Deck 11: The Development Challenge

Question 1

Explain what is meant by the "development challenge." What factors have acted as barriers to development and which have contributed to the ability of some LDCs to overcome these barriers?

Answer 1

No Answer.

Question 2

Outline the major elements of the four IPE development theories and discuss the extent to which some of them have been more successful than others.

Answer 2

No Answer.

Question 3

Some authors, like Oswaldo de Rivero, claim that development is a myth, something most countries cannot attain. Have students discuss the potential impossibility for most countries to attain significantly higher standards of living, given climate change and constraints on water, resources, land, and energy.

Answer 3

No Answer.

Question 4

How does the choice of different poverty lines or the MPI affect our assessments of the state of poverty in developing countries?

Question 5

What are some of the characteristics of good governance? What criticisms might a structuralist make of development strategies that focus heavily on promoting good governance?

Question 6

Why is it difficult for many countries to escape the "middle-income trap"?

Question 7

Critique the use of GDP as a measure of social well-being. What other ways of measuring a country's well-being have been developed?

Question 8

Do you agree with those who argue that significant reductions in poverty can be made by "nudging" the poor to make more "rational" choices to achieve their goals? Or do you agree with those who argue that poverty is caused by structural factors and can best be reduced by redistributing national income, strengthening the political rights of the poor, and democratizing? Do you think that development strategies should be based on "growth first" or "welfare first"? Why or why not?

Question 9

What criticisms do feminist political economists make of programs that the World Bank and TNCs promote to improve the lives of women and girls in the Global South?

Question 10

Describe trends between 1990 and 2016 in disbursements of net official development assistance by the United States, Germany, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Which countries significantly increased aid after 2004? Which countries are the most generous (based on aid as a percentage of their GDP)?

Question 11

What criticisms have been made of philanthrocapitalism? Do you find anything wrong with wealthy private philanthropists funding programs in developing countries designed to end extreme poverty, promote humanitarian causes, or educate girls?

Question 12

Describe the trends in debt service ratios of the poorest countries between 2000 and 2015. Would you characterize the HIPC and MDRI Initiatives as successful? Justify your answer.

Question 13

What lessons can be learned from China's development model that might lead to more successful development strategies in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia?

Question 14

The chapter ends with a bleak assessment by Oswaldo de Rivero about the unsustainability of development due to population growth. Challenge de Rivero's "neo-Malthusian" perspective. What makes you more optimistic about development? Do you think that conservation, new technologies, better government policies, or other factors might permit humanity to resolve current physical-social imbalances? Why or why not?

Question 15

Which region of the world in 2013 had the highest proportion of its population living on $190 a day or less?

A) Latin America and the Caribbean
B) South Asia
C) Sub-Saharan Africa
D) East Asia and the Pacific

Question 16

According to World Bank data, the proportion of the population in developing countries living in extreme poverty (living on $1.90 per day or less) fell between 1990 and 2013 from

A) 42 to 13 percent
B) 60 to 4 percent
C) 84 to 16 percent
D) 16 to 4 percent

Question 17

Per capita income in the United States averages approximately

A) $3 a day.
B) $10 a day.
C) $130 a day.
D) $410 a day.

Question 18

Which country or organization spearheaded the creation of UNCTAD?

A) the Soviet Union
B) the G77
C) the UN General Assembly
D) OPEC

Question 19

The economic liberal model of development

A) is based on the successful experience of the Asian NICs.
B) emphasizes the existence of international structural barriers to development.
C) focuses on evolutionary, market-based change.
D) promotes import-substituting growth policies.

Question 20

The Washington Consensus is synonymous with

A) an economic liberal outlook on development.
B) a dependency theory outlook on development.
C) a mercantilist theory outlook on development.
D) the UN's outlook on development.

Question 21

Which of the following most clearly reflects economic liberal principles?

A) The New International Economic Order (NIEO)
B) Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)
C) the Beijing Consensus
D) import substitution industrialization

Question 22

Dependency theorists are least likely to criticize which of the following?

A) the World Bank
B) the Seven Sisters
C) the New International Economic Order (NIEO)
D) the Washington Consensus

Question 23

Which of the following is not an accurate characterization of East Asian "developmental states"?

A) They borrowed heavily in foreign capital market to finance new industries.
B) They gave subsidies to domestic firms in exchange for those firms exporting more and meeting strict performance goals.
C) They recruited top students from elite universities to serve in bureaucratic agencies.
D) They generally promoted export-oriented industrialization.

Question 24

Which development economist argues that a developing country has a better chance of achieving good governance if it manages to build a sizeable income-secure middle class (constituting at least 20 to 25 percent of the population)?

A) Richard Doner
B) Ha-Joon Chang
C) Sylvia Chant
D) Nancy Birdsall

Question 25

Brazil's Bolsa Família is a program that

A) gives payments to parents if they keep their children vaccinated and attending school regularly.
B) extends microcredits to women to help them start small businesses.
C) gives families formal legal title to their makeshift houses and the land on which these houses sit.
D) is designed to reduce poverty, but it has been largely unsuccessful.

Question 26

By the 2000s, the World Bank stressed the importance of all of these factors in development except

A) financial inclusion.
B) good governance.
C) gender equality as smart economics.
D) democratization.
E) stronger private property rights.

Question 27

What is an important criticism of microcredit institutions?

A) They may not cause necessary socioeconomic change.
B) They discourage trustworthy individuals from borrowing money.
C) They can't overcome the problem of asymmetric information.
D) They are run top-down, not bottom-up.

Question 28

Which person pioneered a successful microcredit program through Grameen Bank?

A) Bill Gates
B) Jeffrey Sachs
C) Hernando de Soto
D) Muhammad Yunus

Question 29

The "10,000 Women," "Girl Effect," and "5 to 20" campaigns are examples of

A) feminist microfinance.
B) transnational business feminism.
C) sustainable development.
D) rent seeking.

Question 30

Which scholars are skeptical that foreign aid helps poor countries develop?

A) Martin Ravallion and Stephen Radelet
B) Jeffrey Sachs
C) William Easterly and Angus Deaton
D) a and b

Question 31

Which of the following was a policy to significantly reduce the amount of debt held by the world's poorest nations?

A) HIPC Initiative
B) The East Asian Miracle
C) philanthrocapitalism
D) capital mobility

Question 32

China has helped Africa's development in all the following ways except

A) by providing aid and low-cost financing for construction of roads, dams, and ports.
B) by increasing demand for African raw materials.
C) by becoming a key trading partner.
D) by promoting labor rights and democracy.

Question 33

What do we call the process in which a country with significant manufacturing becomes more and more reliant on exports of minerals, natural resources, and agricultural goods?

A) philanthrocapitalism
B) industrialization
C) reprimarization
D) export-oriented industrialization