What Are You Doing - 1578 Words

Joan turned around to face him, her gaze sliding down to his crotch. â€Å"I came home and I was alone, so I sat down and started to undress because I thought I might take a rest,† he babbled, â€Å"but I never finished†¦ Never mind.† Perceval glanced at the pillow covering his now flaccid cock. â€Å"You can see exactly what I was doing.† Her face turning bright red as she tried to stifle her laughter, Joan unwrapped Percy from the nursing shawl as she crossed the room. After she tucked him into his bassinet and planted a kiss to his cheek, Joan ambled back to the bed, hopped onto the mattress beside Perceval, and drew the bed hangings. She placed her hands against his chest and gave him a gentle shove. â€Å"Lie back.† â€Å"What are you doing?† he asked. Joan straddled him. His cock, still covered by the pillow, sprung to life once more. â€Å"I saw Mary and Alis at the midwifery cottage today, and they said we can resume our regular marital activities.† She ran her finger from his throat down his body, stopping at his bare hip, which made him shudder. â€Å"It took me a touch longer to heal than usual because of the difficult delivery, but I’m ready. And thank you for waiting so patiently. I know it must have been hard.† Hard was one way of phrasing it. â€Å"Are you sure, Joan? Because even if you’re healed, I want you to be ready and not completely exhausted so you can enjoy it.† â€Å"I am ready for you.† She pulled away the pillow and tossed it onto the floor, revealing his hardness, which grown fully erectShow MoreRelatedHenry : What Are You Doing? Essay976 Words   |  4 PagesHenry: what are you doing in my class Socrates? Socrates: I come to learn from your fountain of knowledge. Henry: Tell me my dear Socrates, what you want to know? Socrates: Is there any difference between ethic and morality. This matter has been bothering me and I want to know your view about it. Henry: Socrates do you think there is any difference between ethics and morality? Socrates: Yes, but it seems the same to me my dear friend. Henry: â€Å"The most common way of defining ethics are normsRead MoreDean, What Are You Doing Here?1669 Words   |  7 PagesDean, what are you doing here? I asked, I wanted to check up on you. He explained, I peeked over his shoulder to see an old beaten up truck with an empty passenger seat sitting in the snow. Where s Sam and what happened to the Impala? I asked, changing the subject. By the way, I don t need anyone to look out for me. I hinted, Dean rolled his eyes and pushed passed me, Uh huh, that s what they all say. He strolled through the house, looking around and taking in the warmth. Dean,Read MoreWhat Are You Doing Here, Human?1941 Words   |  8 PagesWhat are you doing here, human? 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So it is imperative always to be inquiring, ask lots of questions to show that you are interested and dedicated to your jobRead MoreJapans Global Growth and What You Doing App2533 Words   |  11 PagesI. Executive Summary This paper explores Japans global opportunities and the launching of an instant messaging application called WYD, which is an acronym for What you doing. This application allows users to send each other unlimited text, messaging, images, video, audio media messages and make VoIP calls free. A survey conducted by research group comScore’s MobiLens service found that three out of every four Japanese consumers use their cell phones to browse the Web, access applications orRead MoreWhat Do You See Yourself Doing When You Grow Up?890 Words   |  4 PagesGrowing up the big question we were asked was, â€Å" what do you see yourself doing when you grow up?† When we are young answers would vary from princess to singer to astronaut. As we grew into adulthood we had to be think more realistically about what we wanted to become. We would say occupations such as doctor, lawyer, police officer, and even therapist. As children we dream of going far away and making something out of ourselves. Even as adults we had the need of wanting to go places. Children haveRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Mark Edmundson s Who Are You And What You Doing Here?854 Words   |  4 Pagesopportunity to truly discover who you are. Often enough, you hear people saying â€Å"You should really major in this field, I think you would really enjoy this career.† or, â€Å"Do you think you really want to study that? Have you thought about what you will be doing ten years from now?† filling your mind with self doubt, uncertainty, and the anxiousness of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Mark Edmundson wrote an article titled, Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?, published in OxfordRead Moreâ€Å"Peter! Peter! What Are You Doing? Peter, What’S Wrong?†948 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"Peter! Peter! What are you doing? Peter, what’s wrong?† This is what I remember hearing when I came to the next day, the words sp oken in my mother’s voice and coming in between sobs while Daisy was barking ferociously. When my vision came back, I saw my terrified mother curled up and hugging the leg of our kitchen table, tears streaming down her imbued eyes. Daisy was closest to me, stationed between me and my mother, her teeth bared and snapping at me like a shark. â€Å"Whoa, hey girl,† IRead MoreBeing A Physical Therapist Has Done You Know What You Are Doing But After Graduation?1681 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"So, do you know what you are doing yet after graduation?† This is a notorious question everybody gets asked at one point in their lifetime. Most people do not know the answer to this question, for there is a very broad range of things to do. 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Effect of Rapid Urbanization on Housing Free Essays

string(176) " families from the Island to the Mainland \(Oko Awo scheme\) and since then, the activities of planning authorities have assumed considerable importance in metropolitan Lagos\." THE IMPACT OF RAPID URBANIZATION ON HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA FROM 1950 -2010 (Focus on urban developments and housing problems case study: Lagos) Urbanization according to Aluko O. E is rather subjective and can be given various interpretations. However in this concept it can be defined as the expansion of the number of people living in an urban area that depicts the rate at which people move from rural areas and populate the urban areas. We will write a custom essay sample on Effect of Rapid Urbanization on Housing or any similar topic only for you Order Now Reports however, from the united nation show that the population at the urban centres has multiplied four times its initial growth since 1960 and would have risen to a projected number of about 5 billion in the year 2030. Report also has it that over 70 per cent of these populations would settle in cities and towns. Following independence, many administrative centres experienced major unplanned rapid urbanization . The ripple effect of these on cities being the core of urban development is enormous especially on the housing development which has eventually resulted in overcrowding, inadequate dwellings, deplorable urban environment, degrading public infrastructure, and to an extreme, â€Å"outright homelessness† (Adesoji David Jiboye, 2011) . Nonetheless, According to Femi Olokesusi, 2011 quoting Onibokun et. al. 1987) and Onibolun and Kumuyi (1999), assert that various political and socio-economic factors have resulted in rapid growth of urban population resulting in informal settlements, poor housing and slums in Nigeria. The rate of influx of people into major cities has been so high that the pace of settlement development and housing provision could not accommodate them. Since they must have shelter, all forms of informal procedures are adopted to provide housing. This has resulted in non-compliance with physical planning regulations and development control standards. Thus there have been cases of incompatibility of land use activities, overcrowding (due to high occupancy ratio, high density of development), poor construction standards (due to use of substandard building materials and construction methods), and ill-serviced dwelling Units, among others. The impact of rapid population growth however, on urban development and conditions is far more than merely a demographic or quantitative one especially on housing development as a whole which is a direct consequence of the push of the rural areas and the pull of the town. Current studies however indicate that the impact of rapid urbanization in terms of housing is revealed both in its quantity and quantity such that the little number of available houses is being overloaded infrastructurally and spatially leading to a reduction in the level of comfort and a rapid development in the number of slums being created and the level of substandard houses being built in an unplanned and unhealthy environment. However, the level of impact on the adequacy of housing has been compounded particularly by the high rate of population growth, through influx of immigrants, exaggerated real estate values etc. Nonetheless, housing according to Aduwo 2011, Daramola 2006 et al is the measure of the level of housing inadequacy and its quality. According to pelu Awofeso, one out of every two Nigerians now live in a city leaving limited infrastructure to be engulfed by millions of individuals. In his report he stated that 16 million housing units would have to be provided to address the shortage in urban shelters since the inflow of people supersedes the rate at which affordable housing is being constructed. Housing however, according to Abbas Olukunmi Owoade, 2007 quoting Tannerfeldt and Ljung ‘06)does not only relate to provision of houses but also basic infrastructure of a neighbourhood as well as schools clinics , recreational facilities and other amenities. CASE STUDY:LAGOS The city of Lagos was first inhibited before the 15th century and grew from a typical small fishing and farming settlement due to certain factors such as, the construction of the railway in 1895 that linked the city, the hinterland and the port with the development of the Lagos harbour. In the twinkle of an eye, Lagos became the centre of trade and commerce bringing migrants from every nook and cranny. As the population increased so did the spatial expansion which posed a great deal of problems especially housing development. kehinde George, 2002). Population explosion in lagos became noticeable after 1950 amongst other reason, it was the national capital and in ’67 became a state on its own attracting funds from both the federal and state government there by introducing more migrants. However, Over 90 per cent of the typical housing standard is being provided by the private sector and individual efforts bringing about a gap between its demand and supply finding expression in the cost of rented values that eventually leads to vercrowding, growth of slums and rise in the number of substandard housing (Owoade,Abiodun ‘97). Two major factors that accounted for the rapid growth in lagos can tied to net migration and natural increase According to the old United Nations university website, prior to 1928, planned residential areas in Lagos were limited. They included Ikoyi, which was a reservation area for expatriates who were colonial administrators and executives of foreign firms, and had a population of 4,000, or 3 per cent of the population of the city in 1931. Apapa, Ebute Meta, and Yaba, with a combined population of 22,000, or 17 per cent of the total, also had some element of planning, in the sense that road networks in Ebute Meta and Yaba were laid out on a grid and residential development was confined to the blocks within the road pattern. On Lagos Island, apart from the areas around the racecourse and marina, the indigenous housing was unplanned and was left to develop haphazardly, with houses built quite close together. Such overcrowded, unhealthy housing and poor environmental conditions stimulated the rapid spread of influenza epidemics and bubonic plague, which ravaged the city between 1924 and 1930. These led to the emergence, in 1928, of the pioneer planning authority in Nigeria, the Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB), which embarked on slum clearance and the relocation of families from the Island to the Mainland (Oko Awo scheme) and since then, the activities of planning authorities have assumed considerable importance in metropolitan Lagos. You read "Effect of Rapid Urbanization on Housing" in category "Papers" The government of Nigeria has interceded at different times to solve housing problems with particular focus on Lagos by providing housing units as well as establishing site and service programmes to make available plots of lands to individual to build their own houses, the period 1979-1983 under the Jakande administration witnessed a massive housing development programme. evertheless, These programmes had little impact in that it provided limited number of housing units with a major setback in the year 1994 due to increase in price of building materials. Thus, making a considerable number of Lagosians lack â€Å"shelter† a basic need of human existence. The wide gap between the supply of and the demand for has operated in escalating house rents, rent edict were promulgated to reduce this hardship by working population . In 1973 for instance the mid-west state government proclaimed an edict which limited the maximum rent payable on dwelling units. However, such edicts have not been effective in arresting increase in house rents (Josephine Abiodun,1976) Planned housing schemes in metropolitan Lagos |Housing agency |Scheme |Remarks | |Lagos Executive Development |Slum clearance of Central Lagos, 1955 to|1,847 families housed in Surulere. ,337 families resettled | |Board, 1955 -1975 |early 1960s, Olowogbowo Rehousing |in low-income rented houses. Subsidized by Ministry of Lagos| | |Scheme, Lagos Housing Scheme |Affairs | |   |Other housing schemes in Surulere |14,537 family units (dwellings) provided. In all, 128,800 | | | |people were provided with housing | |Lagos State Development and |Resettlement of slum dwellers from |1,000 families housed | |Property Corporation (LSDPC), |Central Lagos to Ogba and low-income | | |1972-1979 |housing in Isolo | | |Federal housing |Under 1975-1980 and 1981-1985 plan |6,000 housing units | | |periods | | |LSDPC, 1979 to date |Low-income housing |16,878 housing units | |   |Medium-income housing |1,790 housing units | Source: LSDPC In Lagos, like elsewhere in Nigeria the access to privately owned housing units through traditional channels has made it immensely possible for a relatively large number of people to be house owners at certain cost which includes the sale of the same plot to more than one buyer owing to a lack of a comprehensive land register and sometimes conflict over rights of ownership between the state and private individuals or family groups or between members of families â€Å"omo onile† (owoade, abiodun ‘97). However, over 60% of these residents are under a tenement kind of arrangement constructed by â€Å"absentee landlord† with this kind of arrangement ending abruptly due to unforeseen evictions(Owoade, abiodun et al) The issue of land acquisition at the same time is far more complex because government acquired land is rarely made available or affordable for the average or even made accessible due to lack of basic infrastructure. Alternatively, in order to live closer to job opportunities there’s need for settling in centrally located pieces of abandoned land left due to unsuitability for housing either for being along railway paths or under high tension electric cable or marshy lands. (Owoade ’07, Tannerfeldt and Ljung 2006). David Owoade in his report emphatically stated that the Problems of rapid urbanization have increased and become more glaring as the cities expand and many attempts to curb these problems have not achieved the desired results. Housing continued to be supplied through informal self-help landlords and a majority of tenants live in homes with unsecured tenure while many holders find home in slums and shantytowns. Examples include Ajegunle, Makoko, Badiya, Maroko etc. Those that have been fortunate enough to build their houses on the periphery of the cities (ota in sango) have to live without basic services and infrastructures such as clean water, sewers, electricity and roads. In 1976, it was estimated that 111000 residential houses were available in Lagos to provide accommodation for a population of 3. 2 million keeping it at an average of 28 persons per building. By 19080, it had gotten worse with 30 persons living in a building and it was further projected that 2 per cent of the population lived in self-contained buildings leaving the remaining 98 % to rooming accommodations connoting shared facilities like the kitchen and the toilet. It was further estimated that by the year 2000, a total number of 1. 5 million housing units would be needed to cater to fast growing population. It is no surprise that there is no more land for the government to build that they have resulted in sand filling of certain areas ( Raji Rasaki, 1988). However an updated article by lookman oshodi,2010 quoting the Lagos ministry of housing 2010 brings the demography to a total number of 91% of the total population living in the metropolis, about 20,000 persons per square kilometre in the built up areas. The occupancy ratio however are 8-10 persons per room with 72. 5% of household occupying one room apartment’s . ince the rate of growth in Lagos has assumed a geometric progression the provision of houses has never been commensurate leading to decay in structure either by quantity or quality. Hence, multiplying the number of inhibited slums from 42 in the year 1985 to over a hundred in 2010. (slums and squatter settlement)also, this à ¢â‚¬Å"urban poor† pay house rents that are almost 50-70% of their income since most accommodations as earlier said are provided by private landlords. Thus, dividing the metropolis into classes such as low income/high density, medium income/medium density, high income /low density. (Lawanson 2007, lookman oshodi 2010) The population in Lagos seems to growing each day with its problems. onetheless, according to aduwo,2011 quoting (Okupe, 2002; Oruwari, 2006), Public housing was birthed as a solution to the proliferation of slums and squatter settlements but Housing specialists have revealed that public housing has failed to provide decent housing, claiming that it has succeeded in segregating tenants by income, race, and that it has isolated residents from the larger community. However, all these problems have resulted in overcrowding of buildings leaving room for no access, urban sprawl, lack of open spaces, high cost of building materials etc. [pic] Population in lagos Source: case study of lagos:geography and climate [pic] Source: case study of lagos:geography and climate Reference 1. MANAGING METROPOLITAN LAGOS ,Raji Rasaki ,Inaugural Programme of the Africa leadership forum, 1988 2. HOUSING TRANSFORMATION AND ITS IMPACT ON NEIGHBOURHOODS IN SELECTED LOW-INCOME PUBLIC HOUSING ESTATES IN LAGOS, NIGERIA: A PhD Thesis: Egidario Bridgette ADUWO,2011 3. THE IMPACT OF URBANIZATION ON HOUSING DEVELOPMENT: The Lagos Experience, Nigeria. ;Aluko O. E; Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management ; Vol. 3 No. 3 2010 4. PUBLIC HOUSING DELIVERY IN NIGERIA: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES; World congress on Housing Transforming Housing Environments through the Design south Africa, L. M Olayiwola, O Adeleye L Ogunshakin, 2005 5. CHALLENGES AND GROWTH OF DEVELOPMET IN METROPLOLITAN LAGOS, archive. unu. edu/unupress/unupbooks; old United Nations university website. 6. ANALYSIS OF THE INTERPLAY OF MIGRATION AND URBAN EXPANSION, ON HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT: THE CASE OF LAGOS by Okuneye P. A, Adebayo, K, Opeolu B. T. and F. I. Baddru; University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria 7. LAGOS: THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF AN EMERGENT AFRICAN MEGA CITY by Femi Olokesusi Paper Presented at the NISER Seminar Series on 5 July, 2011 8. HOUSING PROBLEMS IN NIGERIAN CITIES, Josephine Olu. Abiodun, reprinted from the town planning review, vol. 47, no. 4, October, 1976. How to cite Effect of Rapid Urbanization on Housing, Papers

International Economics Gerber free essay sample

The Growth of World Trade Capital and Labor Mobility New Features of the Global Economy New Issues in International Trade and Investment The Role of International Organizations Regional Trade Agreements Trade and Economic Growth Twelve Issues in the International Economy The Gains from Trade Wages, Jobs, and Protection Trade Deficits Regional Trade Agreements The Resolution of Trade Conflicts The Role of International Institutions Exchange Rates and the Macroeconomy Financial Crises and the Global Contagion Capital Flows and the Debt of Developing Countries Crisis and Reform in Latin America Export Led Growth in East Asia The Integration of India and China into the World Economy .2 A Thumbnail Sketch of the Material Covered in Chapter One The re-emergence of international economic integration theme tries to put globalization in perspective. Most features of globalization aren’t new, and international economic integration could be described as re-emerging after a period of disruption during time periods surrounding WWI and WWII. There are three aspects of international economic integration considered: 1. The growth of world trade. World trade has grown over the last sixty or seventy years but is still fairly comparable in percentage terms to what existed 110 years ago. Trade has become a larger share of national economies as measured by the: Index of Openness ? (Exports ? Imports)/GDP This index does not tell us about a nation’s trade policies. Nations with higher figures for the index of openness do not necessarily have lower trade barriers. Large economies are less dependent on international trade and often have lower measures of openness than small countries. Figure 1. 1 shows the openness index for six nations at different points in time. It shows the drop in trade from 1913 to 1950 and its growth (even above 1913 levels) for most nations by 2000. A trend obscured in the overall trade data is that in 1890 most U. S. trade was in agricultural products and raw materials, while today most is manufactured goods. The relative importance of capital goods has increased dramatically. 2. Capital and labor mobility. Labor is much less mobile internationally now than it was in 1900. For capital, it is somewhat more mobile. There is a difference between financial capital and physical capital. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is the flow of capital representing physical assets such as real estate, factories, and businesses. While capital flows to developing countries have increased over recent decades, the level of investment in any country is still correlated with its domestic level of savings, making national savings rates far more important than global capital flows. However, capital flows today are different from earlier periods in three ways. More types of financial instruments exist today, and flows of financial capital are likely much greater. In 1900, the world operated on a fixed exchange rate standard and much of today’s financial market transactions are aimed at protecting against exchange rate risk caused by floating exchange rates. Transactions costs associated with foreign capital flows have also fallen significantly. Volatility in international capital flows, while often a subject of intense attention today, is not new. Movement of prices in different markets. The text does not develop this, but points out that in the late 1800s wheat farmers, meat packers, and fruit growers all produced for a global market where international rather than domestic supply and demand determined prices. News reports today could easily demonstrate this for most commodities. New issues in international trade and investment: Barriers to manufactured goods have fallen significantly as a result of a process that began at the end of WWII. As formal restrictions on imports  have been reduced, domestic policies on issues such as the environment, labor, and fair market conditions have become the barriers to further increases in trade flows. Reducing trade barriers has been the focus of negotiations between nations. Eliminating the traditional barriers to trade, tariffs and quotas, is referred to as shallow integration because it just changes policies â€Å"at the border. † Eliminating domestic policy differences that create trade barriers is much more complicated and is referred to as deep integration. International organizations created at the end of WWII play a key role and are an entirely new element in the international economy. Agreements between nations are not new, but there has been a significant increase in the number of regional trade agreements signed, especially in the 1990s. The formation of these regional trade agreements is controversial for different reasons for both trade opponents and trade proponents. The growth of world trade can potentially lead to a variety of consequences, but generally economists remain committed that the benefits outweigh the costs. This position is supported by the casual empirical evidence of historical experience, evidence supported by models and deductive reasoning, and evidence from statistical comparisons of countries. Open economies grow faster and prosper sooner than more closed ones. .3 What Students Should Know After Reading This Chapter Chapter 1 challenges the belief that the world has embarked on an entirely new and unprecedented era of globalization. Looked at from the long run, it seems clear that the period 1870 to 1914 was an earlier era with similar trends. Those years experienced rapid technological change in the form of railways, steamships, and telegraphs that all came into widespread usage and spanned the oceans; they underwent business and financial sector innovation through the rapid growth in the corporate form of business organization, the invention and spread of demand deposits, and the development of stockmarkets; trade policies were liberalized in many nations; and there were widespread protests against immigration and the global economy. In the United States, the protest movement was centered in populist movements that are reminiscent of some politicians and commentators today. This is not an argument about history repeating itself. Rather, it is an attempt to get students to think of the period from World War I to the end of World War II as an aberration in the last 150 years of world history. The long run trend is toward integration, punctuated by protests and nationalistic movements that halt or reverse the trend. When students are asked what they think is new about today’s economy, they inevitably answer: technology. E-mail, faxes, satellite systems, jet aircraft, and less visible forms such as container cargo transportation systems have each made significant contributions to increasing trade flows. It is useful to engage students in a discussion over the marginal impacts of these new technologies versus the marginal effects of steam powered ocean going vessels or trans-Atlantic telegraphy. Telegraphy cut the time it took information to cross the ocean from around three weeks to relatively instantaneously, and reduced the time it took to buy a foreign bond from around three weeks to about one day. It is useful for students to realize there was a disruption for two reasons. First, much of what has happened over the last 50 years was aimed at fixing something that was broken, not creating a new phenomena. Second, the international institutions that deal with the global economy are new and were created because of some shared recognition that integration was important and helpful and needed to be encouraged. An important sub-theme of the text is the idea of deep versus shallow integration and the institutional process that nations go through to create deeper levels of integration. The chapter also points to some things that are new about today. Important ones for the text will be flexible exchange rates, regional trade agreements, and the changing mix of the types of goods nations produce. Domestic policies will be a key focus when trade barriers and capital flows are considered. Another important issue will be the evolving role of international organizations in negotiating and enforcing changes in domestic policies. .4 Assignment Ideas 1. I like to use the index of openness to contrast the importance of trade to various nations and to drive home the fact that relative value matters. The chapter also lends itself to students developing some factual knowledge about U. S. trade history. One possibility is to look at U. S. trade policy in various time periods. The U. S. had relatively high tariffs (greater than 40 percent on average) throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1890, Congress passed the McKinley Tariff, followed in 1897 by the Dingley Tariff. Both tariffs raised rates further from their already high base. Wilson tried to reduce tariffs but was thwarted by World War I. Rates in the 1920s fell, but the Tariff Act of 1930 (Smoot-Hawley Tariff) raised the rates back up to nearly 45 percent. In the midst of the Great Depression (1934), Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Dulles, persuaded Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act. The Act authorized Roosevelt to negotiate bilateral, reciprocal tariff reduction agreements. This piece of legislation marks an historic shift in U. S. tariff policy, away from protectionism and toward more openness. Answers to End-of-Chapter Questions 1. How can globalization and international economic integration be measured? Answer:The chapter offers three ways to measure globalization and economic integration: (1) trade flows; (2) factor movements; and (3) convergence of prices (goods, factors, and assets). 2. In what sense is the U. S. economy more integrated with the world today than it was a century ago? In what ways is it less integrated? Answer:The U. S. ’s openness indicator is about sixty percent greater today than it was in 1890 ((25. 3 – 15. 8)/15. 8 ? 0. 601), or almost one hundred and nine percent greater than in 1910. While this is a very significant increase, it is hardly the revolution in economic relations that many people claim. The sixty percent statistic might be considered misleading, however, in that a much larger share of total goods output is traded (more than thirty percent in 1990 versus less than ten percent in 1950). While we cannot compare the latter statistic to 1890 or 1900, it does appear that there is a clear trend toward a greater role for international commerce. This is consistent with the observation that world trade has been growing faster than world output, at least since 1950. Much of the growth in trade since then, however, simply brought us back to where we were before World War II. In terms of labor flows, the U.S. is probably less integrated with the world economy than it was in 1890 or 1900. At those latter dates we had an open door immigration policy (for all but Chinese citizens), and a larger share of our population was foreign born (fourteen and one half percent in 1890 versus less than eight percent in 1990 and twelve percent today). Capital flows are more difficult to generalize since they can be measured several ways. While the absolute volume of capital flows has increased dramatically, as a share of world GDP it is probably no more than it was at the turn of the century, and it may be less. While the absolute volume of capital flows to developing countries has increased, the level of investment in any country is still highly correlated with its domestic savings rate. What is different, however, is the ease at which capital can cross international boundaries (lower transaction costs) and the much greater variety of assets that are traded. The need to protect against exchange rate risk is a key component of today’s international financial markets and is a primary difference from the fixed exchange rate standard of the past. The incidence of financial crises has not increased and, as a metric of integration, it implies no increase in capital market integration. The growth of regional trade agreements is also an indicator of increased integration. A growing role for international institutions such as the IMF or the World Bank may also indicate an increase in international integration. 3. What is â€Å"openness†? How is it measured? Does a low openness indicator indicate that a country is closed to trade with the outside world? Answer:Openness is a measure of the relative importance of trade to a national economy. It is measured by the ratio of exports plus imports to GDP. A relatively small openness indicator does not necessarily mean that an economy is intentionally closed to the outside world. Large countries like the U. S. or China have big domestic markets that enable firms to specialize and produce in volume in order to attain their optimal scale. Specialization and high volume in manufacturing is often associated with increased productivity, so firms in large markets can achieve the highest possible level of productivity without having to sell to foreign markets. Firms  located in smaller countries have to trade their output across international boundaries if they want to have the same technology and the same level of productivity. Consequently, large countries tend to have lower openness indicators regardless of their trade policies. 4. Describe the pattern over the last century shown by the openness index for leading industrial economies. Answer:The indicators fell between 1913 and 1950, when it begins to rise relatively rapidly. The main causes of the pattern shown in Figure 1. 1 are the two world wars and the Great Depression of the 1930s and changes in trade policy that accompanied that period. In 2000, they are mostly higher than they were before WWI. Another pattern the chapter notes is that the index is smaller for the larger population countries of Japan and the United States, and higher for the Netherlands, with its small population. 5. Trade and capital flows were described and measured in relative terms rather than absolute. Explain the difference. Which term seems more valid, relative or absolute? Why? Answer:Absolute values are the dollar amounts of trade and capital flows. Relative values are the ratio of dollar values to GDP. Relative values are a better indicator of the importance of a variable. Large economies like the U. S. may have large export and import values, but the importance of trade to the national economy is not nearly as great as it is for other economies. The U. S. is the world’s largest exporter and importer, but the national economy is so large that trade is much less important for the U. S. than it is for many smaller countries such as Canada, Belgium, or the Netherlands. 6. The relative size of international capital flows may not be much greater today than they were 100 years ago, although they are certainly greater than they were 50 years ago. Qualitatively, however, capital flows are different today. Explain. Answer:Major qualitative difference between late nineteenth and late twentieth century capital flows include the fact that there are many more types of financial instruments available now compared to a century ago. These instruments can be finely tailored to the income and risk preferences of investors. Secondly, a large share of the total flow of capital across borders is related to the need to protect against fluctuations in the value of currencies. This use of international capital markets was not as necessary when nations operated within fixed exchange rate systems. And third, the transaction costs of participating in international capital markets is much lower today than it was a century ago. 7. What are the new issues in international trade and investment? In what sense do they expose national economies to outside influences? Answer:The new issues involve policy differences between nations that until recently were considered the exclusive responsibility of local or national governments. Examples include labor standards, environmental standards, competition or antitrust policies, and industrial support policies. Negotiations between nations potentially give foreign interests a voice in setting domestic policy. The scope and the depth of the negotiations determine how great a voice foreigners will have. It is often the case, however, that negotiations either occur or are proposed because some aspect of domestic policy is perceived by foreigners as a barrier to trade, and they seek to alter the domestic policy that creates it. 8. Describe the three kinds of evidence economists use to support the assertion that open economies grow faster than economies that are closed to the word economy. Answer:These are: (1) casual empirical evidence of historical experience; (2) economic logic and deductive reasoning; and, (3) evidence of statistical comparisons of countries. (1)The historical evidence examines the experiences of countries that tried to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. First, not only did trade protection exacerbate the depression of the 1930s, but it also led to the misery and tragedy of World War II. Second, an examination of countries such as the former West and East Germany, South and North Korea, and other countries with the same historical, economic, and ethnic background that were divided by war, indicate that those who closed their economies from the rest of the world suffered in terms of prosperity and environmental degradation. East Asia experienced an economic take-off when it decided to integrate with the rest of the world, while Latin America, which had the same economic background with East Asia but chose to remain partially closed, experienced mediocre growth. The logic of economic theory also suggests a strong causal relation between trade and faster economic growth. The following is a summary of this linkage: Following Adam Smith, David Ricardo proved that comparative advantage leads to trade and this in turn leads to the reallocation of resources and the improvement of the standard of living of any nation, large or small. Modern trade theory also makes the case for exports and open trade as the causes for economic expansion. Exports and open trade foster competition, innovation, and learning-by-doing, and bring international best practices to the attention of domestic producers, spurring greater efficiency and export expansion. This helps domestic producers to realize economies of scale when they attempt to produce for the world market, rather than for their own limited domestic consumers. Larger markets create incentives for firms to engage in research and development, and allow countries to import important production inputs and foreign capital by minimizing the foreign exchange constraints. They facilitate the transfer of technology and managerial skills. It follows that open trade and exports increase the demand for the country’s output and therefore contribute strongly to positive economic growth. (3)Even though the statistical evidence is not quite conclusive (mainly due to measuring trade policy), the evidence of statistical comparison of countries (cross-sectional time series) indicates that countries benefit from open trade.