UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA
FACULTY OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY
COURSE TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMIC HISTORY
COURSE CODE: HSTY113
LECTURER’S NAME: DR. AMOAKO
GYAMPAH
STUDENT NUMBER: 230007738
STUDENT NAME: AUGUSTINE WILLIAMS-MENSAH
ASSIGNMENT
(1) How is GDP different from GNP?
(2)What are institutions and why are they important? Can you think of institutions that are
typical for Africa, your country or your family?
(3) Economic growth is often considered a necessary condition for “development” but
nota sufficient condition. Can you explain what is meant by this?
(4) Human development differs from economic development or political development.
Can you describe the most important differences?
(1) How is GDP different from GNP?
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is referred to as the value of finished domestic goods and
services generated within a country's boundaries (Seth, 2022). Gross National Product (GNP), on
the other hand, is the market value of goods and services produced by all citizens of a country—
both domestically and abroad. The difference between the two phenomena is that Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) is concerned with the value or income generated within the country’s
borders regardless of whether they are produced by citizens or foreigners whiles Gross National
Product (GNP) is concerned with value or income both within as well as outside the country’s
borders provided they are produced by its citizens.
(2) What are institutions and why are they important? Can you think of institutions
that are typical for Africa, your country or your family?
Institutions are the systems of established and prevalent social rules that structure social
interactions (Joshi & Carter, 2015). Institutions, sometimes confused with organisations, operate
in all spheres of life and can affect access to economic, legal, political, and social rights and
opportunities. The difference between these two concepts is that if institutions can be defined as
the “rules of the game”, organisations are how we structure ourselves to play (Joshi & Carter,
2015). Institutions are important because they guide the conduct of a group of people, be it a
small group of people or even a whole country in order to ensure order when it comes to
interactions between and among individuals, firms and even states or countries. Institutions that
are common in contemporary Ghanaian society include laws, regulations, legal agreements,
contracts and constitutions that are enforced by third parties, as well as norms, procedures,
conventions and traditions that are often embedded in culture (Joshi & Carter, 2015).
(3) Economic growth is often considered a necessary condition for “development”
but not a sufficient condition. Can you explain what is meant by this?
Economic growth is referred to as an increase in the capacity of an economy to produce goods
and services, compared from one period of time to another (Econlib, n.d.). In other words, it is
the consistent increase in the output of goods and services produced by a given society. It is often
considered a necessary condition for development; it is not a sufficient condition. This is because
the determinants of development include availability of resources, technological innovation and
socio-cultural content of the people. “Economic growth is a straightforward measurement of
actual economic output — things like gross domestic product (GDP) fall into this measurement.
It’s a pure numbers game.
But economic development is much broader in scope and includes elements that you might not
normally associate with economics, like social welfare, early childhood education, and criminal
justice reform.” (Denver-south, n.d.,para.3). In other words, economic development is economic
growth accompanied by structural change in the economy. It needs creative, brilliant, visionary
and self-disciplined people in the labour force in order to be achieved. Factors necessary for
development include the material well-being of the people as well as responsible behaviour.
Without the above mentioned values a country may achieve economic growth but not economic
development since output of goods and services does not mean actual development in a country.
(4) Human development differs from economic development or political
development. Can you describe the most important differences?
Human development can be characterised as an increase in human capacities, a broadening of
options, an increase in freedom, and the fulfilment of human rights (Kumar, n.d.). It is a life span
issue ( Merrick, J. 2013) Economic development is economic growth accompanied by structural
change in the country. Political development is regarded as political change in the direction
required in order to approach objective solutions to basic societal problems connected with
"underdevelopment" or insufficient "development" (Rudebeck,1970). The difference between
human development and economic development or political development is that with human
development the people in the society or country are given higher training to provide more
labour force. This helps to ensure economic and political development since without human
resources the basic societal problems cannot be solved neither can the country’s economic
problems be alleviated.
References
GDP vs. GNP: What's the Difference?
By SHOBHIT SETH Updated June 12, 2022
Public sector institutional reform
Anuradha Joshi, Becky CarterMay 2015. GSDRC.
https://gsdrc.org/topic-guides/public-sector-institutional-reform/concepts/what-are-institutions/
Joshi & Carter, 2015 para. 4
Joshi & Carter, 2015 para. 5
Econlib. (n.d.) Economic growth.
https://www.econlib.org/library/Topics/College/economicgrowth.html
Denver-South. (n.d.) What is economic development? https://denver-south.com/what-is-
economic-development/
Merrick J. (2013). Child health and human development over the lifespan. Frontiers in public
health, 1, 1. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2013.00001
Kumar, M. (n. d.). Human development: Meaning, objectives and components economics
discussion.
https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/human-development/human-development-meaning-objecti
ves-and-components/11754
Rudebeck, L. (1970) Political development towards a coherent and relevant theoretical
formulation of the concept. Scandinavian Political Studies (Bind 5).
https://tidsskrift.dk/scandinavian_political_studies/article/view/32068/29585#:~:text=Thus%2C
%20%22political%20development%22%20may,%22%20or%20insufficient%20%22developmen
t%22.
