Economie anglo-saxonne

What do you mean by Anglo-Saxon ?

Connection of countries and economies deeply influenced by English customs: - Same language - Share a common legal system which distinguish these countries from France, Germany, Japan ✓ Position of case law ✓ Notion of equity - Religion played key part in developing the economies ✓ Protestantism: “make their own way of life” - Political liberalism ✓ Democracies for hundred years - Economic liberalism ✓ Free market ✓ Adam Smith : Capitalism’s origins

Which countries?

- UK - US - Canada - Australia - New Zealand - Ireland

4 factors to identify what they have in common:

1 Measuring a country’s economic activity:

Principal measure of a country’s overall economic activity is called Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and can be defined as: - “a measure of the total flow of goods and services produced by an economy over a particular time period, normally a year. Calculated by valuing and adding together all that is produced within a country in a year”
- The value of all intermediate goods is excluded
- Gross refers to the fact that no deduction is made to reflect expenditure on replacement of capital goods
- Domestic refers to the fact that income arising from investments outside the country is not counted.

2 Making international economic comparisons:

- Population - GDP - World biggest oil company by turnover/revenues
To be able to make comparisons internationally, a common currency is necessary ✓ The US $ is the standard basis for making international financial and economic comparisons ✓ But exchange rates change everyday and can vary by a lot over time so such movements distort comparisons

3 International comparisons continued:

If I want to compare individual people’s welfare even with GDP in $ and adjusted for purchasing