Deck 2: Comparative Economic Development  

Question 1

Which of the following is not an upper middle-income country?

A)Brazil
B)South Africa
C)Pakistan
D)Argentina

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Are living standards in developed and developing countries converging? Give evidence to support your answer.

Answer 2

Cultural factors effect the development and amount of emphasis put on education, institutions, and how effective civil society is.An important part of the answer should be how the role of culture has not been clearly established due to its complexity.

Question 3

A newly industrialized country is

A)the same as a high income country.
B)any country that has experienced sustained growth in industry.
C)a special classification given to some upper-middle income countries that have achieved relatively advanced manufacturing sectors.
D)any country that has moved out of lower income status.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

In what way does nationalism tend to be a hindering force in attaining modern economic growth and development, and in what way a facilitating force?

Question 5

An example of an upper-middle income country is

A)India.
B)Brazil.
C)Indonesia.
D)Nigeria.

Question 6

Explain how low levels of living can turn into a vicious cycle in developing countries.

Question 7

The 2006 Human Development Report reported that the HDI of South Africa was 0.653 (and its rank was 121) and that of the Peru was 0.767 (and its rank was 82).South Africa's per capita income
(in PPP dollars) was 11,192 and that of Peru was 5,678.Comment and explain.

Question 8

What are the three main indicators that make up the Human Development Index?

Question 9

What are some of the main ways in which the economies of developing countries differ from one another?

Question 10

Carefully explain some of the similar problems faced by otherwise diverse countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Question 11

Why might the use of more advanced technology not be a sufficient condition for sustained economic growth?

Question 12

What are remittances and what role do they in developing countries? How could this potentially benefit an economy?

Question 13

What are the major differences between the new HDI and the original HDI?

Question 14

Explain why purchasing power parity measures of income levels tend to show a smaller difference between poor and rich countries.

Question 15

If countries are first ranked by level of real GDP per capita, and then by the value of the Human Development Index, would you expect the ranking of countries to be similar or different? Explain.

Question 16

In what way(s) do the development paths chosen by Pakistan and Bangladesh differ? What are the main factors that have contributed to these differing paths?

Question 17

What are the three major components of economic growth?

Question 18

Explain the lingering effects of colonialism and how it is still playing a role in hindering economic development in the developing world.

Question 19

Comment on the following statement: The level and growth rate of real GDP per capita can be a misleading indicator of development.At the same time, countries that experience sustained increases in real GDP per capita over time will tend to be more developed.

Question 20

How is poverty measured? What is the extent of poverty in the developing world?

Question 21

Most successful examples of modern economic growth have occurred in a country with

A)a temperate-zone climate.
B)a market economy.
C)exports of manufactured goods.
D)all of the above.

Question 22

Neutral technological progress occurs when

A)higher output levels are achieved with the same quantity and combinations of factor inputs.
B)higher output levels are achieved by more capital intensive methods.
D)higher output levels are achieved by more labor intensive methods.
E)higher output levels are achieved.

Question 23

About how many people lack access to safe water?

A)20 million
B)200 million
C)500 million
D)1 billion
E)2 billion

Question 24

What percent of the world's nations have at least five significant ethnic populations?

A)0-10
B)10-20
C)20-30
D)30-40
E)over 40

Question 25

About how many people lack access to basic sanitation?

A)20 million
B)200 million
C)500 million
D)1 billion
E)2 billion

Question 26

One of the components of the human development index is

A)the percentage of the population who are high school graduates.
B)the average daily intake of protein.
C)life expectancy at birth.
D)the number of doctors per hundred people in the population.

Question 27

Which of the following is not an indicator that is used by the World Bank in measuring the level of economic development?

A)life expectancy at birth.
B)adult literacy rate.
C)infant mortality rate.
D)all of the above are not used by the World Bank.

Question 28

The number of units of developing country currency required to purchase a basket of goods and services in a developing country that costs one dollar in the U.S.is given by

A)GNP price deflator.
B)Human Development Index ranking.
C)purchasing power parity.
D)the exchange rate.

Question 29

Which region in the world has the lowest GNI per capita based on the World Bank Atlas method?

A)Sub-Saharan Africa
B)East Asia/Pacific
C)South Asia
D)Latin America/The Caribbean

Question 30

How many people still live on less than the equivalent of $1.25 per day (new definition of "extreme poverty")?

A)100 million.
B)500 million.
C)1.4 billion.
D)2.2 billion.

Question 31

Which of the following is a low-income country?

A)Mexico
B)Thailand
C)Turkey
D)Bangladesh

Question 32

Which of the following is not an indicator that is used to compute the Human Development Index?

A)life expectancy at birth.
B)real GDP per capita.
C)infant mortality rate.
D)adult literacy rate.

Question 33

The combined GDP of developing countries constitutes approximately

A)5 percent of global GDP.
B)20 percent of global GDP.
C)30 percent of global GDP.
D)40 percent of global GDP.

Question 34

Developing countries are starting to converge with developed countries in the long run in what respect?

A)Growth rate
B)Income inequality
C)Population
D)Per capita income

Question 35

The dependency burden is

A)a measure of the degree to which the less developed countries are dependent on the rich industrial countries.
B)the average number of children that a woman gives birth to during her lifetime.
C)the number of babies born per 1000 persons.
D)the percent of the population that is below 15 and above 65 years of age.

Question 36

Which measure uses a common set of international prices for all goods and services produced?

A)purchasing power parity income levels
B)GNP price deflators
C)foreign exchange rate conversions to U.S.dollars
D)the exchange rate

Question 37

About how many malnourished children under age five are there in the developing world?

A)20 million
B)150 million
C)500 million
D)1 billion
E)2 billion

Question 38

What fraction of developing countries have recently experienced some form of significant interethnic conflict?

A)less than one-tenth
B)a tenth to one-quarter
C)one quarter to one half
D)over one half

Question 39

Which of the following African countries has experienced widespread death and destruction due to ethnic or clan based conflict in the previous decade?

A)Rwanda
B)Sudan
C)Somalia
D)all of the above

Question 40

Conditions of today's developed countries at the start of their industrialization differ from conditions in the developing world in that

A)population growth rates were higher.
B)more advanced technology was available.
C)there were more opportunities for development assistance.
D)none of the above.