APEC 460/660            Spring 2006                   Kilkenny

Week 2 Study Questions (likely to be on the exams)

Note: Item (6) is due electronically by 8am on Wednesday, Feb 15.  FOR CREDIT. We will look at everyone’s data in class that day.

What happens where, and why?

1)      What are the GNI/cap distinctions between LICs, LMCs, and UMCs?

2)      What is an NIC? 

3)      What is the difference between a “severely indebted country” and a “moderately indebted country? (HINT: use this WOLRD BANK website)

4)      What sectors are classified as “primary”, which are “secondary” and which are “tertiary”?

5)      What is the difference between GDP/capita and GNI/capita? (e.g. T&S Table 2.4)   Why is this difference relevant?

6)      COMPARE the data on six countries to USA using the CIA’s World Fact Book,.  (Hint: make a table using EXCEL or some other spreadsheet)

a.                       Pick one LDC country in each region (EAP, ECA, LAC, MNA, SA, and SSA) (e.g., look at T&S Table 2.1)

b.  for each of the six countries YOU PICKED, plus the USA, list:

i.               arable land area (in sq. km)

ii.              population

iii.            birth rate

iv.            infant mortality rate

v.             life expectancy at birth (total population)

vi.            HIV prevalence rate

vii.          Literacy rate

viii.         GDP (purchasing power parity)

ix.            GDP real growth rate

x.             GDP per capita

xi.            GDP composition by sector (ag, industy, services )

xii.          Labor Force – by occupation (Employment shares by major sector)  (eg T&S Table 2.3)

xiii.         Unemployment rate

xiv.        Population below poverty line (%)

xv.          Household income or consumption by percentage share: ratio of lowest 10% to highest 10% (e.g. T&S Table 2.6)

xvi.        Investment (gross, % of GDP)

xvii.       Public Debt (% of GDP)

xviii.     Current Account Balance

xix.        External Debt

c.  Rank the seven countries from “best to worst” on each measure.  (Use the commands “data/sort/…” in your completed spreadsheet.)  Discuss.

d.  Using your knowledge of the theories of Comparative Advantage and the Product Cycle, RANK these seven countries in terms of: arable land: labor abundance.  Then, rank them in terms of their shares of GDP in agriculture.  Do these two rankings correlate?  Why/why not?

e.  Rank the seven countries in terms of External Debt.  Which country owes the largest debt to the rest of the world?  Now rank them in terms of (external debt/GDP).  Which country owes the largest share of its annual GDP?

7) Recall the “three foundations stones” of why the mix of sectoral economic activity and income per capita differs across countries:

  1. imperfect mobility of factors
  2. imperfect divisibility
  3. imperfect mobility of goods

Pick just ONE of the six LDCs you chose for question (6) and try to explain how any or all of those 3 foundation stones help explain why it is an LDC, and not a HIC like the USA.