What Facts Emerge When Looking At Figure 13 And 14?

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Economics
Question 1: The findings in Table 1 and Figure 1
Table 1 and Figure 1 are representations of the rate of economic growth among the developed countries or leading economies around the world for over 100 years. Figure 1, for instance, is a graphical representation of steady growth in the GDP per person in the United States from 1870 to the year 2014. The United States’ data on the per capita GDP growth across the study period further represents the rate of economic growth for all the leading economies in the world for the same interval. According to Figure 1, the leading economies have witnessed a steady economic growth rate of 2% per annum with the per capita GDP rising from $3,000 to $50,000 CITATION Jon16 \l 1033 (Jones). However, the Great Depression led to a 20% decline in the per capita income among the economies only to show tremendous improvements in 1939 as the economy recovered from the global financial crisis CITATION Jon16 \l 1033 (Jones). Table 1, on the other hand, reiterates on the observations made from the graph by breaking down the economic growth rates for the same period into different time intervals. The different intervals highlight the steady growth of the economy among the richest countries with some slight disparities. Both tables serve as an excellent platform for analyzing the factors contributing to economic growth and determining whether or not such a growth rate can be maintained.
Question 2: What is Human Capital? Discuss the “two facts” that emerge from Figure 8.
Human capital refers to one of the primary factors of production characterized by the per capita output of a person in the process of production. Human beings play a significant role in the process of production owing to the wide range of inputs delivered to the process as a whole. Such inputs take the form of knowledge, skills, or unskilled labor to aid in the production process and whose contribution is considered the person’s output or productivity for a given duration of time. The level of a person’s education plays a significant role in the production process as it determines the type of input they possess. Figure 8 shows the existing disparities in people’s contribution to the economy as influenced by educational differences. The number of graduates or college-educated individuals who join the United States labor force increased by almost 30% from the year 1963 to 2012 CITATION Jon16 \l 1033 (Jones). The increment reflects a rise from 20% to 50% in the number of college-educated workers in the United States workforce and a similar increase in their input towards the nation’s economic growth. The salaries or premium wage for the set of workers equally increased across the period indicating a higher cost of labor for college-educated workers compared to the uneducated and unskilled employees.
Question 3: What does the author mean by ideas and where do they come from? What facts emerge from Figures 9, 10, and 11?
Ideas refer to the concepts or frameworks developed by either an individual or an organization upon which forms the process of production for economic growth and development. Ideas give birth to the economic activities being carried out at the individual, regional, or national levels of production. Ideas can come up by chance or through comprehensive processes of intentional research on a particular economic sector and the viability of proposed production activities. The creation of ideas through research and development demands financial investment to fund the whole process and protect its findings from duplication by other interested parties. Figure 9, for instance, shows the financial expenditure on research and development across two parameters of the entity involved and the field or economic sector accounting for a majority of the financial investment. The private sector expenditure on research and development has been on the rise since 1929 with a majority of its finances going towards intellectual property products. The increasing competition in the software and entertainment industry accounts for the rising expenditure in research and development by the private sector. The government, on the other hand, continues to advance its space program and thus the stagnant or rather reducing expenditure on the same. The research and development projects further account for economic development through the creation of employment opportunities as indicated in figure 10. It is evident that research and employment employ only a small fraction of the world’s population with a majority of the employees belonging to the manufacturing industry. Thus, more competitive economic industries attract proportionate financial investment in research and technology. It is evident that the highly competitive industries conduct more research and development programs, which results in equally proportionate granting of patents as indicated by figure 11. Increased productivity and competition within a given economic sector leads to significant investments in research and development, which results in the generation of patent claims and granting of the same by the relevant authorities.
Question 4: Examples of Misallocation
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