Economic Freedom and GDP per capita — Gapminder-style

For a while now I’ve shared common hopes to have the Economic Freedom data take new forms.  The relationship between Economic Freedom and GDP per capita for example is not hard to imagine, however there is always something a bit more compelling about a nice visualization.  Gapminder’s Trendalyzer seemed to have established the perfect format — it was just a matter of time before unique data sets could be plotted in a similar manner.  Google has now made this possible, and with the release of their new spreadsheet gadgets I’ve taken the opportunity to dive into the Economic Freedom data, and add motion.

This first graph compares the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal’s Index of Economic Freedom country scores with GDP per capita in US dollars as reported from the United Nations Common Database the data from 2000–2005.  Colors denote regions.  Size denotes population.

This second graph uses the same data minus some of the clutter.  I’ve selected to display just a few countries which I think are interesting to compare to one another: North Korea and South Korea, China and Hong Kong, Cuba and Spain, and Botswana and Zimbabwe.

A hat-tip to Google for making this powerful tool available at such an accessible level. Now, on with setting free all that interesting information housed in academic jargon, repelling visuals, and bullet-pointed presentations.

In Pursuit of Florida Parrot T-Shirts

Pietra Rivoli‘s Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is an excellent biography of an unexpected protagonist: her Florida Parrot T-Shirt. From analyzing the institution of slavery as a cotton subsidy to looking at the US used clothing market in East Africa, Rivoli takes a tastefully empirical look at what has led the cotton industry to thrive and exist as it does today.  NPR has even done a three-part audio series inspired by the book.

I think most commendable to her analysis is how she has mentioned that in all of her travels, and in all of her interviews, she did not meet a single bad person.  It suggests the solution to the many conflicts that arise out of all countries cotton subsidies must be much deeper than the everyday people making decisions about what and what not to purchase.

While the book does not offer any solutions to the many dilemmas faced in the global textile trade, it adds a remarkable amount of depth to an often two-dimensional debate.  Rivoli has mentioned one thing she sees as possibly hopeful for removing these engrained cotton handouts is an increase in non market distorting subsidies.  She defined these subsidies as when you pay people to go sit on the beach rather than pay them to produce an excess supply of something that will drive prices down.

While I would guess the idea of a non market distorting subsidy may be contested, it does raise an interesting question.  Ten years from now, might it be easier to push for the end to cotton subsidies if all of the cotton growers are working hard in their feilds, or if they are all off enjoying the beach?

On related issues, Russel Roberts writes on the peculiar relationship between Chinise textile quotas and the WTO.

Loveboat with a Timecard

Outsourcing to international waters to avoid H-1B visa regulations.  Countries are just arbitrary, time-sensitive definitions anyway.