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Chapter 1: Introduction to Development Economics

Terms in this set (22)

Absolute Poverty
A situation of being unable to meet the minimum levels of income, food, clothing, healthcare, shelter, and other essentials.
Attitudes
The states of mind or feelings of an individual,
group, or society regarding issues such as material gain,
hard work, saving for the future, and sharing wealth.
Capabilities
The freedoms that people have, given their
personal features and their command over commodities.
Developing countries
Countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle
East, Latin America, eastern Europe, and the former
Soviet Union, that are presently characterized by low
levels of living and other development deficits. Used in
the development literature as a synonym for less developed
countries.
Development
The process of improving the quality of all
human lives and capabilities by raising people's levels of
living, self-esteem, and freedom.
Development economics
The study of how economies are
transformed from stagnation to growth and from lowincome
to high-income status, and overcome problems
of absolute poverty.
Freedom
A situation in which a society has at its disposal a
variety of alternatives from which to satisfy its wants and individuals enjoy real choices according to their
preferences.
Functionings
What people do or can do with the commodities
of given characteristics that they come to possess or
control.
Globalization
The increasing integration of national
economies into expanding international markets.
Gross domestic product
he total final output of
goods and services produced by the country's economy
within the country's territory by residents and nonresidents,
regardless of its allocation between domestic and
foreign claims.
Gross national income (GNI)
The total domestic and foreign
output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of
gross domestic product (GDP) plus factor incomes
earned by foreign residents, minus income earned in the
domestic economy by nonresidents.
Income per capita
Total gross national income of a country
divided by total population
Institutions
Norms, rules of conduct, and generally accepted
ways of doing things. Economic institutions are
humanly devised constraints that shape human interactions
including both informal and formal "rules of the
game" of economic life in the widely used framework of
Douglass North.
Less developed countries (LDCs)
Synonym for developing countries
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
A set of eight
goals adopted by the United Nations in 2000: to eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary
education; promote gender equality and empower
women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal
health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a
global partnership for development. The goals are assigned
specific targets to be achieved by 2015.
More developed countries (MDCs)
The now economically
advanced capitalist countries of western Europe, North
America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
Political economy
The attempt to merge economic analysis
with practical politics—to view economic activity in its
political context.
Self-esteem
The feeling of worthiness that a society enjoys
when its social, political, and economic systems and institutions
promote human values such as respect, dignity,
integrity, and self-determination.
Social system
The organizational and institutional structure
of a society, including its values, attitudes, power structure,
and traditions.
Subsistence economy
An economy in which production is
mainly for personal consumption and the standard of
living yields little more than basic necessities of life—
food, shelter, and clothing.
Sustenance
The basic goods and services, such as food,
clothing, and shelter, that are necessary to sustain an average
human being at the bare minimum level of living.
Traditional economics
An approach to economics that emphasizes
utility, profit maximization, market efficiency,
and determination of equilibrium.
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