tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post5228156577204983233..comments2024-03-05T10:52:24.691+00:00Comments on Mark Wadsworth: Trade to population, GDP ratiosMark Wadsworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-30259645450787366592011-01-27T20:31:27.725+00:002011-01-27T20:31:27.725+00:00JH, try this:
"The larger the population, th...JH, try this:<br /><br />"The larger the population, the more likely it is to have a wide range of skills and resources and hence be self sufficient. The smaller the population, the more likely it is to be specialised and thus rely on imports and exports."Mark Wadsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-7951484013011557352011-01-27T20:00:24.771+00:002011-01-27T20:00:24.771+00:00Now, the one paragraph abstract?Now, the one paragraph abstract?James Highamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14525082702330365464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-35266829634408499502011-01-27T10:23:06.694+00:002011-01-27T10:23:06.694+00:00RS, these charts doon't 'prove' anythi...RS, these charts doon't 'prove' anything, they merely illustrate that larger economy/population = higher self-sufficiency ratio and hence lower trade-to-GDP ratio.<br /><br />So next time somebody wails on about the UK importing so much (and exporting so much), we can safely point out that as a medium sized economy, this is only to be expected (low self-sufficiency ratio and high degree of specialisation) and in any event, our import-to-GDP ratio is actually relatively low.Mark Wadsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-12726034206393741322011-01-27T10:09:03.601+00:002011-01-27T10:09:03.601+00:00Lets take a look at some economic laws of nature.
...Lets take a look at some economic laws of nature.<br /><br />1) more people means more trade means more wages<br /><br />2) trade is good. It allows more production for less cost (labour) this applies without the family, between towns, across regional margins, but most importantly across international borders. "we want your goods please, have this money in exchange, we want the goods more"<br /><br />History shows these laws are irrefutable. Intuition tells us they are true immediately, where the intellect toils over it for years<br /><br />Lets get over infinite evidence and move on please. Good work though.Robin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04648517992918303543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-32354290712788385002011-01-27T07:24:54.243+00:002011-01-27T07:24:54.243+00:00Anon - firstly, can you quantify "export so m...Anon - firstly, can you quantify "export so much" - do you mean in absolute or relative terms? <br /><br />Then find out their populations, GDP and trade-to-GDP ratio and see where they land on the chart. They might well be like Luxembourg, I don't know - their stat's are not included on the OECD page.<br /><br />PS, at no stage did I refer to "small land", I only said "small population". Land mass is irrelevant as far as I can see.Mark Wadsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-57892327383373914642011-01-27T07:11:07.881+00:002011-01-27T07:11:07.881+00:00Hi Mark,
OK...how does HK and Singapore with smal...Hi Mark,<br /><br />OK...how does HK and Singapore with small land and small population exports so much then?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-48148161403167186022011-01-26T23:53:53.110+00:002011-01-26T23:53:53.110+00:00BE, I checked the figures again - the UK is actual...BE, I checked the figures again - the UK is actually 'below the line', in other words, our trade-to-GDP and trade-to-population ratios are <i>lower</i> than we would expect from a simple regression, presumably because we are an island nation, drive on the right side of the road etc.Mark Wadsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-3091696832435694782011-01-26T23:36:11.847+00:002011-01-26T23:36:11.847+00:00BE, once we delve into it, there are a thousand ot...BE, once we delve into it, there are a thousand other tweaks we can introduce, i.e. we would expect remote countries (Australia, pop. 21m, trade-to-GDP ratio 22%) to have a much lower trade-to-GDP ratio than countries with a similar sized population which are close to lots of other countries (Chile, pop. 17m, trade-to-GDP ratio 43%) and so on.<br /><br />But don't imagine for one second that trade in fruit would even show up on the radar - the UK is nigh on self-sufficient in food and what it spends on pineapples, bananas and so on is 0.1% of GDP (or something).<br /><br />WV: shipsMark Wadsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-3466738364042324242011-01-26T23:23:18.631+00:002011-01-26T23:23:18.631+00:00Hmm. How about trade to fertile land ratios? I w...Hmm. How about trade to fertile land ratios? I would say that a country is less likely to need to trade in "essentials" if it has lots of land it can devote to producing a wide variety of food. One of the reasons that Britain trades so heavily is because the fruit and veg we grow here is boring compared with the fruit and veg we can import. Pineapples, bananas, tea, coffee, sugar etc.. <br /><br />The invented Eurozone and the non-invented USA (amongst others) have a huge geographical size and diversity within their borders. New Yorkers don't import their wine because it comes from Califonia several thousand miles away whereas Londoners do import their wine from a few miles across the Channel.Old BEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06974090439936326476noreply@blogger.com