Week 9 Quiz

The World Bank places a country in its high-income group for fiscal year 2027. What does that label describe?

Select one.

• The income that a typical resident of the country earns in a year
• The country's GNI per capita, an average, which is above the high-income line
• The share of the country's households that live above the poverty line
• The way income is spread across the country's households, low to high

An illustrative country has GNI per capita of 5,000 dollars. The fiscal year 2027 thresholds are: low income, 1,175 dollars or less; lower-middle, 1,176 to 4,635; upper-middle, 4,636 to 14,375; high, above 14,375. Which income group is the country in?

Select one.

• Lower-middle income, because 5,000 dollars sits very close to the 4,635-dollar line
• High income, because 5,000 dollars is far above the low-income ceiling
• Upper-middle income, because the figure falls inside the upper-middle band
• Low income, because 5,000 dollars a year is a small amount per person

Two illustrative villages each have an average household income of 6,000 dollars. In one, every household earns 6,000; in the other, four earn 2,000 and one earns 22,000. What does this show about GDP per capita as a measure of development?

Select one.

• As a total divided by a head count, it can hide deep poverty beside one large income
• It shows the income of the middle household, so the two villages are equally well off
• It measures how unequally income is spread, so the second village has the higher figure
• It counts each household's health and schooling, so the two villages score the same

In June 2025 the World Bank raised the International Poverty Line from 2.15 dollars a day in 2017 prices to 3.00 dollars a day in 2021 prices. Its 2024 estimate of people in extreme poverty came out about 125 million higher than under the old line. Which reading fits?

Select one.

• About 125 million more people became poorer during 2024 than in the year before
• The share of the world's people in extreme poverty has risen over the long run
• The line rose by 0.85 dollars a day in real terms, so the count had to rise too
• The count rose because the line was raised, not because anyone's income fell

Critics call one of this week's explanations of global inequality ethnocentric, because it assumes one path of development modeled on the West. Which explanation is it?

Select one.

• Modernization theory, associated with Rostow's The Stages of Economic Growth
• Dependency theory, which holds that core nations prosper by drawing on poorer nations
• World-systems theory, from Wallerstein's The Modern World-System
• Cultural relativism, which reads a practice in its own cultural context

Which statements describe world-systems theory as this course teaches it? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• It comes from Wallerstein's book The Modern World-System
• It holds that every low-income country passes through the same stages of growth
• It treats the world's countries as parts of one world economy
• It names a semi-periphery between the core nations and the periphery
• It uses periphery to mean countries on the outer edge of a world map

An analyst looks at an illustrative garment factory that sews shirts for a brand based in another country and says: the brand keeps most of the shirt's price, so the factory is value drawn from a poorer nation to a richer one. Which explanation is the analyst using?

Select one.

• Modernization theory, which reads the factory as an early stage of industrialization
• Symbolic interactionism, which asks what the shirt's label means to a shopper
• Dependency theory, which holds that wealthy nations prosper by drawing on poorer ones
• Structural functionalism, which asks what job the factory does for the economy

Which of these illustrative companies is a multinational corporation?

Select one.

• A very large retail chain with hundreds of stores, all inside one country
• A small furniture maker headquartered in one country with a workshop in a second
• A national railway with many thousands of employees working in one country
• A large online store that sells only to customers in its home country

For 2022, the World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform, as published by Our World in Data, gives Norway a Gini index of 26.9 and the United States 41.7, on the 0-to-100 scale. Which reading do these figures support?

Select one.

• The United States was a richer country than Norway in 2022
• Incomes in the United States were 41.7 percent unequal in 2022
• Norway's lower Gini value shows that its tax system caused equality
• Income was more unequally spread across households in the United States

Across the world's countries, higher national income tends to come with longer life expectancy. What does this association show by itself?

Select one.

• That the two are linked, though it does not show which way the arrow runs
• That higher national income causes people to live longer lives
• That any one person in a richer country will outlive a person in a poorer one
• That longer lives cause countries to earn more income over time