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economic Essay

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Globalisation - Economic Growth and Development and development indicators.

“Outline the differences between economic growth and economic development. Discuss how economic development may be measured. Outline how globalisation may impact upon a nation’s development. Where appropriate make reference to a relevant case study.”
Although economic growth and development are similar in meaning, they have some essential differences. Economic growth refers to the increasing ability of a nation to produce more goods and services. Economic development basically implies that individuals of that nation will be better off and takes into account changes in economic and social structures that will reduce or eliminate poverty. Economic development …show more content…

Various indicators have been developed to compensate for the limitations of economic growth measurements. Rather than just measuring the economic living standards in a country, development indicators measure the welfare of individuals in that country. The main development indicator used is the Human Development Index (HDI). It was devised by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to measure the economic achievements of a nation in combining economic growth as well as social welfare. The HDI takes into account three major factors:

Life expectancy at birth: High levels of longevity are critical for a country’s economic and social well being.
Levels of educational attainment: The HDI measures adult literacy and the ratio of people in primary, secondary and tertiary education.
Gross Domestic Product per capita: seen as being a measurement of the ability of people to access goods and services.
The HDI is essentially a score between 0 and 1. A score of 0 would mean no human development has taken place and a score of 1 is the maximum amount of human development. In 2000, the Human Development Report places Canada as the top ranked nation with a HDI of 0.935. Australia was ranked fourth, with a HDI of 0.929 behind Norway and the United States. The lowest ranked nation was Sierra Leone with a HDI of 0.252. When comparing the HDI of certain countries, the GNP per capita should also be considered. A nation with a much higher-ranking HDI than GNP per

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