Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: A Comparative Study

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of economic growth and sustainable development, exploring the factors of production that influence economic disparities between countries. It begins with a theoretical overview, defining and discussing key concepts such as labor, land, capital, entrepreneurship, and technology, drawing from neoclassical economics and incorporating historical perspectives. The essay then applies these theoretical insights to a comparative study of Zimbabwe and the United States, examining their respective labor markets, GDP, and levels of technological advancement. The analysis highlights the significant economic disparities between the two countries, attributing them to differences in education, labor force participation, and entrepreneurship. The essay concludes by offering policy recommendations for Zimbabwe to improve its economic performance and social welfare, based on the comparative analysis and theoretical framework.

Running head: ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 1
Economic Growth and Sustainable Development
Name
Institution

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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Economic Growth and Sustainable Development
Part A. Theoretical Overview
Factors of Production
Production factors is an economic term that depicts the inputs utilized in the production
of services or goods in order to make an income. The factors of production comprise any
resource required for the making of a service or good. The factors that are responsible for
economic disparities in a country comprise of labor, entrepreneurship, capital, and land.
Moreover, the factors of production are also interpreted by countries as machines, management,
labor, materials, knowledge and technology. Scholars as being probable production factors
causing economic disparities between countries have lately considered each of these factors of
production. The current description of production factors is drawn from a neoclassical standpoint
of economics. The modern description of factors of production merges previous approaches to
economic theory, for instance the concept of labor as a production factor from socialism, into
one description. Labor, land and capital as production factors were formerly identified as
production factors. Early economists of politics for instance David Ricardo, Adam Smith and
Karl Max recognized Labor, land, capital as production factors were initially. Up-to date, labor
and capital continue to be the two key inputs for the generation of profits and productive
processes in a country.
Land as a factor of production has a wide description as a production factor and can take
on several forms, from a commercial real estate to an agricultural land to the available resource
from a specific piece of land. Growing up of crops on a land by farmers elevates its utility and
value within a country. Land was responsible for generating value, for a group of early French
economists referred as physiocrats who predated the classical economists of politics. Whereas

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land can is a crucial element of majority of the countries, its significance can increase or
diminish according to an industry (King, R. G., & Rebelo, S. 2013). For instance, an country that
is highly developed in technology can effortlessly start operations with no investment of land.
Moreover, land is the greatest significant asset for a country and can contribute to economic
disparities between nations depending on the size of the land.
Labor is another factor that affects economic disparities between countries. It term labor
refers to the energy consumed by a person to bring a service or product to the market. Labor can
take different forms, for instance a waiter who serves guests is part of labor as the construction
worker at a hotel site or the receptionist who joins them up into the hotel (Aisen, A., & Veiga, F.
J. 2013). A crucial element of labor market is the input made by the exceptional abilities and
skills of all kinds of individuals. These talents can be enhanced and changed through training or
education, making the labor force a developing talent collection from which industries recruit.
Utilizing skills efficiently and teaching individuals in a country to cope with new marketplace
demands help make the production process more effective. How a country utilizes its labor force
affects its economic growth together with economic disparities between countries. Another
crucial element of the labor market is the employee’s mobility that it entails. In theory,
individuals in the USA travel anywhere to train or find for a new position. The mobility is crucial
when workers complement their skills to the openings of jobs (Rebelo, S. 2011). In practice,
nevertheless, individuals in a country may be reluctant to train for a new career. In these
scenarios, the output of the economy and the mobility in the labor market decelerate in a county
as jobs go unfilled and people remain unemployed. The market of labor functions to discover
better matches between jobs and employees (Lopez, R. 2014).

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Employees in a country look for positions that offer desirable characteristics and better
salaries; whereas employers in a country pursue employees who will work for the salary offered
and will search for workers who are productive. Particular conditions of the economy in a
country can make it hard for businesses and people to match their labor market searches (King,
R. G., & Levine, R. 2014). In a country that has a swiftly growing economy, for instance, some
countries may experience hardship in getting adequate people with the correct skills to meet up
with the intensifying demand leading to disparities in the economy. The issue of unemployment
is crucial in a country and the labor market. To be legitimately recognized among the
unemployed in the United States, an individual is supposed to be actively looking for a job, out
of work and ready to accept a job according to the salary being provided. The rate of
unemployment in a country determines greatly the economic growth of a country and can lead to
economic disparities between countries.
Many nations undergo intensifying inequality of income and employment that is
stratified. Notwithstanding these two corresponding trends of the economy, research that
examines the direct link between overall workforce inequality and entrepreneurship continues to
be negligible in the still fundamentally dispersed literatures on inequality and entrepreneurship.
Many studies in the have recorded a two –extended influence of entrepreneurship on the
individual income, in the entrepreneurship literature, debating that entrepreneurship is a source
of improved mobility of income for some countries but translates to a lesser –than average
incomes for the broader portion of the workforce that is self-employed. Nevertheless,
attentiveness to the probable implications of the patterns for a macro level distribution of income
has been negligible in the in the literature of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a
progressively prevalent professional choice in economies of many countries that leads to

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economic disparities between countries. Whereas entrepreneurship is significant for the growth
of the economy in different countries, the effect of diverse forms of entrepreneurship pointers on
the Growth Domestic Product is not even. For example, the activity of entrepreneurship
(consisting of business indicators necessity and formations based entrepreneurship) has an
adverse impact on growth in low or middle-income nations. Nevertheless, entrepreneurship
attitudes (intentions, perceptions and role models) have positive influence on the Growth
Domestic Product in countries that have high income. This difference between developing and
developed economies causes economic disparities between countries. Entrepreneurship attitudes
are insignificant in explaining economic growth in the middle/low income economies but
positive and important for high-income economies. High-income economies entrepreneurs may
be more internationalized, innovative and growth focused than low or middle-income
economies’ entrepreneurs. Necessity entrepreneurs, normally borne from a lack other options of
employment, are dominant in low or middle-income countries. Moreover, the unemployment in
the United States is lower than in Zimbabwe with only individuals that have not attained
Technology
Change in technology is the “growth engine” in developed countries. Moreover, the
uninterrupted increasing rate of evolution on technology is another issue that leads to economic
disparities between nations. Thus, the contending explosive hoarding of capital and stagnation of
production is the second greatest characteristic of many countries. Technology unlocks the
predicts for a country’s welfare: it generates extra possibilities for producing new products and
services, strengthens automation, enhances the efficiency of information communication and
management, and reduces transportation costs, thus leading to economic disparities between

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countries. Generally, technology intensifies labor productivity straightforwardly or not, resulting
at the same time to the inauguration of present markets, spatially and in form of the
differentiation of product in a country. Intensified labor sharing and increased productivity
expedited by the increasing of global trade broadens the prospects for social and personal
progress within a country (Mattoo et al, 2019). Countries engaged on an economy that is
globalized may become more, richer, successful and educated. Moreover, the development of
artificial robots and intellect and the progress on technology provoke an exaggerated reduction of
the intensity of labor and increase exponentially the productivity of labor.
Part B: Application of theoretical insights to a pair of countries
The two countries that will be discussed in this paper are Zimbabwe and the United
States. Zimbabwe is a poor country with Growth Domestic Product being very low while United
States is a rich country with its Growth Domestic Product being extremely higher than that one
of the United States. The economic growth of the United States is innovation driven. The country
has a Growth Domestic Product of fifty-two thousand six hundred and seventy six. United State
is placed as the first country in the World in terms of economic growth.
Table 1 shows the labor force in the United States. According to the table below the rate
of unemployment is lower, with six hundred and ten being the highest for individuals that have
undergone less than high school diploma. As the level of education goes higher, the probability
of employment goes high (Lehrer, E., & Nerlove, M. 2016). Most of the population in the United
States have attained the minimum required education, which is the high school level (Juhn, C., &
Potter, S. 2016). This implies that most of the population are employed in white-collar jobs that
are well paying leading to a higher economic growth in the United States than in Zimbabwe
where the percentage of people who have attained high school education is minimum. The

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participation rate in the labor force in the United States is extremely high in the United States
with figures ranging from 40-50 percent of the population (Oppenheimer, V. K. 2017). This
increased involvement of workers in the United States in its labor force ensures there is adequate
workforce to steer the economy of the country ahead. For Zimbabwe, the participation rate of
works in labor force is slightly minimum compared to the United States due to increased rates of
unemployment in the country (Mosisa, A., & Hipple, S. 2016). This makes USA to experience a
higher economic growth than the United States thus causing the disparities in the economy
between the two countries
Table 1. Status of Labor in the United States
Educational
attainment
2018 2019
Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. A
Less than a
high school
diploma
Civilian labor
force. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. 10,294 10,250 10,517 10,205 10,310 10,204 10,268 10,191 10,283 10,065 10,267 10,142 9
Participation
rate. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . ..
46.0 45.2 46.0 46.9 46.3 46.1 47.8 46.7 46.1 45.2 47.0 46.1
Employed. . . 9,692 9,691 9,932 9,691 9,722 9,635 9,658 9,619 9,683 9,489 9,720 9,548 9

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . ..
Employment-
population
ratio. . . . . . ..
43.3 42.7 43.4 44.5 43.7 43.5 44.9 44.0 43.4 42.6 44.5 43.4
Unemployed.
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . ..
602 559 585 514 588 569 610 572 600 576 548 594
Unemployment
rate..................
5.8 5.5 5.6 5.0 5.7 5.6 5.9 5.6 5.8 5.7 5.3 5.9
High school
graduates, no
college1
Civilian labor
force. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. 35,487 35,771 36,108 36,511 36,132 36,213 36,103 35,901 36,154 36,301 36,230 35,983 35
Participation
rate. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
56.9 57.3 58.0 57.8 57.3 57.5 57.6 57.6 58.1 58.5 58.2 57.9

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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. . ..
Employed. . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . ..
33,975 34,376 34,612 35,041 34,718 34,856 34,650 34,631 34,776 34,937 34,863 34,654 34
Employment-
population
ratio. . . . . . ..
54.5 55.1 55.6 55.5 55.1 55.3 55.3 55.6 55.9 56.3 56.0 55.8
Unemployed.
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . ..
1,512 1,395 1,496 1,470 1,414 1,357 1,454 1,271 1,377 1,363 1,367 1,329 1
Unemployment
rate..................
4.3 3.9 4.1 4.0 3.9 3.7 4.0 3.5 3.8 3.8 3.8 3.7
Some college
or associate
degree
Civilian labor
force. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. 37,880 37,852 37,793 37,502 37,296 37,390 37,531 37,471 37,175 37,339 37,213 37,268 37
Participation
rate. . . . . . . .
65.3 65.6 65.2 65.3 65.6 65.2 65.2 65.3 65.7 65.5 65.3 65.2

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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. . . . . . . . . . .
. . ..
Employed. . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . ..
36,578 36,630 36,538 36,306 35,977 36,200 36,392 36,293 35,954 36,071 36,040 36,012 36
Employment-
population
ratio. . . . . . ..
63.1 63.5 63.1 63.2 63.2 63.1 63.2 63.2 63.5 63.2 63.3 63.0
Unemployed.
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . ..
1,302 1,223 1,255 1,196 1,320 1,189 1,139 1,178 1,222 1,268 1,173 1,256 1
Unemployment
rate..................
3.4 3.2 3.3 3.2 3.5 3.2 3.0 3.1 3.3 3.4 3.2 3.4
Bachelor’s
degree and
higher2
Civilian labor
force. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. 56,795 56,786 56,635 57,041 57,686 57,294 57,968 58,451 58,701 58,472 58,497 58,593 58

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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Participation
rate. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . ..
74.2 74.1 74.0 73.6 74.1 73.6 73.5 73.8 73.6 74.0 73.5 73.7
Employed. . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . ..
55,616 55,645 55,323 55,776 56,508 56,167 56,782 57,150 57,442 57,078 57,220 57,409 57
Employment-
population
ratio. . . . . . ..
72.6 72.6 72.3 71.9 72.6 72.2 72.0 72.1 72.0 72.2 71.9 72.2
Unemployed.
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . ..
1,179 1,141 1,311 1,266 1,178 1,127 1,186 1,301 1,260 1,395 1,277 1,184 1
Unemployment
rate..................
2.1 2.0 2.3 2.2 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.2 2.1 2.4 2.2 2.0
Table 4.1 demonstrates that out of the six million people that are active economically,
eighty nine percent of the population were employed and eleven percent were unemployed. For
the population that is economically active in Zimbabwe, the greatest percentage of the labor
force (fifty-four %) comprised of workers involved in farming and communal work followed by
paid workers that were on a permanent basis at fourteen%. Forty-nine % of the labor force that
comprised of males were own account employees (resettlement and communal farming) twelve

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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% were own account employees (other) and twenty percent were paid workers in job that are
permanent. Concerning the female in the labor force in Zimbabwe, fifty-nine percent were own
account employees (resettlement and communal farming) (Standing, G. 2019). The table also
displays that the percentage contribution of the population that is economically active went down
with age. In this report, the youth have been split into two age groups fifteen to twenty four and
fifteen to thirty-four years. This is according to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations
description of youth, correspondingly. 31% of the labor force was aged between fifteen to twenty
four years. Youth at the age of fifteen to twenty-four percent were fifty-seven % of contributing
family employees, thirty-five percent of own account employees in communal farming, forty
eight % of the unemployed and thirty-four % of casual workers. Almost 6.1 million individuals
in Zimbabwe were presently active economically. 11% of the existing population that is
economically active was in wide unemployment. The existing labor force rates of participation
for females, males and for both genders were eighty-five, ninety and eighty-seven
correspondingly. The participation rates for labor force in Zimbabwe for males surpassed those
for females. The number of the presently population that is economically inactive remained at
eight hundred and thirty five thousand, of whom forty-four % were students (Fallon, P. R., &
Lucas, R. E. 2011). Of the existing population that is inactive in the rural regions, one in every
five was ill or sick. The labor force in Zimbabwe indicates the reason for the sluggish economic
growth in the country.
Table 2: Status of Labor in Zimbabwe
Age
Group
Male Female Total
Population
Labour
Force
Labour
Force
Participation
Rate Population
Labour
Force
Labour
Force
Participation
Rate Population
Labour
Force
Lab
For
Par