Question 1:

Please consider the following real GDP data for five countries. The values are measured in billions of each country's national currency, except for Panama, which is measured in US Dollars and is in millions, not billions. The base year for India, Brazil and Russian Federation is 2000, and for France and Panama is 2010.

	India	Brazil	France	Panama	Russia
2015	27,802	298	525	10,766	21,386
2016	30,301	288	530	11,107	21,433
2017	32,237	293	543	11,530	21,810
2018	34,544	297	553	11,755	22,380
2019	36,138	302	564	11,910	22,783

Source: OECD, Eurostat, World Bank

a) Which country experienced the highest average annual growth rate between 2015 and 2019?

b) Does it matter for your answer above that the Real GDP for each country is measured in a different currency and base year? Briefly explain.

c)What additional information would you need to assess - and compare - standard of living over this time period and across these five economies?

Question 2:

Please consider the real GDP per capita data provided below.

Country	Real GDP Per Capita 1960, 2010 US Dollars	Growth in Real GDP Per Capita, 1960-2019, in %
Canada	16,406	1.99
Mexico	3,907	1.70
Turkey	3,175	2.75
Sweden	18,062	2.02
South Africa	4,624	0.82

Source: World Bank

a) The GDP data are standardized in three dimensions.One, for example is population. What are the other two?

b) Plot the growth rate of each country against that country's 1960 Real GDP per capita. Just a simple scatter plot will do. Are the data consistent with the convergence prediction of traditional economic growth models? Explain.

Question 3:

Consider the following from Wall Street Journal:

Amazon plans to train 29 million THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. people for cloud-computing roles, especially those who aren't already employed at the online giant. While some participants might find jobs at Amazon, it is more likely The Big Number they would get hired at other companies, including many that use Amazon Web $95 Services, one of the company's most important profit drivers. million Dec 11, 2020 The price that Epic Games will pay for a mall in North Carolina. The "Fortnite" creator plans to use the property for its global headquarters-the latest sign that struggling shopping centers are evolving into new kinds of real estate. Jan 8, 2021THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. NEWS ALERT April 15/16, 2021 Chinese Economy Grew More Boom! Than 18% in First Quarter China's economy surged 18.3% in the first quarter from a year China's economy grew a record 18.3% in the first earlier, a record rate of growth that reflected the recovery from a quarter from last year's pandemic trough, reflecting deep coronavirus-induced trough in early 2020 and the continued momentum in the world's second-largest continued momentum of the world's second largest economy. economy. The year-over-year growth rate for gross domestic product will almost certainly trend lower in coming quarters as the Chinese economy is measured against higher levels from the year-earlier China's quarterly GDP, change from one year earlier period. China's economy began its recovery in the second 1Q 2021: 18.3% 18% quarter of 2020 and recorded higher year-over-year growth 15 figures through the remaining quarters of the year. Stripping 12 out the statistical distortion from last year's low base of comparison, economists at HSBC in Hong Kong estimate that underlying year-over-year GDP growth in the first three months of 2021 was about 5.4%, lower than the pre-coronavirus trend of roughly 6% growth. And when compared with the last three -3 months of 2020, the Chinese economy expanded just 0.6%, slowing from a 2.6% quarter-on-quarter GDP increase in the 2010 "20 fourth quarter of 2020, Jonathan Cheng reports. Source National Bureau of Statistics via WindMeet the New Chinese Economy, Same If a recovery led by investment in real estate as the Old Chinese Economy and industrial production, with consumption lagging behind, sounds familiar, it may be China's recovery from the pandemic relies on the same drivers of because the same could be said of the makeup of growth that powered the country before the pandemic, with the same China's growth before Covid-19. Unlike the U.S., underlying risks where there are many questions around how Two-year percentage change the huge stimulus might change the shape of the economy, China has followed a well- 30% Investment in industrial production has led established script in its pandemic response. 25 China's economic recovery, along with real estate. Even the lagging retail-growth figures may 20 PHOTO: STR/AGENCE FRANCE- exaggerate the underlying strength of the Real-estate PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES 15 investment consumer economy relative to previous years. Before the pandemic China typically ran a large 10 Retail sales travel deficit in its balance of payments, meaning that Chinese travelers spend more us outside of the country than visitors to China spend domestically. With the pandemic limiting foreign travel, some portion of that consumption now likely happens at home. That could be true for some time, but presumably won't be forever. -5 -10As U.S. Economy Roars Back, Life in Many Poor Countries Gets Worse Rich world is poised for strongest growth in decades, but developing world faces rising hunger, poverty and indebtedness Powered by the U.S. and China, the global economy is set to make a stunning comeback this year from its deepest contraction since the Great Depression, economists say. For many developing countries, though, 2021 is shaping up to look a lot like 2020, with the pandemic still raging and poverty deepening. "Informal" underground-economy jobs such as Ms. Khemawan's are fixtures of the developing world, employing more than 90% of the labor force in some countries. The ofter ad-hoc jobs, without formal pay slips and set hours, take on even greater importance during downturns, filling in gaps in countries with limited social safety nets. As with so much else in the global economy, Covid-19 has rewritten the rules of informal labor, undermining many options people relied on in past periods of economic stress. That risks slowing poorer countries' recoveries and could leave many workers in distress for a long time to come.World Merchandise Imports + Exports (% of GDP) 60 51% 50 48% THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. 40 March 25, 2022 30 "The Russian invasion of Ukraine has 20 put an end to the globalization we have experienced over the last three 10 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 decades." - Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, in a letter to Consumer and Wealth Management shareholders Source: Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, IMF, World Bank