development gap

Measuring the DG

• the development gap is..
• the social and economic difference or disparity between the wealthy and the poor : both globally, between nations, and within counties ( within cities or local regions or urban rural)
• seen as having 2 factos
• -economic (a growth in wealth)
• -human development (improvement of QOL, standard of living)
• economic wealth
• -Measured as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita = dividing the monetary value of all the goods and services provided in a country by its total population.
• global map in 1981 the brandt line.
• - gross national income and product (GNI) is the gdp plus all the income that the country earns from investment abroad.

Slide 2

• problems with the use of money units to assess development
• X Only useful in countries which have many economic transactions i.e. ‘market economies’ rather than the non-money economy e.g. barter and exchange
• X Hides extremes and uneven distribution of income between regions or socio-economic groupings
• X Not reflective of the local value of money
• X international exchange rates do not necessarily reflect the relative purchasing power of one currency

North n south

• 
• 1981- division between wealthy 'north' and the poorer south.
• problems with this:
• -only considers GDP not literacy rates, employment, life expectancy

Human development

• -Recognising the complex nature of development is why it is often measured in an index which combines a range of data.
• -more accurate than single points EG) GDP
• Human development index
• -gives a country a score between 0 and 1
• - measured by Life expectancy at birth + Literacy rate + Enrolment rate + GDP per capita PPP
• -Enables anomalies to be spotted and identifies where poverty is greatest
• X No measure of human rights or freedom. There was a separate Human Freedom Index in 1991 but has not been done since.
• Norway had the highest with 0.944
• 

other ways

• multidimensional poverty index (MPI). It looks at 10 variables, including access to good cooking fuel, schooling, electricity, nutrition and sanitation. The MPI "is like a high-resolution lens which reveals a vivid spectrum of challenges facing the poorest households
• Gender
• more recent gender related development index shows the inequalities between men and women in terms of life expectancy, education levels and income.
• it is used as one of the five indicators used in the UN development programme annual human development table
• Distrubution
• development data can provide info about the distribution of inequality. no matter what indicator is used to measure global development, there are large differences between and within countries
• factors affecting differences in levels of development
• TABLE ON PAGE 136

Why it is difficult to measure?

• COLLECTING DATA
• Question of accuracy in illiterate areas ( rural / poor / shanty / corrupt / poor world low HDI / low gender equality
• 
• Caption: The development cable

Theories of development

• Rostow
• - some throies are based on the economic development experienced by Western Europe and Northern America.
• - the rostow model argues that a country passes from underdevelopment to development through a series of stages of economic growth
• - in the 60s rostow believed that capital should be transferred from developed countries to developing to assist them
• - nA study of 15 countries mainly in Europe suggested that all countries had the potential to break the cycle of poverty and develop through 5 stages
• -HOWEVER, his theory did not take into account important non- economic factors (EG) high population growth and political changes
• -Predicts too short a timescale between the beginning of growth and becoming self-sustaining
• rostow model -diiagram

more theories

• poverty cycle
• - other theories have focused on under development, using poverty and underdeprivation to explain the inequality between countries.
• - less developed countries are trapped in a poverty cycle because of a lack of capital (money) and low incomes.
• -however this theory cannot account for the rapid economic emergence of countries such as China, India and south Koreea.
• - it also assumes that development takes place in isolation from other countries
• -it does not take into consideration of foreign aid or loans from international banks
• dependency theory
• Frank -Poverty arose out of capitalism
• Absorption into capitalist system sowed seeds of underdevelopment
• Rich world, such as USA developed by control and exploiting the resources of the poor.
• Poor world became dependent on rich by exporting crops rather than producing crops for own food.
• The stronger the links to developed world the more underdeveloped.

more theories

• politics
• core-periphery

more theories

Global players