01:220:103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Doubling Time, List Of Countries By Income Equality, Human Capital
28 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Chapter 7: the wealth of nations and economic growth. Adam smith: wealth of nations, specialization and division of labor. Wealth is positively correlated with most standard indicators of societal well-being. Key facts about wealth and economic growth: gdp per capita varies among nations. Poorest country is democratic republic of congo (in 2007) Most of world"s population is poor relative to the us. A billion people have incomes of less than per day: everyone used to be poor. For most of recorded human history, there was no long run growth in real per capita. Rule of 70: if annual growth rate of a variable is x%, then the doubling time is (70/x) Growth can have a huge effect on gdp per capita: there are growth miracles and growth disasters. Miracles: japan from 1950-1980 experienced 8. 5% avg. growth. Disaster: argentina - from of richest countries in 1900 at 75% gdp but fell to 50% by.
