Chapter 2

Comparative
Economic
Development
 2.2 Basic Indicators of Development: Real
Income, Health, and Education

• Gross National Income (GNI)

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• PPP method instead of exchange rates as
conversion factors (see Figure 2.2)

Malaysia
• GDP/ capita (2021): USD 11,371.10
• Expected to reach High-Income status by 2024

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 UNDP Classification

• Based on Human Development Index (HDI)

• Includes parameters beyond income (health and

education attainment)

• Low – Medium – High – Very High

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 UN Classification of LDCs

• 49 countries (34 Africa, 9 Asia, 5 Asia Pacific

Islands+Haiti)

• Criteria
– Low income
– Low human capital
– High economic vulnerability

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 2.1 Defining the Developing World

• World Bank - ranks countries on GNP/ capita basis:

– LICs – Lower Income Countries (<$1,035)

– LMCs – Lower Middle-Income Countries ($1,036 - $4,045)

– UMCs – Upper Middle-Income Countries ($4046 -

$12,535) includes NICs

– OECDs – High Income (OECD) Countries (>$12,536)

• Which category does Malaysia belong to?

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 Figure 2.1 Nations of the World,
Classified by GNI Per Capita

Source: Data from Atlas of Global Development, 4th ed., pp. 16-17: World Bank and Collins. 2013. ATLAS OF GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT: A VISUAL GUIDE TO THE WORLD’S GREATEST CHALLENGES, FOURTH
EDITION. Washington, DC and Glasgow: World Bank and Collins. doi: 10.1596/978-0-8213-9757-2. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0

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 Figure 2.2 Income Per Capita in Selected
Countries, 2011

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 2.3 Holistic Measures of Living Levels
and Capabilities

• Health
• Life Expectancy
• Education
• HDI as a holistic measure of living levels
• HDI can be calculated for groups and regions in a country
– HDI varies among groups within countries
– HDI varies across regions in a country
– HDI varies between rural and urban areas

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 2.3 Holistic Measures of Living Levels
and Capabilities

• The New Human Development Index

• Introduced by UNDP in November 2010

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 Box 2.1 Computing the New HDI: Ghana

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 What is new in the New HDI?
1. Calculating with a geometric mean

• Probably most consequential: The index is now computed

with a geometric mean, instead of an arithmetic mean
(traditional HDI: add the three components, divided by 3)
• The traditional HDI calculation assumed one component
traded off against another as perfect substitutes, a strong
assumption
• The reformulation now allows for imperfect substitutability
which development specialists widely consider a more
plausible way to frame the tradeoffs.
• A geometric mean is also used to build up the overall
education index from its two components

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 What is new in the New HDI?
2. Other key changes:

• Gross national income per capita replaces gross domestic

product per capita
• Revised education components: now using the average
actual educational attainment of the whole population,
and the expected attainment of today’s children
• The maximum values in each dimension have been increased
to the observed maximum rather than given a predefined
cutoff (realistic/ contextual)
• The lower goalpost for income has been reduced due to new
evidence on lower possible income levels

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 2.4 Characteristics of the Developing
World: Diversity within Commonality
• 10 characteristics of developing countries

1. Lower levels of living and productivity. Lower and middle-

income countries (84%) receive 46% of global income
*poverty trap/ circular causation (Myrdal): low income>>low
education/ low health>>low productivity

2. Lower levels of human capital (health, education, skills)

3. Higher Levels of Inequality and Absolute Poverty

– Absolute Poverty
– World Poverty

4. Higher Population Growth Rates (burden on active labor force)

– Crude Birth rates (live, annual births/ 1,000 people)
– Dependency burden present in developed nations (have
savings/ pensions)

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 2.4 Characteristics of the Developing
World: Diversity within Commonality

5. Greater Social Fractionalization (ethnic/ linguistic…)

6. Larger Rural Populations but Rapid Rural-to-Urban

Migration

7. Lower Levels of Industrialization and Manufactured

Exports

8. Adverse Geography
– Land-locked economies, sub/tropical climates (pests,
diseases, global warming)
– Resource endowments do not guarantee success

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 2.4 Characteristics of the Developing
World: Diversity within Commonality

9. Underdeveloped Financial and Other markets

– Imperfect markets
– Incomplete information

10. Colonial Legacy and External Dependence

– Institutions
– Private property
– Personal taxation
– Taxes in cash rather than in kind

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 Figure 2.3a Shares of Global Income, 2008. (b)
Developing regions lag far behind the developed
world in productivity measured as output per worker.

Source: Figure 2.3a, Data from World Bank, World Development Indicators 2013 (Washington, D. C.: World Bank, 2013), p.24.

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 Figure 2.3b Developing
regions lag far behind the
developed world in
productivity measured as
output per worker.

Source: Figure 2.3b, United Nations, Millenium Development Goals Report 2012, p.9.

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 Table 2.5 The 12 Most and Least Populated
Countries and Their Per Capita Income, 2008

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 Figure 2.4 Under-5 Mortality Rates,
1990 and 2012

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 Table 2.6 Primary School Enrollment and
Pupil-Teacher Ratios, 2010

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 Figure 2.5 Correlation between Under-5
Mortality and Mother’s Education

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 Figure 2.6 Number of People Living in
Poverty by Region, 1981–2008

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 Table 2.7 Crude Birth Rates Around the World,
2012

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 Table 2.8 The Urban Population in Developed
Countries and Developing Regions

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 Table 2.9 Share of the Population Employed in the
Agricultural, Industrial, and Service Sectors in Selected
Countries, 2004–2008 (%)

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 Table 2.10 Share of the Population Employed in the
Agricultural, Industrial, and Service Sectors in Selected
Countries, 1990–92 and 2008–2011 (%)

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 2.5 How Low-Income Countries Today
Differ from Developed Countries in Their
Earlier Stages

• Eight differences
– Physical and human resource endowments
– Per capita incomes and levels of GDP in relation to the rest
of the world
– Climate
– Population size, distribution, and growth
– Historic role of international migration
– International trade benefits
– Basic scientific/technological research and development
capabilities
– Efficacy of domestic institutions

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 2.6 Are Living Standards of Developing and
Devolved Nations Converging?

• Evidence of unconditional convergence is

hard to find
• But there is increasing evidence of “per
capita income convergence,” weighting
changes in per capita income by population
size

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 Figure 2.7 Relative Country Convergence:
World, Developing Countries, and OECD
(continued)

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 Figure 2.7 Relative Country Convergence:
World, Developing Countries, and OECD

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 Figure 2.8 Growth Convergence versus
Absolute Income Convergence

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 Figure 2.9 Country Size, Initial Income
Level, and Economic Growth

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 2.7 Long-Run Causes of Comparative
Development

• Schematic Representation
– Geography
– Institutional quality - colonial and post-colonial
– Colonial legacy- pre-colonial comparative
advantage
– Evolution and timing of European development
– Inequality - human capital
– Type of colonial regime

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 Nature and Role of Economic
Institutions
• Institutions provide “rules of the game” of economic life
• Provide underpinning of a market economy
• Include property rights; contract enforcement
• Can work for improving coordination,
• Restricting coercive, fraudulent and anti-competitive
behavior
• Providing access to opportunities for the broad population-
• Constraining the power of elites, and managing conflict
• Provision of social insurance
• Provision of predictable macroeconomic stability
• Note: These institutions are correlated and it is not clear
which of these institutions matter most; and “transitional
institutions” may help in the development process

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 Role of Institutions

• Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson’s

“reversal of fortune” and extractive
institutions
• Bannerjee and Iyer, “property rights
institutions.” Landlords versus cultivators

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Figure 2.10
Schematic
Representation of
Leading Theories of
Comparative
Development

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 Concepts for Review

• Absolute poverty • Economic Institutions

• Brain drain • Fractionalization
• Capital stock • Free trade
• Convergence
• Gross domestic product
• Crude birth rate
(GDP)
• Dependency burden
• Depreciation (of the capital • Gross national income
stock) (GNI)
• Diminishing Marginal Utility • Human capital
• Divergence • Human Development Index
(HDI)

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 Concepts for Review (cont’d)

• Imperfect market • Purchasing power parity

• Incomplete information (PPP)
• Infrastructure • Research and development
• Least developed countries (R&D)
• Low-income countries • Resource endowment
(LICs) • Terms of trade
• Middle-income countries • Value added
• Newly industrializing • World Bank
countries (NICs)

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 Appendix 2.1 The Traditional Human
Development Index (HDI)

• Equation A2.6:

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 Table A2.1.1 2009 Traditional Human
Development Index for 24 Selected Countries
(2007 Data)

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 Table A2.1.2 2009 Human Development Index
Variations for Similar Incomes (2007 Data)

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 Figure A2.1.1 Human Development Disparities
within Selected Countries

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 Figure A2.1.1 Human Development Disparities
within Selected Countries (continued)

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