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Measuring Development

Measuring Development. Ch. 3, Greig et. al. Developmental Statistics. Statistics are always problematic, but are equally necessary . Economy GDP (goods and services produced) GNP (GDP plus income from abroad mainly from property and workers’ remittances)

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Measuring Development

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  1. Measuring Development Ch. 3, Greig et. al.

  2. Developmental Statistics • Statistics are always problematic, but are equally necessary. • Economy • GDP (goods and services produced) • GNP (GDP plus income from abroad mainly from property and workers’ remittances) • GDP or GNI per capita: (GDP/GNP divided by mid year population). • World Development Report (by the World Bank) • Low Income • Lower middle income • Upper middle income • High Income (OECD countries)

  3. GDP and GNP But the GDP or GNI figures do not represent real price levels. What you can buy with US1$ in Switzerland is far less than in Bangladesh or Egypt. The statisticians take into account international differences in relative prices to produce a device called purchasing power parity . • But what about : • Inequality within nations? • A further problem with GNI and GDP per capita is that they principally capture market activity. This means it mainly registers economic activity where money change hands. • What about unpaid labor? • “underground economy”? • Illicit drug trade • Ethical issues (environmental degradation – GDP per capita can place socially destructive activities on the positive side of the financial ledger). P. 34.

  4. Developmental Statistics • Society • Demographics • Population growth rates(lower income nations experienced higher population growth). • Demographic transition: (experienced by industrialized nations: low birth rate, low mortality rate). • Life expectancy p.35 • Education (universal primary school education) • Urbanization • Composite measures of development • HDI (Human Development Index) • Introduced by the UNDP in 1990 • Scale 0-1 • Norway the highest by 0.944 and Sierra Leone the lowest by 0.275 (2001) • High, medium, low • Table 3.1

  5. Units of Analysis • The nation-state as a unit of analysis • Methodological territorialism • In recent decades more holistic focus on global system, although controversial • Nouns to describe poorer countries • Third World, LDCs, etc. (see Box 3.2, p. 42) • The problem with a collective identity • Underemphasizes differences • Heterogeneity of poor countries • The value of a collective identity • Subjective identification • Non-Aligned Movement (‘third force’)

  6. The Language of Development • Labelling has always been a difficult task. • Third World (post-Second World War period) • South or Global South (adopted to overcome problems with the label ‘Third World’) • Cold War’s East-West division is now replaced by a North-South division (rich vs. poor).

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