Tag: economic development
Microfinance is a topic we have addressed before in these news items and we make no apologies for returning to it again. The articles linked to below include an interview in the Guardian with Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank which is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with small loans – microfinance. There is also a podcast from Mervyn Davies the Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank Plc.
Microfinance and financial inclusion Times Online podcast (18/0/07)
Microfinance and financial inclusion (transcript for podcast) Times Online (18/0/07)
What’s the big idea? Guardian (16/2/08)
Questions
| 1. |
Explain what is meant by ‘microfinancing’. |
| 2. |
Discuss the likely effectiveness of microfinancing as a tool for promoting economic development (as opposed to economic growth). |
| 3. |
Evaluate two policies other than microfinancing that will help to promote economic development. |
Research has indicated that communications technology can be a significant driver of GDP growth. In Africa it is possible that mobile phones and networks can provide opportunities for economic development and members of the GSM Association are proposing to invest £25bn in sub-Saharan Africa in the next five years.
Questions
| 1. |
Explain how improved communication technology can help create a higher level of economic growth. |
| 2. |
Assess the extent to which more extensive mobile networks will help to alleviate poverty. |
| 3. |
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of foreign direct investment in mobile technology for sub-Saharan Africa. |
In many parts of the world poor water and sanitation are one of the biggest killers. The article below looks at the situation in the shanty towns of Dhaka in Bangladesh.
Where death by water is part of daily life Guardian (26/11/07)
Questions
| 1. |
What is the difference between economic growth and economic development. |
| 2. |
Assess the extent to which an increase in economic growth will help to deliver higher living standards. |
| 3. |
Discuss the effectiveness of foreign aid as a policy to improve the standard of water and sanitation. |
Bolivia may have the second largest gas reserves in Latin America but it also has an acute shortage of diesel. People have blamed a variety of causes: smugglers, the government and nationalisation. In truth, the cause may be a combination of all these factors, but whatever the cause, the diesel shortage is acting as a significant constraint on further economic development and is an ongoing headache for the President Evo Morales.
Fuelling Bolivia’s crisis BBC News Online (8/11/07)
Questions
| 1. |
Use supply and demand analysis to illustrate the reasons for the shortages in diesel in Bolivia. |
| 2. |
Explain the impact that fuel subsidies may have had in causing the shortages of diesel. Use supply and demand analysis to illustrate your answer where appropriate. |
| 3. |
Discuss the underlying factors that may be leading to the shortages in diesel. |
Cement may be quietly emerging as one of the biggest obstacles to lowering carbon emissions to reduce the extent of global warming. The cement industry rarely features in media analysis of the ‘worst polluters’, but in fact the industry is responsible, because of the high energy requirements of manufacture, for more than 5% of carbon dioxide emissions. A building boom globally has fuelled demand for the material. Concrete is the second most used product on the planet, after water, so what can be done to reduce the impact of the industry on the environment?
The unheralded polluter: cement industry comes clean on its impact Guardian (12/10/07)
Questions
| 1. |
With reference to the article, identify the main external costs resulting from the production of cement. |
| 2. |
Discuss the view expressed by Dimitri Paplexopoulos, managing director of Titan Cement that “.. [c]ement is needed to satisfy basic human needs, and there is no obvious substitute, so there is a trade-off between development and sustainability“. |
| 3. |
Discuss policies that governments could adopt to try to move the market for cement towards a more socially optimal level of production. |