Week 4 – HW 2 Spring 2022

World Development Indicators Data Exercise.

Finding Total debt service (as % of exports of goods, services and primary income).

In the videos this week we covered how Latin America fell into the debt trap during its experiment with
Import Substitution Industrialization in the 1980s. This led to a disastrous final decade of the 20 th
century. Eventually Latin America recovered from these policies riddles with contradictions and at cross
purpose with each other. The Latin American countries subsequently followed eclectic strategies for
economic development, but with most pursuing a more exports-oriented strategy relative to the ISI
strategy. Some are doing quite well today and some less well. Where do a sampling of Latin American
countries stand today with respect to their ability to service their external debt in comparison to back
then? To answer this question, you are to gather a time series of the debt service from World
Development Indicators for select countries. You will display these in a charts or in a table. Examine
these series and answer the questions posed below.

Below, I provide information on how to obtain these series. If by chance you have trouble following the
instructions, go the Global and International Studies program Global Data Center and find the
instructions for pulling variable off World Development Indicators. Screen shots with step by step
instructions can be followed. The steps I provide below are less detailed but will likely still get you to the
series you need.

Go to https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators

Select the following 4 countries from the menu: Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti.

Select the following series --- Total debt service (% of exports of goods, services and primary income).

If you search for the variable using the term --- total debt service--- you will get in excess of 300 possible
series and you will need to search through them to find the right one. If you search using quotes around
the search phrase, (i.e you input “total debt service” in the search bar) you will get only 26 possible
variables to search through. MAKE SURE you have selected the correct variable. There are many
variables with the terms debt and service, but are not the ones we wish to consult.

Select the following years -- 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020.

Before you leave the database, be sure to click on the “i” next to the variable (in the series selection
menu) in order to get the full definition of the variable you are reporting on. Copy it and paste it onto
your report.

For these 4 countries, either plot the data using excel (to produce a good representation of what is going
on with debt service over time) or produce a table with the information. If you don’t have excel on your
computer and wish to use it, remember that the university’s Suite of Microsoft products gives you
access to excel online.

The value for Haiti in 2020 is missing (it isn’t available yet). Don’t worry about that. Work with the
values from 1980 to 2015 for Haiti.
1. Either make a table with the 4 series or produce 4 data plots. Be complete in your work by
distinguishing each country’s series, identifying the variable and years of data and citing your source of
information. You will be penalized if you are missing any of these. (4 points for the 4 data series
displayed either in charts or in a table; 1 point for describing/defining the variable clearly; 1 point for
citing the source of information). You can insert this information at the end of this file along with your
plots or table of data. If you wish to use excel to produce plots, there is a guide to accessing Excel in the
module titled “Extra Stuff”. Think carefully about how you will display your information. A table is fine
or charts are fine---but they must be profession in that they be neat, clear, and understandable.

2. In comparison to the initial year of data (1980), which countries are experiencing more burdensome
debt service in 2020? (Use 2015 for Haiti since their 2020 data isn’t published yet). (1 point)

3. Notice that for the last year of data (2015), Haiti is experiencing very low debt service. Provide a
plausible hypothesis for why this maybe so. You don’t need to look anything up. I am simply asking you
to think about why any country might have low debt service. (1 point)

4. By what percent did El Salvador’s debt service change from 2015 to 2020? (1 point)

5. Identify the 4 countries you are working with on the map on the following page. (1 point)