Group items tagged

"At the heart of India's skewered development story lies the paradox between India's phenomenal GDP growth and its abysmal score on human development." And this is exactly what captures the idea of HDI as a composite indicator of economic development. India is the proof that despite enormous economic growth (GDP growth), there has been no economic development. Although HDI has its drawbacks and presents a skewed image of the reality, the educational and health perspective each correctly depicts the Indian situation, making India one of the countries with the least HDI.

This article tells the reader about the problem of too few human organs being are avaiable that could be transplanted. "The shortage of available organs is a global feature of organ transplantation and has been a challenge almost since its inception." Meaning that human organs are extremely rare since they are on demand.

The article talks about the HDI report in Sudan

Ok, this one may be a bit of stretch this week but it flows more into "margin" than "negative externality", but stick with me. What I really like about this article was that it could have focused on the Chinese sweat shops or the lack of parking lot security, which, admittedly, are negative externalities, but it went in depth on the differences between the externalities of Costo's labor force as opposed to Wal-Mart's. You see, people really like Costco because it pays it's workers between $11-19 an hour while Wal-Mart only pays $11-12. Many would like to say this is because Wal-Mart is the child of Satan brought to Earth to annihilate humanity and do battle with the son of God... who is also God... And to that I say, "corporations aren't people", but that's besides the point. Wal-Mart doesn't just do this because they want more money and because Costco is socially conscious, it's because the margins are much different between both companies. You may not think about it, but all that organizing and "everything you need is here" costs a lot more than what twice as customers can suffice. A lot of that low paid wage goes towards menial tasks like waiting at a cash register for a half hour before the rush of customers arrive or going from aisle to aisle putting the cereal back on the correct shelf because you're just too lazy to do it yourself. What we don't realize is that, sometimes, the negative externalities that we see are a product of our own self-entitled sentiment.

The article talks about topic covered already in the title, with some interest to the growth of industry of southern euro-zone countries and exacerbation of German and French production. So obviously, here I can refer to PPF where resources (also human capital) are being used more efficiently; here is the movement inside existing frontier or perhaps even outward shift with improved quantities and qualities of goods (especially capital). Nevertheless, economists still fear the euro-zone might fall in recession again if there are two quarters of consecutive fall (if the economy contracted). The market clearing price of many durable goods can be determined only to some extent, due to the presence of outside disturbance (fiscal and banking crisis - therefore always introducing new policies and bail-out deals). Another thing associated with the previous sentence and the article is the price mechanism (interaction of demand and supply) which allocates resources. Under unstable circumstances which are currently taking place in euro-zone, incomes are plummeting (falling GDP per capita) except for some particular periods of time when the economy meets actual growth, meaning that there is less demand leading to an inverse effect for producers. Normally, producers wish to supply more at higher prices, especially if income of people soars so they buy more of that goods. Therefore, higher prices do not present an incentive for producers to produce more. All the producers want to increase their producer surplus; but the trend is clear - towards maximized community surplus, since producers depend on consumers' utility.

For the past century or so, cigarettes have been an inelastic product. Due to their addictive properties, changes in the price have had a minimal effect on market demand, allowing tobacco companies to rake in boat loads of cash. In the early 1900s, big tobacco hit its peak in sales with the ability to advertise in color and through whole new mediums (newspaper, radio, TV, etc.) It was at this time that the American public and many other nations, although I don't which, started to recognize the dangers of smoking and the government begin creating restrictions. Though cigarrettes now have prices that fluctuate like gas, can't have ads on radio or television, and can't be sold to minors, consumer demand has still remained for them because of how powerful the addictive effects of nicotine are on the human brain. However, now there is an alternative to conventional smoking which replaces deadly secondhand smoke with clean water vapor. E-cigarettes are a trend that is sure to build demand and will cigarettes and cigars as elastic as a rubber band.

Basically, article is about Egypt's endeavor to find foreign investors for financing infrastructure projects and increasing its dwindling foreign currency reserves. Two of the most important terms derived from the week 2 are scarcity and opportunity cost. Turkish investments of $20 bn dollars and 500 mio euros from the EU (depending on Egypt securying the loan from IMF) in Egyptian infrastructure and foreign currency reserves deficit have an opportunity cost of spending that amount of money for other purposes. In this article, Egypt's foreign currency reserves and budget are scarce, so Egypt wants to get money to reduce unemployment rate via economic growth (4.5 %). Here we also have the factor of production - this is capital which comes from investments in physical capital (infrastructure) and in my opinion also human capital (reducing unemployment, improving education and healthcare perhaps ...). One thing that will be crucial for Egypt is the factor of entrepreneurship.

This article for me was the perfect example to show how the human needs have trouble coexisting with the finite amount of resources present. Fred Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings said, "Countries such as China have seen droughts over many years. Now we see other parts of the world facing some water shortages, which is starting to impact the global price of certain goods."In this article it basically states the fact that some areas are running low on water and simply cannot keep up with the growing demand for food. Thus instead of having a balance the price of food increased at an alarming rate.

This article is about the fact that, despite the best efforts of the Indian governments with welfare initiatives, the tribal communities throughout india are still struggling to develop. The HDI indicators within these communities are still poor.

The article talks about the living conditions of Indian people in rural areas. Their living conditions have not improved yet and there is a lot of work to do for the government.

This article talks about the creations in jobs in Nigeria, and how that influenced the initiative for a better future and a better living standard. Also, women are mentioned to having more jobs and more jobs created for them, resulting in a development. Even though this is a big step, there are a lot of sectors that need aid, which do not only include employment.