ECON 3392 – Assignment 1 Deadline: July 16 (Friday)

Total points: 5

1. (3 points) Using Excel and data from the Angus Maddison Project1, complete the

following:

(a) Plot the evolution of GDP per capita of Canada, the USA and a third country of your choosing, from the earliest possible year until 2016. Briefly comment on these time series. (b) Using these three countries, create a scatter plot, with GDP per capita in 1950 on the horizontal axis, and the growth rate of GDP per capita between 1950 and 2016 on the vertical axis. Did these countries converge in this period? (c) Create the same scatter plot but using all countries in the database. Was there convergence in this period? What about for a subsample of countries? (d) Why does economist expect income convergence between developed and developing countries? Based on your findings of question c, why some countries able to convergence but others could not? What’s factors would you look for explanation? 2. (2 points) Read Article 2 to answer question 5 and 6: Acemoglu, Daron, Francisco

Gallego, and James A Robinson. 2014. Institutions, Human Capital and Development, Annual Reviews of Economics 6: 875-912.

(a) “Colonial experiences provide better human capital of developing countries” do you agree? Provide your explanation after reading article 2. (Word limit 250). (b) Summarize the relationship among institutions, human capital accumulation, and long-run economic development. (Word limit 300).

1 Link: https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2018