Explain the key issues in relation to the developing nations concerning economic development and economic growth.

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08.02.04

Anna Markmann

Sec. 5 – Development economics – Essay #1

Explain the key issues in relation to the developing nations concerning economic development and economic growth

Economic growth occurs if there is an increase in country’s output over time, that is an increase in its national income. Economic development occurs if the increased output also improved the standard of living including variables such as the provision of health care, housing, education, employment and income distribution, etc. Even though growth can exists without development (see left diagram in “PPF-development”), growth is not equal to development and vice versa:

diagram 1: PPF – growth and development

From the Production Possibility Frontier one can see there the national income could be, if all FOPs were most efficient used. The PPF signifies growth in terms of an increase in potential output, but it also shows that growth only benefits the consumer of luxury goods (increase in production of luxury good > production of necessities in diagram 1). A major problem of developing countries.

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It is very desirable to have growth, because it creates extra resources which can be used to reduce poverty, that is equal to an increase in real national income, which afterwards allows more goods and services for consumption, what is the foundation for the more desirable development. Therefore growth is the major objective which developing countries strive for. For example in Zambia the government takes over the entrepreneur role to support growth.

But Economic Development is not only a much broader concept (see curve below in “PPF –development” right diagram), it also combines economic growth with an improvement of the ...

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