within a society. Being poor usually means being deprived in many ways, so there ma be high rates of infant mortality rates (death rate during the first year of life of all the children born in a given year), low literacy levels, poor health conditions and lack of job oportunities. To reduce this poverty, another thing that governments do is mantain economic growth. This is also a government aim; over a period of time, an economy needs to be able to provde living standards so that people have more goods, more money and a heigher standards of living. This is most likely to happen if there is a growth of GDP. GDP is what indicates the level of economic growth. It can be Nominal or Reall GDP. When the growth is mantained during a perod of time, it is called sustained economic gorwth. An important aspect of this is that there is investments for future generations. Economic growth could benefit evryone in society and raising living standards and providing the government with revenue to provide public services and so again as baisic services are supplied, the poor people have heigher living standars and a better way of lifestyle, it is a positive vicious circle. I think that Peru has all the factors of poverty that I have mentioned. Lastly, another way in which a government can reduce poverty is by having target measures and trying to reach them. The most common ones are such as public distribution schemes for subsidised food, so there will be food supplies for everyone (no starvation, undernoishment or hunger). Benefits such as payments in forms of subsidies (economic help from the government) to low-income families so they can meet their baisic needs. Subsidies or zero-cost housing or education will make there be a roof for every family, so they will have better living standards, and free education so the adult literacy rate will fall and the younger population will be able to have better opportunities in the future.
ReplyDeleteA developing country is a nation with a low living standard, undeveloped industrial base, and low HDI (Human Development Index) relative to other countries. A developing country therefore will have a relatively low GDP - compared to that of over, more developed countries - and a low standard of living. Poverty and unemployment are usually the main cause of this, and it is for this reason that one of the government's main priorities, among other things, is to reduce poverty and unemployment.
ReplyDeletePoverty (in economic terminology) can be defined as being either absolute or relative. Absolute poverty defines someone as being poor by a particular standard, such as not being able to meet your basic needs, and without comparing the countries' society or economy to any others. A country suffering from absolute poverty may mean its citizens do not have access to food, drinking water or medicine. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than $1.25 a day. Relative poverty however, involves making comparisons between poor and rich people within a society, and may be defined by some countries as living on less than 60% of the average income.
There are various ways that the government can reduce poverty, but there are three main policies which stand out to be able to achieve this.
The first is a basic policy that all governments should hope to achieve: economic growth. Economic growth, or a rise in GDP, will ideally benefit everyone in society, raise living standards and give the government enough revenue to provide health care and public services. However, there is no guarantee that this will happen, as the rich may simply become richer and the inequality in society will be maintained. To encourage economic growth, the government could cut unnecessary regulations, provide taxes and invest in new training schemes.
The government could also very simply redistribute income through income taxes such as progressive tax, where the rich pay more than the poor. Regressive taxes could also be lowered. There is however, criticism, stating that these tax changes may discourage effort.
Finally, the government could take targeted measures to help the poor, and help the poor directly. These measures include public distribution schemes for subsidized food, along with cash payments to low income families, zero-costing housing and education and minimum wage legislation for low paid workers.
The GINI index measures the extent to which the distribution of income among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. 0 represents perfect equality, and 100 perfect inequality. Brazil was reported of having a GINI index of 54.69, meaning that there was rather a lot of disequilibrium and unbalance within the society, as money was not being distributed fairly.
However, Brazil ranks relatively high on the HDI, with a score of 0.717, placing it 85th out of 187 countries. Brazil's HDI has been rising steadily over the years, and has reached a favorable position.
Brazil's rather high ranking on the GINI index and its unfair distribution of wealth and income place it in the 'Developing country' group. This is not only because of its score on the GINI index, but also because of high crime rates, and what used to be a low HDI score. However, Brazil has been rising up the ranks over the past years, and has reached an all time high for its position on the HDI. It is fir this reason that Brazil will very soon turn from a developing country into a developed country.
India:
ReplyDeleteIndia is an extreme case of absolute poverty for a high percentage of the population that lives even under starving conditions. Although in recent years there has been an important GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth that has increased the size of the middle class, there is still a huge problem of absolute poverty for many millions of people, both in urban and rural areas.
There are different ways in which the Indian government can progressively reduce poverty, with the objective of improving adequate diet, proper housing, minimum levels of sanitation, access to education and better health services for the whole population.
Some of these measures can be; to continue to apply policies to sustain the current economic growth. This will provide financial resources to the government to fight extreme poverty. Another measure could be to put in place a redistribution of income through the application of progressive tax policies. This means applying higher taxes to the rich in order to redistribute the wealth across all social classes. Finally, the government can also apply targeted policy measures. These can consist on the creation of infrastructures such as proper roads to link rural and urban areas that apart from benefiting the trade and communications can also provide job opportunities for the most needed parts of the population. One key area of importance is the development of the education system in order to guarantee better prepared future generations of Indians.
Counties are divided into mainly two different social groups, developed countries which are countries that have a good living standard for all habitants, good medical coverage, high education level; and developing countries is a poor country with mostly agricultural workers but that wants to become more advanced socially and economically. Each country is classed accordingly by the World Bank, HDI rank and Gini index.
ReplyDeleteBolivia is situated in South America, bordered by Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. In 2012 the population was evaluated to be 10,389,913 for 1,098,581 Km2. It’s HDI in 2011 was estimated at 0.663 and its Gini index was 58.2. So it is considered to be a developing country.
Poverty can be classed as relative: this is when you can be deprived of good job opportunities, poor education, poor health, high infant birth rates, basically not being able to afford your wants but you still live comfortably; whereas absolute poverty is not being able to meet your basic needs (good diet, fresh accessible water, housing, sanitation and access to health and education services.) 38% of India’s population is poor living with less than 1.25 dollars/day.
Ways that the government can reduce poverty is by cutting down on unnecessary regulations, by providing subsidies or tax incentives; to redistribute the economic growth throughout the country. Income can also be redistributed by raising taxes so that the rich pay more than the poor. They can also have free housing and education and the minimum wage legislation for low paid workers.
To make the economy grow as a whole and target initiatives at the poor: they can collect unpaid tax and wealth taxes and use the proceeds to tackle poverty. The can also seek to improve deprived areas that have no fresh water, school or other basic amenities. Better social security schemes to provide better pensions for those who have accidents or who are old.
This would motivate people to seek jobs, restore the economy to a stable state and therefore reduce poverty.
Well done everyone, some good answers here. Please read each others answers. Here are your marks and comments:
ReplyDeleteMarcos: B
A good answer with lots of discussion but you have tagged on the HDI & World Bank statistics at the end instead of including them at the beginning when you explained why India is considered developing.
Altair: B-
The information was here for an excellent answer, but you failed to clearly organise your answer in terms of the question asked. Could have discussed types of poverty (relative & absolute). Some good discussion about policies at the end, but too many irrelevant statistics such as the 7th largest harbor or crime statistics. All statistics need to be related to the question otherwise they do not score points and can take your answer away from the point of the question.
Sanzhar : A
Some good information here with an attempt to explain all statistics that you have used. Well done.
Felipe: A
Excellent answer with a good clear use of statistics and their application to the question.
Sara: B-
A good attempt, but you tend to be happy to just reproduce your notes rather than apply them to the question. You chose Peru but did not mention the country again after the first line. You did not provide good statistics and failed to provide any HDi or World Bank classifications.
Sam: A
A good answer, but you needed to relate the whole question to your chosen country. You tagged Brazil into your question at the end and you should have tried to introduce it earlier to the discussion for a more relevant answer.
Ibon: C
You need to back up your discussion with statistics from the World Bank, HDI or Gini Index. Not enough detail in why you think its developing. The second part of the question was better with some good solid information about government policies and poverty.
Emeline: B
A good clear answer with good definitions and discussion.