Question

Part 1: GDP in Different Countries (weight 50% of the assignment grade)

Complete the following exercise:

Go to World Development Indicators database:

https://databank.worldbank.org/home.aspx

Click on World Development Indicators.

1. Select 15 countries for your project by checking the check boxes under Country.
2. Select the 2 data series GDP (current US$) and Population (Total) under Series.
3. Select the most recent year under Time. Please use the last year when the data is available. Otherwise you will get zero for this part of the project.
4. Choose Layout on the upper left side of the screen. Under Orientation choose “Page” for Time, “Column” for Series, “Row” for Country.
5. Retrieve data. You can now retrieve data by clicking on the options on the right upper side of the window. Clicking “Table” will allow you to see data. Click “Download options” and choose “Data on this page only – formatted”. This option will allow you to download the data in Excel, which can then be copied into your report file. Or you can simply type the required data into the table below. Fill in the table below.
6. Present the table in your project.
7. Calculate the per capita GDP for the most recent available year for the countries with the equation given in the far right column.

Country	GDP	Population	Per Capita GDP
1	2	3	4 = 2/3

Write a short report in your own words (1 page, double-spaced), which contains the analysis of the results you have gotten. In this report consider, but do not be limited to the following:

1. List the countries by highest per capita GDP to lowest.
2. Does the order remain the same for total GDP as for per capita GDP.
3. If not, explain why is it different?
4. Please analyze and discuss the significance of this data and reflect on what you have learned from this exercise.

Part 2: Index of Economic Freedom (weight 50% of the assignment grade)

Log onto the Heritage Foundation's website at https://www.heritage.org/index/

“Today, we live in the most prosperous time in human history. Poverty, sicknesses, and ignorance are receding throughout the world, due in large part to the advance of economic freedom. In 2019, the principles of economic freedom that have fueled this monumental progress are once again measured in the Index of Economic Freedom, an annual guide published by The Heritage Foundation, Washington's No. 1 think tank.

For over twenty years the Index has delivered thoughtful analysis in a clear, friendly, and straight-forward format. With new resources for users and a website tailored for research and education, the Index of Economic Freedom is poised to help readers track over two decades of the advancement in economic freedom, prosperity, and opportunity and promote these ideas in their homes, schools, and communities.

The Index covers 12 freedoms – from property rights to financial freedom – in 186 countries.”

Click on COUNTRY RANKING to find the Rank and the Overall Score of economic freedom.

Click on EXPLORE THE DATA to find the Rank of business, trade, financial freedom, and property rights.

1. Find the Rank and Overall Score in economic freedom (overall) of the countries that you were using in part III of the assignment. Present this information as table(s) in your project.
2. Find the scores in business, trade, financial freedom, and property rights of the countries that you were using in part III of the assignment. Present this information as table(s) in your project.
3. Compare the Rank in economic freedom (overall) and other indicators with the order of the countries using the per capita GDP in the table in part III of the assignment.
4. Write a report in your own words (1 page, double-spaced), which contains the analysis of the results that you received. Discuss the significance of the data and what you feel is the relevance of rankings. Please reflect on what you have learned from this assignment.

Answer 1

GDP per capita

Country	GDP (current US$)	Population, total	GDP per capita
Luxembourg	70,88,53,25,883.10	6,07,728.00	1,16,639.89
Switzerland	7,05,14,03,54,166.30	85,16,543.00	82,796.55
United States	2,05,44,34,34,56,936.50	32,71,67,434.00	62,794.59
Australia	14,33,90,43,48,500.10	2,49,92,369.00	57,373.69
Netherlands	9,13,65,84,65,709.10	1,72,31,017.00	53,024.06
Germany	39,47,62,01,62,503.00	8,29,27,922.00	47,603.03
United Kingdom	28,55,29,67,31,522.00	6,64,88,991.00	42,943.90
Japan	49,71,32,30,79,771.90	12,65,29,100.00	39,289.96
Spain	14,19,04,19,49,909.80	4,67,23,749.00	30,370.89
Saudi Arabia	7,86,52,18,31,572.00	3,36,99,947.00	23,338.96
Argentina	5,19,87,15,19,807.80	4,44,94,502.00	11,683.95
Russian Federation	16,57,55,46,47,149.90	14,44,78,050.00	11,472.71
China	1,36,08,15,18,64,637.90	1,39,27,30,000.00	9,770.85
Turkey	7,71,35,03,30,455.30	8,23,19,724.00	9,370.18
India	27,18,73,22,31,257.60	1,35,26,17,328.00	2,009.98

GDP per capita theoretically tells the production of each individual of a country. It is the first thing to explore when exploring the status of the company It divides the GDP of a country by its population

It is visible here that Luxembourg has the highest GDP per capita even after being one of the lowest in GDP. this is because of its small population size of just 6 million, the population of a mid-sized Indian or Chinese town. India, even though having one of the highest GDP in the world ranks way behind in GDP per capita because of its vast population. Here, the USA has a huge population but still manages to get on the top ranking because of its enormous GDP. China also has the second-highest GDP in the world but still slips on the bottom when it comes to GDP per capita. Turkey even after having a little more than 1/4th of GDP of India has more than 4 times GDP per capita.

The order of highest GDP to the lowest and highest per capita GDP to lowest is not the same because of the population factor. Higher the population, more distributed the wealth of the country and more populous countries tend to slip on the bottom if their GDP is not high.

This exercise told me how to analyze the per capita GDP of the country and what it reflects. It was interesting to know about the difference in everything between India and Lexumberg. One being micronation and another second-most populous country in the world. One has tiny GDP, another one having one of the highest, Luxembourg being a rich nation and India being a poor one.

Index of Economic freedom

Name	Index Year	Overall Score	Property Rights	Business Freedom	Trade Freedom	Financial Freedom
Luxembourg	2,019	75.90	83.00	68.80	86.00	80.00
Switzerland	2,019	81.90	85.30	75.40	87.40	90.00
United States	2,019	76.80	79.30	83.80	86.60	80.00
Australia	2,019	80.90	79.10	88.30	87.60	90.00
Netherlands	2,019	76.80	88.00	81.40	86.00	80.00
Germany	2,019	73.50	79.90	83.30	86.00	70.00
United Kingdom	2,019	78.90	92.30	92.90	86.00	80.00
Japan	2,019	72.10	84.10	80.50	80.00	60.00
Spain	2,019	65.70	72.90	66.80	86.00	70.00
Saudi Arabia	2,019	60.70	55.00	72.30	76.00	50.00
Argentina	2,019	52.20	47.80	56.40	70.00	60.00
Russia	2,019	58.90	52.40	78.40	77.80	30.00
China	2,019	58.40	49.90	56.20	73.00	20.00
Turkey	2,019	64.60	55.80	66.00	79.60	60.00
India	2,019	55.20	57.30	57.10	72.40	40.00

The Index of Economic freedom is kind of related to GDP per capita but one does not totally depend on another. This Index has put Argentina at the bottom and Switzerland at the top indicating that GDP per capita is not linked to this Index, therefore, studying this index also becomes necessary while assessing the overall condition of the country. China ranks really low at 20 in financial freedom, this can be due to the government's intervention in day to day life of the public in every aspect of society.

Germany is interesting here as it's ranking is low with respect to its freedoms and ranks in every category but it was due to low government spending on public healthcare, education, and overall infrastructure.

Business freedom, which tells the ease of doing business in a country. Luxembourg seems to fall apart and one may think how this country is so rich with so low business freedom but Luxembourg is rich because it is tax heaven and rich people stash their money here and give more investment opportunities to government. Argentina is lowest and the United Kingdom is highest here

Trade freedom indicates more opportunities for people in trading among different parts of the country and also importing and exporting opportunities. Every country seems to be doing good in this section with a range of only 17.4 with Australia on top and Argentina at the bottom.

Overall Ranking of Switzerland is the highest here and lowest for Argentina.