Compare economic activities: Philippines, Mexico, Japan, Afghanistan

MY FOUR COUNTRY: Philippines, Mexico, Japan, Afghanistan

Week 7: Homework Economic Activities

For this homework activity, you will compare economic activities (as outlined below) for your four selected countries.  You will also explore the production location of several personal clothing and electronics items.

Compile all the elements for Part A and Part B into a single document (Save as a PDF file type), and submit via the “Week 7 HW Economic” assignment in Canvas.

Part A: Compare economic activities of your 4 countries

A1.For this activity, collect data on the economic activity of your four countries and create a table with the details.  The economic activity data points you need to collect are listed below in bold.  Websites are provided. If unfamiliar, be sure to read the definitions of each data variable.:

At the CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/ 

· Look up the three sectors of the economy– either as “GDP composition”, or “labor force by occupation”. Be sure to specify which you use.

· Exports

· world ranking

· primary exports partners

· primary exports commodities

· Imports

· world ranking

· primaryimports partners

· primaryimports commodities

World Bank Data:

· Trade in services(% of GDP) https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BG.GSR.NFSV.GD.ZS 

· Service Imports: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BM.GSR.NFSV.CD 

Google Public Data (World Bank Development Indicators):  https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&hl=en&dl=en 

· FDI, Net inflows(% of GDP)

· International tourism, receipts(% of total exports)

Fortune Global 500

· List any Global 500 companies located within each country (if multiple, some of the largest)

Possible sites:

List by country https://fortune.com/global500/2019/search/     (Filter by country)

The Global 500 http://fortune.com/global500/visualizations/ 

A2. After completing the table, write a couple of paragraphs comparingthe differences in economic activities between the four countries.

Part B:  The production location of several personal clothing and electronics items

The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy (Pietra Rivoli, Wiley Publishers) was a popular book from 2005 that helped reveal the extent of global production system by tracing the sourcing, production, and marketing of an everyday object — a t-shirt.

While today we are quite aware of this reality of global production, sometimes we become desensitized and forget the global reach that occurs in our everyday consumption of goods.

For this exercise, you are to examine the production location of both your clothing and your electronics. You will be asked to input your findings into the quiz at the end of this module.

B1. Collect 10 different pieces of your clothing (pants, dresses, shirts, shoes, hats, etc…). Look at the tag — in what country was it made?  For each item, record the following information:

· type of clothing, brand name (if any), country of production

EXAMPLE: flannel shirt, Eddie Bauer, Sri Lanka

B2. Collect approximately 5 electronic devices (laptop, smartphone, tablet/pad, TV, radio, headphones ) that you own or use frequently in your daily routine.  This can include items on campus that you do not own. For each item, record the following information:

· type of electronic device, brand name (if any), country of production

EXAMPLE: VGA to Thunderbolt dongle, Apple, China

B3. Write a brief paragraph that compares / contrasts the geographies of production of your clothing and your electronic devices. Do they seem to come from similar or different countries and regions of the world?  Describe these similarities or differences.  Why do you think production of these items occurs where they do?