The New North - Population Shift
Lawrence Smith from UCLA spoke at the RSA tonight about his new book - The New North… in particular a cluster of eight countries he groups together as the NORCS - including Canada, Greeland, the USA, Sweden and Norway - nations he feels may be well placed to benefit from sizeable population shifts in the years ahead. The blurb from his publishers says this:
“In 2050, Northern countries – notably Canada, Russia and Scandinavia – will rise at the expense of southern ones. Patterns of human migration will be dramatically altered – and where we are born will be crucial. But, argues UCLA Professor Laurence Smith, humans are adaptable: and there will be gains as a new world takes shape. In this talk, Laurence Smith explores the four forces that are changing the world – climate change, rising population, globalisation and resource depletion – and attempts to predict how they will shape the world between now and 2050.”
Here are some notes from his talk, I will embed a link to the video from the RSA when it is published in a few days time
read more...»Chinese and Indian Railways - Importance of Infrastructure
Two videos show the stark contrast between rail networks between China and India! Good for understanding a little more about the importance of rail network investment (high speed and conventional) as a platform for economic growth and development.
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An evaluation exercise on development economics
A useful exercise here to force students into writing an evaluation point in an essay on the limits to a country’s growth and development, something I find too many simply ‘forget’ to do when answering essay questions…
read more...»China and Africa - Resources on their relationship
The deepening economic ties between China and the continent of Africa is a hot topic in the globalisation debate and one that has been covered in a two part series on the BBC by Justin Rowlatt. Details here. Episode 1 / Episode 2 More programme information can be found here.
Diane Coyle has a revealing blog post on the subtleties of this relationship in this blog post where she reviews the new book The Dragon’s Gift.
For visual learners this photo archive from the BBC is superb!
Here are some more recent news stories on this topic:
China Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Zimbabwe visit (BBC)
China-Africa trade set to keep on booming in 2011 (BBC)
Poverty and Development: Africa-China relations mutually beneficial (Tutor2u Politics Blog)
Migrants’ Transfers and the Balance of Payments
Transfers of money across national boundaries by migrant workers appears in both the current and capital account of the balance of payments.
read more...»A modern-day ‘green revolution’
The ‘green revolution’ was a massive and fundamental change in development economics, but it’s really ancient history to today’s modern students. So read on to find out about a modern-day revolution in Vietnam’s rice industry…
read more...»Tuesday Talks! African development
My theme for the Tuesday Talk this week centres on the scope and scale of African development. I touched on this briefly at yesterday’s Global Economy conference in my presentation, and have included a link to my slides in this post. One of the economists that I referred to, Professor Thandike Mkandawire spoke at the LSE in April last year - you find his talk here: just scroll down the list load his talk in the viewer.
After listening to his talk, have a go at identifying the main challenges facing African economies in their quest for development. You may also want to take a look at the work of Paul Collier (who is a speaker at many of the LSE public lectures, which you can find in the same place as Thandika Mkandawire’s talk), and Amartya Sen.
In addition, on BBC2 this evening at 9pm, there looks to be an interesting documentary ‘The Chinese are coming’, which focuses on the role of Chinese investment in Africa.
Trade_gaps_of_LDCs_and_development.pptx
Globalisation - Peering into the MIST?
Is Jim O’Neill at it again? A decade or more ago he coined the acronym BRIC for four emerging economies set to reshape the boundaries of power and influence in the global economy. Now he is making frequent reference to another cluster of four countries that together spell MIST. Can students name them?
read more...»Inequality on the rise
As my attention turns towards A2 macroeconomics now that the unit 3 exam is over, I was delighted with the helpfulness of The Economist in providing me with exactly what I needed for my lesson on income inequality. Read on to find out more…
read more...»5 Fresh Links: Reforming the EU Common Agricultural Policy
The economic, environmental and social issues arising from farm support in developed and developing countries often figure in final year teaching for A2 economics. We are looking at this at the moment as part of our teaching of the economics of the EU. Here are five fresh links on the vexed question of how best to reform the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU - including two recent videos from BBC news.
read more...»The Impossible Hamster and Economic Growth
A new year hat tip to Paul Bridges and Carol Cornell at Tiffin School for pointing us towards this short and snappy animation about food happy hamsters and unsustainable growth. There are plenty of other videos linked in and around this you tube video.
Roger Harrabin - Environmental Economics Videos
I am a big fan of the journalistic work of Roger Harrabin at the BBC. Here is a nap hand selection of five recent video pieces on environmental issues focusing on emissions issues and policies in developed and developing countries.
read more...»Environmental Economics: Five Fresh Links
Here are five links to stories and issues connected to environmental economics - we are embarking on a study of this for our A2 microeconomics
read more...»Engineering Approaches to Growing Populations
The rapid growth of the world population is back at the front of the international news agenda with food prices spiking back above their 2008 levels. Roger Harrabin writes here about approaches to adaptation in a world of possible population overload that flow from the ideas of senior engineers. Over the next six decades the world’s population is expected to soar from 6.9 billion to peak at 9.5 billion in 2075 according to this new report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Mega-cities’ of more than 10 million people will rise to 29 by 2025 and the urban population will increase from 3.3billion (2007) to 6.4 billion (2050).
Read: Population Explosion: Can the Planet Cope?
Fantastic Interactive Development Stats Website!
I’m always on the look-out for useful websites that can enliven the statistics behind economic development, and this looks like another very useful one…
read more...»Cuban Economic Reforms - How Far will they Go?
There is plenty of coverage and discussion at the moment of the extent to which Cuba is making a decisive and significant move away from a soviet-style economic model. In a bid to cut government debt, subsidies for many staple foods have been cut and hundreds of thousands of under-employed workers in government-run industries are facing unemployment in the next couple of years. But how far is Cuba prepared to go to make structural changes to their economic system? Here are some background articles:
Is Cuba set for major changes in 2011? (BBC news, January 2011)
Cuba issues plans to expand its private sector (BBC news, September 2010)
Cuba to withdraw cheap cigarettes for elderly (BBC news, September 2010)
Cubans stock up as reforms take toll on ration (Reuters, December 2010)
Cuba bows to pressure to reform its economy (Financial Times, December 2010)
Trees as private and public goods
Nancy Folbre an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst provides in this short article from the New York Times a beautifully clear explanation of the economics of deforestation and the tragedy of the commons. A superb article to print out and use when studying the motives of individuals within society and ideas for how social norms and local institutions really do matter when putting together policies to reduce global deforestation. Read Tree-economics
Is Microfinance is an Effective Tool to Help Eradicate Poverty?
A seasonal hat tip to Anita Hibbert for spotting what looks to be an excellent resource for students and teachers who look at and evaluate microfinance as a strategy for reducing poverty…
read more...»Ghana becomes a producer of crude oil
Could the extraction of crude oil in Ghana be enough on its own to double their growth rate and provide a funding platform for enormous infrastructure spending? That is the optimistic hope of the government on the day that oil started to flow from an oil field that may have upwards of two billion barrels available.
Oil has the potential to provide new riches for a country that has won plaudits for improved governance and macroeconomic stability. The state plans to allocate some of the revenue from the oil to fund extra spending in education, health care, industry, and infrastructure. But there are many risks too - economic, environment, social and political. Especially if the new wealth from black gold in their oceans flows only to a small minority.
Nigeria and Angola are Africa’s largest oil producers - see this background article from Reuters
Here is a selection of news articles on the arrival of Ghana as an oil producer. Oil is an opportunity and a challenge.
read more...»Unsung heroes of the global economy
Just a terrific piece from BBC news reporter Richard Anderson who focuses here on some of the smaller developing nations and their little heralded importance to everyday life around the world. Superb for development economics.
Cutting up cotton subsidies?
It’s that time of year again when we’re looking at different markets in AS Microeconomics, and once more trade-distorting subsidies are back in the news- this time in the cotton markets
read more...»Asia Rising - Thai Car Exports Speeds Up Growth
One of my former students Alastair Leithead reports on the boom in car production in Thailand and the multiplier effects their export-oriented strategy is having on the Thai economy. Ford has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into expanding car manufacturing capacity in Thailand and Boots is a UK retailer that has seen the opportunities for boosting profits from inward investment.
Poor countries or poor people?
A nice article in ‘The Economist’ this week that poses a really good development question.
read more...»Update on Millenium Development Goals progress
With under 5 years to go until the deadline for the Millenium Development Goals to be met, there’s been a lot in the news about the UN’s recent get-together to discuss progress, and by far and away the best analysis I’ve read is this leader article from The Economist.
read more...»Interactive development data source
A useful data resource for Development and International Economics topics
read more...»Update on Millenium Development Goals
Continuing the theme of developing countries and globalisation, a UN Development Programme review of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals convenes in New York tomorrow. The UNDP website says that “The summit is an opportunity to re-energise the global commitment to achieve the eight time-bound goals and agree on a conrete action plan towards meeting the Goals by their target date of 2015. ” It seems that this opportunity to re-energise is much needed; progress towards many of the goals is well behind schedule, and there is only five years left to achieve them, which coincides with government spending cuts around the globe. The Millenium Development Goals progress chart, produced in June, shows that for each of the 8 goals, over half of the indicators show either ” Progress insufficient to reach the target if prevailing trends persist” or “No progress or deterioration.”
read more...»LSE Lecture - Wealth Creation in Developing Countries
Those who are easily able to travel to London may want to apply for tickets to hear Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, speak at the LSE on Tuesday 12th October - the link for further information is here. The lecture will also feature Paul Collier, Professor of Economics at Oxford University and author of The Bottom Billion and The Plundered Planet (as well as speaker at the Tutor2u National Economics Teachers Conference back in June). If London is not easily accessible, lookout for the LSE’s podcast a couple of days later.
Data Mining on Global Poverty
The Guardian website has a database of information on poverty figures here - this might be a good research source for teachers and students of development economics?
Incentives to Give - Make it Personal!
The charity Water Aid has produced some innovative and striking adverts in recent months. I have embedded a selection into this blog. There is strong evidence that making charity appeals deeply personal to potential givers is more effective in raising donations than a broad brush approach about a particular crisis or illness. Dan Ariely has some interesting things to say about this aspect of altrustic behaviour in his recent book The Upside of Irrationality. If a giver can see how a donation can make a difference to a small group or individual they are more likely to make giving part of their default behaviour. So which of these (if any?) make a mark with you?
read more...»Development Economics - new Ted talk
A great TED talk here on development economics in Ethiopia:
Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin outlines her ambitious vision to found the first commodities market in Ethiopia. Her plan would create wealth, minimize risk for farmers and turn the world’s largest recipient of food aid into a regional food basket.
