Growth and development

It hardly seems like the time to be critical of economic growth! Most commentary on the global economy takes for granted that it would be quite nice to have a little growth at the moment. For with growth comes jobs, with jobs comes income and with income comes a higher standard of living.

But is economic growth the be all and end all of economic policy? My Year 13 economists are beginning to question whether economic growth necessarily implies development in the early stages of their final A2 module on development economics. I'll get around to looking at their first thoughts when I mark their blog task challenge based on the recent news about tyhe activities of a UK multinational mining company in India. Not long either before the same sorts of questions are posed to Year 11 economics and business students.

Both year groups will find the following link to a great resource on the BBC website useful. It provides a walk through of the United Nation's Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and is accessible to all students.

My challenge to Year 11 students

To what extent has China's recent impressive economic growth been desirable?

Protests over mining

This story is perfectly timed for my Year 13 students as they start their final A2 module. I doubt that many of them spotted this on Tuesday night - they may have been doing some revision for their synoptic module (or I hope they were!).

According to this BBC report, 10,000 people encircled the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa to protest at the ruling of India's Supreme court to allow a UK based firm to begin mining bauxite in the hills. Local tribes view the hills as sacred and mining activities clearly threaten their culture and way of life. Vedanta argues the extraction of bauxite will earn valuable export revenue, generate jobs and increase the standard of living for local people and that such natural resource endowments provide the key to economic development in the area.

Campaigners on the other hand argue that "India's rush to development should not come at the expense of traditional and sustainable ways of life of tribal and marginalised people".

There are lots of issues in this story which we will explore over the coming months including:

• the meaning of development;
• the charactreristics of developing countries;
• the role of multinationals;
• sustainable development.

My challenge to Year 13 students
Best response to the two questions below by the end of this week
1. What is the difference between economic growth and development?
2. To what extent are global patterns of trade determined by countries' resource endowments?