Development economics

Development economics is an important branch of economics which considers specific problems of Third World countries. These countries are given a variety of different names such as “undeveloped countries”, “less developed countries” (LDCs), and “developing countries” (DCs). All these terms contrast third world countries with first world countries which are called “developed” or “industrialized”. Economies of Western Europe, North America, and Japan belong to this type.

Most of LDCs were a part of the colonial system and they were controlled by Western Europe. Many countries got political independence after World War II, but they have not become independent economically yet.

The most advanced Asian and South Americam countries are sometimes called “newly industrialized countries” (NICs). Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea have reached a great success in the development of their light manufacturing industries. They have already greatly increased the exports of such goods as shoes, clothes, and electronics all over the world. Mexico and Brazil have also increased their share in the world market mainly by means of foodstuffs exports.

Each Third world country has its economic problems, and it is necessary for each country to develop its own policy in order to make progress. However, developing countries differ from developed nations by the following common characteristics: lower average income per capita; low labour productivity; low level of education; high mortality rate; fast population growth; low living standards, etc. Some of developing countries have all of these characteristics; others have only some of them.

Notes:

share – доля mortality rate – уровень смертности

per capita - на душу населения

Exercise 1.Use the word in capitals at the end of each line and the suffixes –ance, -y, -ature, -able, -ity, -ous, -ing, -ier, -less to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.

Money! Money! Money!

Helen had always dreamed of becoming a (1)…. WEALTH

woman, and imagined living in a (2)....... mansion, LUXURY

and how her friends would praise her (3) …… GENEROUS

when she gave them expensive presents. In reality she

was usually hard up. She had some (4) ……and a SAVE

small life (5) ……, but her antique shop was not really INSURE

very (6)……..Every time she took money out of the bank, PROFIT

the (7) ……checked her account, and told her how little CASH

there was in it! Helen had taken out a (8)………a month LEND

before. How could she repay it? Then one day she noticed

an old painting in her shop. She had thought it was (9) …… WORTH

but as she brushed away the dust, she saw the (10)…….. SIGN

at the bottom. It said 'Renoir'! She was rich at last!