Question: This exercise is designed to help one find the World Bank's World Development Indicators, extract data, and make sense of the numbers. Go to the database here: Extract data for China and the US [use the Country tab under "Variables"] for the following series [use the Series tab]:
Population (total)
Population (female as % of total)
GDP at market prices (in constant 2010 US$)
GDP per capita PPP (constant 2011 international dollars)
Tariff rate (i.e. tax on imports), weighted mean, all products (%)
Trade (as a % of GDP).
Employment to population ratio, 15+, female (%), ILO estimates
Employment to population ratio, 15+, male (%), ILO estimates
Employment to population ratio, 15+, total (%), ILO estimates
Collect the data for the past 20 years [use the Time tab]. Download the data [use the Download Options on the upper right hand side] and put the data into a spreadsheet. Now answer the following questions:
1- Which country has a larger GDP? Provide evidence.
2- How large is China's GDP per capita, as a fraction of US GDP per capita?
3- Which country levies the higher tax rate on imports? Provide evidence.
4- Graph the share of trade as a % of GDP for the US, and for China, over time [i.e. use a line graph for each series; you can put both series on the same graph.]
5- Which country is more dependent on trade?
6- Comment on what has happened to the share of trade in GDP over time?
7- Compared to the US, a smaller proportion of the Chinese population is female. Why? [You may need to do some additional Web searching to find an answer.]
8- Which country has a higher ratio of employment to population? Provide evidence.
9- Comment on the trends in the employment-to-population ratio over time? What might be causing these changes?