Institutions, power, and inequality

Materials for class on Thursday, October 24, 2019

Contents

Slides

Download the slides from today’s class.

First slide

International Trade Game

This game was originally developed by the international NGO Action Aid and adapted by Dr. John Sloman from the University of the West of England.

Results

Country C1 (the poorest at the beginning) ended up outperforming all other groups due to their institutional arrangments and deals with other countries.

Country Total earnings % of world earnings
C1 $12,450 39.1%
A2 $9,900 31.1%
B1 $6,100 19.2%
A1 $3,400 10.7%


Gini coefficient

This distribution of wealth created a fairly equal society, with a Gini coefficient of 0.24.

Clearest and muddiest things

Go to this form and answer these three questions:

  1. What was the muddiest thing from class today? What are you still wondering about?
  2. What was the clearest thing from class today?
  3. What was the most exciting thing you learned?

I’ll compile the questions and send out answers after class.