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Read the Case Study Properly and Answer the Questions Given Below: Introduction Many people mark the birth of economics as the publication of Adam Smith's
Read the Case Study Properly and Answer the Questions Given Below:
Introduction
Many people mark the birth of economics as the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in 1776. Actually, this classic's full title is An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, and Smith does indeed attempt to explain why some nations achieve wealth and others fail to do so. Yet, in the 241 years since the book's publication, the gap between rich countries and poor countries has grown even larger. Economists are still refining their answer to the original question: Why are some countries rich and others poor, and what can be done about it?
"Rich" and "Poor"
In common language, the terms "rich" and "poor" are often used in a relative sense: A "poor" person has less income, wealth, goods, or services than a "rich" person. When considering nations, economists often use gross domestic product (GDP) per capita as an indicator of average economic well-being within a country. GDP is the total market value, expressed in dollars, of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a given year. In a sense, a country's GDP is like its yearly income. So, dividing a particular country's GDP by its population is an estimate of how much income, on average, the economy produces per person (per capita) per year. In other words, GDP per capita is a measure of a nation's standard of living. For example, in 2016, GDP per capita was $57,467 in the United States, $42,158 in Canada, $27,539 in South Korea, $8,123 in China, $1,513 in Ghana, and $455 in Liberia.
Source: World Bank, retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=eMGq, accessed Feb 27, 2019.
Because GDP per capita is simply GDP divided by the population, it is a measure of income as if it were divided equally among the population. In reality, there can be large differences in the incomes of people within a country. So, even in a country with relatively low GDP, some people will be better off than others. And, there are poor people in very wealthy countries. In 2013 (the most recent year comprehensive data on global poverty are available), 767 million people, or 10.7 percent of the world population, were estimated to be living below the international poverty line of $1.90 per person per day.3 Whether for people or nations, the key to escaping poverty lies in rising levels of income. For nations specifically, which measure wealth in terms of GDP, escaping poverty requires increasing the amount of output (per person) that their economy produces. In short, economic growth enables countries to escape poverty.
Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world."1 Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General---
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