Exercise No. 5
Economic Comparisons

  1. GET RECENT ECONOMIC INFORMATION ON YOUR COUNTRY:   Do a special LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe  search  for a current economic report on your country.  At the initial Lexis-Nexis screen choose the "Guided News Search" option.  At the news category box select "Business News."   At the news source box, select the "Business and Finance" option.  In the box next to "Keyword" type this phrase: "country-name's economy" (for example:  "Iran's economy") -- do not forget to include the quote marks (") around this phrase.  You can leave the Date box set at six months since you want a recent report. You should get several good reports, if not than extend the date.   Save it on your USB drive, you can use it for Part 4 of your country study.
  2. Go to the World Bank's "Countries and Regions Page"  and find a variety of World Bank data and reports on your country.  Save report(s) on your USB drive.
  3. Go to the World Bank's "Regional Economic Prospects" page and find the recent assessment of regional economic developments for your country's region (Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa.)  These short reviews will allow you to place a particular country's performance within a regional perspective. Print it out or save it on your USB drive.
  4. Open up the Intentional Futures Program.
  5. Choose "Display" and "Self-Managed Flexible Display."  
  6. In the "Display Menu" choose "Select Names" and "Full Set (of variables/parameters).  
  7. Find "WGDPPC" (World GDP per capita in Thousands of Dollars) and select it.  Change the "Using Countries/Regions" box to "Using Groups" and select GDPPC  for your country's region (Latin America, Africa, etc.). Change the "Using Groups" box back to "Using Countries/Regions" and select GDPPC for your country. Exit
  8. Choose the "Graph" option and pick "Bar Chart."  Using the "Customization Dialog" produce a nicely labeled bar chart  by ten-year periods listing the predicted GDP per capita for the World, your region, and your country.  Using the skills you acquired in doing previous exercises produce a correctly labeled  bar graph of these data.  Hit "Save" and "Export" and then open up a Word file and paste the graph into it.  Go back to the IF "Graphical Display" window and "save" the graph again as a JPG file and "export" it to your USB drive for later use in your country study.  When saving these JPG files for later use you might want to change the "pixel" numbers from 1000 to 750 and from 732 to 549.  This will produce a bar graph that can more easily "fit" into a web page. You have to click the "file" button and hit the "browse" tab and find your USB drive to save it there.  Your graph should look like this:
     

  9. Go back, "continue," clear selections and change the "Using Countries/Regions" box to "Using Groups."  Find "ZS" (Gross Production by Sector), choose "World," select "All" sectors. Exit
  10. Go to "Graph" and choose "PieChart."   
  11. Using the skills you acquired in doing previous exercises.  Go to "Display Format" in the Display Menu you can then go to "Format Legends" and customize the labels on your chart -- you should know how to do this by now.  In this case copy the "sector" labels to the first column and "erase" all entries in the other two columns. Your can label the "y" axis label by hitting the "Set Title" option under the "Display Format" tab.  When your bar graph appears right click on it and hit the "Customization Dialog."   You can then enter a good title and subtitle, change the "numeric precision" to "1."  Change the "Data Label Type" to "percentage."
  12. Type in an appropriate Title and sub-title.  
  13. In the Title box, put "World, Production by Sector:  2000." 
  14. You should produce a pie chart that looks like this:

     
  15. Save this Pie Chart to a Word file.  Hit "Save" and "Export" and then open up a Word file and paste the graph into it.  Go back to the IF "Graphical Display" window and "save" the graph again as a JPG file and "export" it to your USB drive for later use in your country study.  When saving these JPG files for later use you might want to change the "pixel" numbers from 1000 to 750 and from 732 to 549.  This will produce a bar graph that can more easily "fit" into a web page. You have to click the "file" button and hit the "browse" tab and find your USB drive to save it there.
  16.  Click on the "Advance" menu item until you reach the year 2025.  Correct the Title and sub-title and save this chart.  "Advance" to the year 2050 and again save this chart.,  
  17. Go back, "continue," clear selections and change the "Using Countries/Regions" box to "Using Groups."  Find "ZS" (Gross Production by Sector) for your country's region, select "All" sectors. [If you  don't know what region contains your country go to the Main Menu, "Extended Features," "Manage Regionalization," "Identify Country/Region or Group Members." Click on the "Switch to Group" tab.   When you click of each region, there will be a listing of the countries contained in that group.] Exit.
  18. .Go to "PieChart", and produce three pie charts for the years 2000, 2025 and 2050 presenting the production by sector for your country's region.  Your pie charts should look something like this:
     

  19. Go back, "continue," clear selections and change the "Using Groups" box to "Using Countries/Regions."  Find "ZS" (Gross Production by Sector) for your country, select "All" sectors. Exit
  20. Go to "PieChart", and produce three pie charts for the years 2000, 2025 and 2050 presenting the production by sector for your country.  Your pie charts should look something like this:  


  21. You are to do two economic comparisons  for this exercise:
      22.  
      1.  In your Word file your should have 7 graphs:  1 bar graph comparing GDP per capita projections for 2000 to 21000, and 6 pie charts examining production by sector from 2000 to 2050.   First, you are to compare the economy of your country to that of the world and its region using this bar chart and these pie charts.  During the 21st century how does the trend in your country's GDP per capita compare to that of the entire World  and to that of its region?   In the year 2000 how does the production by sector of your country compare to that of the World and to that of its region?  Does this relationship change in 2025 and 2050?

      2.  Second, read the reports that you found on the web about your country's economy.  Using these reports write a brief analysis of your particular country's economic situation and its economic prospects.  Compare your country's economic situation to that of the region as a whole.  For example, if your country is Ecuador -- how is Ecuador's economic situation and prospects different from that of Latin America in general.  Use the World Bank's regional analyses (see link above) to get an overview of the region's economic prospects. 

      You will be able to directly incorporate both these analyses directly into your country study, so all the effort you put into this part of the exercise will be very useful to you later.