The Impacts ofTransnational Corporations on Less Developed Countries

Economic development has to occur after a period of sustained economic growth. It is therefore the growth in total economic output accompanied by changes in the structure of the economy.

Economic development can be defined generally as involving an improvement in economic welfare, measured using a variety of indices, such as the Human Development Index (HDI). A developing country is described as a nation with a lower standard of living, underdeveloped industrial base, and a low HDI relative to other countries. There are several factors which may have the effect of limiting economic development in such countries. Factors such as these include: primary product dependency, the savings gap and political instability.

Economic Development: Growth is associated with structural, social change and change in the important institutions of the economy.

Supporters of Transnational Corporations (TNC) say that their operation in “third world” country, also known as a “developing country”, benefits both the home country (where the TNC is based) and the host country (where they operate). TNCs construct facilities, make infrastructure improvements, and employ local people, all activities that should improve the economy of a host nation. Many host nations hope that there will be a multiplier effect from the direct investment by a transnational corporation, known as foreign direct investment, or FDI. That multiplier is expected to ripple across all other sectors of their economy – benefitting everyone.

Development indicators measure different aspects of a countries development. For example, life expectancy gives an idea of how long a person is expected to live in a particular country. The higher the life expectancy, the longer a person is expected to live and therefore you can make conclusions about the countries level of development can such as the country is likely to have good medical provision and public health. However, a high value does not necessarily indicate a high level of development. For example, a low number of people per doctor actually indicates a more developed country as does a low value for birth rate and death rate.

In this day and age, various terms associated with economic development came about as means of measuring the well-being of each individual in the society such as per capita income, gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), unemployment rate, literacy rate, and many more. The emergence of these terminologies is due to the consideration of government planners of each nation to make a step forward to reach economic development. Of course, compromises should be done in order to acquire the advantages brought about by the ideology of progress. But if you will come to think of it, what is the price to achieve them and how much are we willing to pay?

Economic growth, put simply, is “an increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the population over a period of time”; development is inextricably linked with this economic growth. By utilising theories of economic growth and development we can see how the Chinese and Sub-Saharan African economies have emerged, but, more notably, we can use these to look at patterns from past and present to show their experience and the implications of this growth for the future.

Economic development can be defined generally as involving an improvement in economic welfare, measured using a variety of indices, such as the Human Development Index (HDI). A developing country is described as a nation with a lower standard of living, underdeveloped industrial base, and a low HDI relative to other countries. There are several factors which may have the effect of limiting economic development in such countries. Factors such as these include: primary product dependency, the savings gap and political instability.

From the earliest days of civilized society, each generation seeks to advance their lives to be easier, more efficient, or more productive in one way or another. This advancement, this growth, this knowledge increase is also known as development. As societies developed and the concept of money was introduced, personal wealth was seen as the most common way to measure success and prestige. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita measure was introduced to compare living conditions between countries. However, comparing wealth cannot be the only measure of assessing how developed group of people are. In order to understand development, the best social welfare function measures how empowered people are on average to a long life where they have

Development: It is increasing the standard of living by considering economics is the key function. Every theory of development has functions of economics. It plays a vital role in social science. It is widely considered as “committed” i.e., serves an interest especially class interest. Economists have equal important like scientists, because these people concern with important issues like economic growth, employment and development etc., Economic theories of development have own way of History, projections, philosophical bias, practice, language and relations. These properties of theories depend on particular

I will advance the thesis that the Human Development Index (HDI) is a better measure of economic performance than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. By saying that the HDI is a better system to measure economic performance, I mean that because the HDI highlights the trend between longevity, education and economic growth, it calculates a better analysis of an economy (Costa, Steckel 1997, p. 71). In contrast, the GDP per capita only accounts for the gross domestic product without paying any attention to other factors of an economy (Hawthorn, Sen 1997, p. 60). With this being said, my thesis asserts that the HDI is a better measure for economic performance because it considers significant factors that play large roles in an

A lot of American companies have invested large amounts of money in foreign countries in order to obtain lands, natural resources, and cheap labor. With these large sums of money large corporations have indirectly gained a lot of influence in the economy of other countries. Large corporations make a lot of money investing in foreign countries but they also bring jobs and capital to these countries that so desperately need them.

What is a Transnational Corporation and what impacts do they have on society? Before we can discuss the impacts these types of corporations have on society, we must first have a basic knowledge of exactly what a Transnational Corporation is and how they are formed. Then we can begin to comprehend how these corporations’ impact things such as international trade and the effects they have on cultures throughout the world. Let’s begin by defining a Transnational Corporations.

Development is a broad concept that includes social, economic, political and human aspects. Human development consists of the foundation on which the first three aspects .According to Burkey (1993: 38), economic and political development should be translated into social development. As development is a broad concept, it has been extensively explored with a view to realize that economic growth and social development. However, the emphasis moved from industrial and economic development as the factors that determine societal transformations. Economic growth may bring material gain to the people, but development is about enrichment of the lives of the people in the society Edwards (1993:80) this means that development is much more important to a country than economic growth only because when people are not empowered and developed it takes us back to the theory of development which explains that empowerment and

The questions are raised as what and how the wealth is distributed or allocated among societies. Countries with similar average incomes can differ substantially when it comes to people’s quality of life such as social justice, access to education and health care, job opportunities, availability of clean air and safe drinking water, the threat of crime, freedom of speech, life expectancy, birth-death control, identity, culture, conservation, equal opportunities, environmental change. Development is important as it covers a wide range process involving cultural, economic, environmental, political, social and technological change of a country. Regarding goals and means of development, recent United Nations documents emphasize on human development measured by life expectancy, adult literacy, access to all three levels of education as well as people‘s average income which is a necessary condition of their freedom of choice. In other words, human development incorporates all aspects of individuals’ well -being from their health status to their economic and political freedom. The Human Development Report 1996 of UNDP focuses on development as the end and economic growth a