6. SPSF 2022-3: A Brief History of Economic Dev. & Wicked Problems
Textbook
Book 1. Sachs, J.D. (2015).
The Age of Sustainable Development, Columbia Uni Pr
Chap. 3: A Brief History of Economic Development
- Economists have given a name to this kind of growth: endogenous growth. "Endogenous" means something that arises from within a system, rather than from the outside. Endogenous growth means economic advancement that emerges from the internal workings of the economy.
- ...the growth of a "lagged" country that for whatever reasons of history, politics, and geography lagged behind as the technological leaders charged ahead... Catch-up growth can be considerably faster than endogenous growth. Technological leaders have tended to grow at around 1-2 percent per capita, while the fastest catching-up countries (e.g. South Korea and China) have enjoyed ... 5-10 percent per annum.
- The failure to recognize the fundamental differences between endogenous growth and catch-up growth has led to all sorts of confusion in the discussion of economic development... The first is based on innovation; the second on rapid adoption and diffusion of existing (though mostly foreign) technologies (pp.79-81).
Japan was one leader in this process, and it developed a wonderful metaphor: the flying geese model. When geese fly in formation (Fig. 3.5), one goose flies in front, and then in back are others (p.95).
Book 2. Mulligan, M. (2018).
An Introduction to Sustainability: Environmental, Social and Personal Perspectives, Routledge
Chap. 4: Global Challenges as wicked problems
"Wicked problems": i) no definitive definition of the problem; ii) no true or false solutions, only relatively good or bad responses; iii) seen as symptoms of other interacting problems; iv) unique so there can be no template to follow in responding; v) responses are one-shot efforts cannot be replicated; & vi) responses include many stakeholders with a wide range of values and priorities.
- Global Hunger Index (p.61)
- Human Development Index (p.64)
- Poverty in the "Developed" World
Data Activities
A. Agriculture, Industry and Services (Group)
Go to the World Bank database (http://data.worldbank.org/country ) and look up the following indicators: Agriculture, value added (% of GDP); Industry, value added (% of GDP); Services, etc., value added (% of GDP). Use the graph tool on the website to learn about these indicators for each of the income groups (low, middle, high income).
- Which income group is highly dependent on agriculture?
- Which income group is highly dependent on industry?
- Which income group is highly dependent on services?
Japanese entry
