Measuring inequality
Ken Halla posted a link to this article by
Max Fisher suggesting that the Palma ratio might be a better way to measure economic inequality than the familiar Gini Index. Right now the Gini numbers are more universally available, but putting the two measures alongside one another might offer some interesting insights.
There's a link in Fisher's article to a more complete explanation of the Palma index and video presentation as well.
How the world’s countries compare on income inequality (the U.S. ranks below Nigeria)
The way we measure income inequality is changing. After years of relying on a complicated metric called the Gini coefficient, some economists argue that we should adopt the Palma ratio, which measures the gap between the rich and the poor in a society…
The countries that come out looking best include, no surprise, the usual suspects of Northern Europe. Interestingly, Eastern Europe scores quite highly as well, as do some post-Soviet countries in Central Asia. Perhaps that's a legacy of Soviet-era social programs meant to flatten class divides. But it's also a reminder that, while economic equality is great, it's not synonymous with a healthy economy. Some countries are economically equal because everyone is well-off, as in Denmark, and some because most everyone is equally poor…
The United States doesn't come out of this comparison looking great. It's ranked 44th out of 86 countries, well below every other developed society measured. It's one spot below Nigeria… but above Russia and Turkey… countries that have experienced heavy political unrest in recent years…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
The Second Edition of What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools is now available from the publisher
The Fifth Edition of What You Need to Know is also available from the publisher.
Labels: concepts, methodology, theory
Comparative exercise
Because GDP per capita and GDP growth numbers are so easily accessible (
CIA World Factbook, for example), it's tempting to rely on them to make comparisons between countries.
According to
The Economist, the
United Nations Development Programme suggests we look at more than just economics.
UNDP offers a good argument that the
Human Development Index (HDI) does a better job of evaluating and allowing for comparisons.
See if the results your students get when comparing the GDP figures with the HDI figures support the UNDP contentions.
“Rise of South” transforming global power balance, says 2013 Human Development Report
The rise of the South is radically reshaping the world of the 21st century, with developing nations driving economic growth, lifting hundreds of millions of people from poverty, and propelling billions more into a new global middle class, says the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2013 Human Development Report…
This phenomenon goes well beyond the so-called BRICs, middle income countries often represented by Brazil, Russia, India and China, the 2013 Report stresses. The Report shows that more than 40 developing countries have made greater human development gains in recent decades than would have been predicted. These achievements, it says, are largely attributable to sustained investment in education, health care and social programmes, and open engagement with an increasingly interconnected world…
The 2013 Report first identifies more than 40 developing countries with human development gains that significantly outpaced global norms in recent decades. It then looks in greater detail at 18 of those countries, ranging from the biggest high-achievers—beginning with China—to many smaller successful countries in the South, such as Chile, Ghana and Thailand.
While these countries differed greatly in their histories, political systems, economic profiles and development priorities, they share some key characteristics. Most were proactive “developmental states” that sought to take strategic advantage of opportunities offered by world trade. They also invested heavily in human capital through health and education programs and other essential social services…
The forecast suggests that faster educational progress also substantially reduces child mortality, the direct result of improvements in girls’ opportunities for continued education and the well-documented benefits for children of having a well-educated mother…
Educating women through adulthood is the closest thing to a “silver bullet” formula for accelerating human development, the Report’s research shows.
Severe poverty remains a major problem throughout much of the developing world, the Report stresses. An estimated 1.57 billion people, or more than 30 percent of the population of the 104 countries studied for the Report, live in what it terms “multidimensional” poverty…
The Report warns that nonresponsive political structures can prompt civil unrest, especially if economic opportunity does not keep pace with educational advancement… These social tensions are also acutely felt currently in many developed countries, the report notes, where austerity policies and declining growth impose hardships on millions…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
The First Edition of What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools is now available from the publisher
The Fifth Edition of What You Need to Know is now available from the publisher (where shipping is always FREE).
Labels: concepts, economics, methodology, pedagogy
Classic reruns: Potemkin villages
While the reality of their existence is lost in the span of history, I've found the metaphor of Potemkin Villages useful in explaining some of the internal contradictions of Russian government and politics. For example, look at Putin's explanations for why he's reversing some of Medvedev's reforms. And sometimes it's possible to stretch the idea to explain things in other regimes. (A couple of these examples are out of date, but you can come up with your own examples.)
Potemkin "villages"
All five of these things may be trivia, but they were interesting to me. The examples come from the UK, Russia, and China. It is possible that some of these examples will be more than trivia and more substantial than "Potemkin" events in the future. Keep your eyes open for developments.
- Potemkin crisis
- Potemkin reform
- Potemkin Square
- Potemkin Democracy
- Potemkin reform (again)
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
The First Edition of What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools is now available from the publisher
The Fourth Edition of What You Need to Know is available from the publisher (where shipping is always FREE).
Labels: concepts, methodology, Russia, theory
