You will prepare and submit a term paper on Politics around the world.comparative. Your paper should be a minimum of 500 words in length. _______________________________________________________ PSC406 – Politics around the World Assignment 4 Part Regulation & Business
The extent of direct government involvement in markets and the policies in place have a direct effect on economic transactions. The World Bank’s Doing Business Project attempts to measure how easy (or difficult) it is to operate a business in a particular country. Using this data, explore some of the challenges faced by businesses around the world – and some of the reforms taking place.
From the home page (http://www.doingbusiness.org/), select the “Data” tab from the top of the screen. The next two questions ask you to explore data based on specific topics.
1. Use the “starting a business” from the topic drop down menu. (Note that you can sort the list by clicking on the heading title.)
a. In which country does it take the longest amount of time to open a new business? How long is it?
It takes the longest to start a business in Myanmar. The duration it takes is 72 days to do so.___________________________________________________________
b. The shortest?
It takes the shortest time to start a business in New Zealand since it only takes half a day.____________________________________________________________
2. Now select “labor market regulation” from the same drop down menu.
a. How many countries do not have a minimum wage? (i.e. it is listed as $0.00)
32 countries do not have a minimum wage. ___________________________________________________________
b. Among those countries that do, what is the lowest monthly wage? Where is this?
Burundi has the lowest monthly wage of $ 2.5 __________________________________________________________
c. What is the highest? Where is this?
The country with the highest minimum wage of $3,840.25 is Norway. __________________________________________________________
d. How does this compare to your own home country?
M y home country, the USA, has a minimum monthly wage of $1379.37_which is 551.7 times more than that of Burundi and 2.7 times less that of Norway. _______________________________________________________
3. Next, explore some of the reforms that can make it easier to do business, by looking under the “Business Reforms” tab.
a. What are some of the reforms that have made it easier to register property?
Some reforms that ease registration of properties include reduction of property
transfer taxes, reorganization of the process of acquiring approvals and digitizing the
system of keeping title deed records of some courts in the country, easing the process
of transferring property through establishment of effective time limits and automating
the records on immobile property. A country can also ease the process of registering
property by limiting the time required to register land and a title. Reducing the notary fees and doing away with the capital gains tax.
b. More difficult?
The process of registering property was made harder in Zimbabwe for instance by increasing the fees
paid to conveyancers, Zambia made the process difficult by increasing the tax rate of
transferring property. Vanuatu on the other hand increased the registration fees for
title deed transfer in its Lands Records department. Uruguay on its part introduced a
new regulation that gave the Municipality of Montevideo preemption rights hence
adding a procedure which lengthened the process of registering property.
c. What are some of the reforms that have made it easier to get credit?
Some of the reforms that were used to ease the process of getting credit include
Improving the credit information system in the country by digitizing credit reports of
Financial institutions, borrowers and public utilities like in Uruguay. A country like
Afghanistan implemented a unified collateral registry in order to reinforce its secured
transactions. Mauritius and Kenya increased access to credit information through.
expanding the scope of credit information that can be shared to include information
from retailers and utility companies. The countries also allowed both affirmative and negative information
d. More difficult?
The process of acquiring credit can be made difficult through law amendments.
Netherlands achieved that through weakening the secured transactions system by
Amending the provision on collection of State Taxes Act. The Act gives the outside
bankruptcy priority to claim taxes over secured creditors.
Part 2 – Healthcare Systems
There has been a lot of debate in the United States recently on the issue of offering public health care. How does U.S. spending on health care actually compare to other countries? The following will explore data available from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which maintains a statistical database on all of its member states: http://www.oecd.org
Under the topics menu, select “Health.” Then follow the link for “OECD Health Data 2014: Key indicators.” Click on the link that reads: “DOWNLOAD this selection of key indicators from OECD Health Statistics 2014 in Excel” Use this excel file to answer the following questions. In all cases, please report the data for 2012.
1. What is the public expenditure on health as a percent of the total expenditure on health for each country?
Sweden
Canada
U.K.
U.S.
Public Expenditure on health, % total expenditure on health
(2010)
81.3
70.1
84.0
47.6
a. What do these numbers tell us about the healthcare system in each country? (Click on the “i” next to the variable to find out more about what exactly is being measured).
The percentages show how these three countries. Sweden, Canada, and U.K spend
heavily on health care. The figures show the amounts that countries spend on drugs.
and treatment. In Sweden, Canada and the U.K, the governments spend more on the
healthcare as compared to U.S which spends only 47% of the country’s total
expenditure on health. The health expenditure covers the cost of both drugs and treatment for its citizens.
2. What is the cost? (please remember to use 2012 figures)
a. Fill in the following table:
Sweden
Canada
U.K.
U.S.
Total expenditure on health, % of gross domestic product
9.6
10.9
9.3
16.9
Public health expenditure per capita, US$ PPP
3336
3224
2762
4160
Out-of-pocket expenditure on health, US$ PPP
678
690
297
1045
b. Where is healthcare more expensive for the government?
The healthcare is more expensive for the U.S government.
____________________________________________________________
c. For citizens?
Citizens of U.S are also the ones who spend the most on healthcare. _________________________________________________________
3. From the Film “Sick Around the World” – Answer the following:
a. Which of the five countries featured utilizes the Beveridge model?
Of the five countries it is Britain that has the Beveridge model ( Reid, 2009).
__________________________________
b. What model does the U.S. have?
The U.S uses a mixture of the models. The poor use the out- of- pocket model
since they have no insurance, the old people use the medicare system whereby the
government caters for their treatment like it happens in Canada and the employed people are ensured by their employers like in Germany (Reid, 2009).
c. According to the film, what are the key differences between these 5 countries and the U.S.? Has the Affordable Care Act changed any of this?
The Japan and German health care systems differ from U.S in that they require
every citizen to have health insurance. The rich are in Germany are allowed to pay for their own insurance from the insurer of their choice while the poor get social assistance from the government. The Japanese get their insurance from their employers or from a nonprofit insurance organization.
In U.K, the government caters’ for all the citizen’s health insurance costs through the taxes collected from citizens (Global focus, 2013).
In Switzerland the healthcare system is also similar to that of Japan and Germany whereby citizens get social insurance and the poor are assisted by the government which does not happen in the U.S as the poor are left to struggle on their own to find medical assistance.
The Taiwan citizens also enjoy a national health insurance system like the most of other developed countries which means that the poor can afford to get decent health care unlike in the U.S where that is impossible (Frontline, 2014).
d. Of the five countries featured in the documentary, which health care system would you like the best? Why? (Be specific).
Of the five countries, I would like a the social insurance system like the one used in
Japan because it gives the citizens freedom to visit any hospital they want whether
private or public. That way, there are no long queues and as is the case in Britain.
The system is also good because it provides free healthcare to the sick which means
that they will not be left to die simply because they do not have the money to pay for
treatment. The system also dictates that the employer pays more than half of the
premium thus reducing the governments’ expenditure of health insurance. That way, the government can use the extra money to provide other services for its
citizens such as education and security.
Works Cited
Reid, Thomas Roy, The Healing of America: A global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and fairer Health Care, New York, Penguin Press, 2009, Print.
Frontline, Five capitalist Democracies and how they do it, Frontline, 2014, Web. Retrieved on 28th November, 2014 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/
Global Focus: Talk about the United Kingdom”. The Washington Post. June 30, 2013.
