Alcohol consumption and personal welfare

The analysis of alcohol consumption and personal welfare (GDP and GNI per capita and labor productivity) statistics show that there is no negative correlation between these two indicators.

As it can be seen from the graphs below, interdependence between expenditures on alcoholic beverages and personal welfare indicators can be well descripted with normal function.

So, very little as well as very big amounts of alcohol consumed is bad for personal welfare, while moderate alcohol consumption contributes in favor of personal welfare.

Cinematography across the world

Explore how cinematography industry is developing in different countries across the world.

Here are some facts that may interest you. There are more than 6000 indoor cinemas in USA where as total number of screens is a little bit less that 40.000. Iceland has the best attendance frequency per capita in the world which is 5.8.

There are several different indicators to explore. You can switch between them and choose the most interesting for you.

Margaret Thatcher's governance in figures

Looking on Margaret Thatcher's achievements it seems that the most important and noticeable are reduction of inflation and holding it on low levels and decreasing of unemployment levels.

This seems even more impressive since economic theory predicts negative correlation between inflation and unemployment (Phillips Curve). Other social-economic indicators also argue in favour of Margaret Thatcher's wise governance.

Automotive industry outlook

Global motor-vehicles production continues to fluctuate: dramatic decrease of growth rate in 2011 changed to slight upturn in 2012, which is yet significantly lower than it was in 2010.

Western Europe keep on loosing its share in world automobiles production as car-producers tend to close their European plants because of overcapacity in Europe. Meanwhile Asia, preceded by China, gradually expands its gain, as well as North America, where vehicles production almost doubled during last 4 years.

In 2012 commercial vehicles production growth rate, driven mostly by North America, increased not as much as passenger cars production. However analysts expect commercial vehicles production to bounce back in 2013. Moreover, according to forecasts, global motor-vehicles production is expected to be less volatile in coming years but also more moderate giving oil prices to rise in the future.

How big is your financial sector?

Cyprus crisis made people think whether it is safe for country to have enormous financial sector in comparison to relatively small GDP. There are a lot of countries with the economies built around the financial sectors, and whose wealth depends on its development.

Luxembourg is the country which has the biggest financial sector: its bank deposits are almost 6 times as large as GDP. However, only 5% of total bank assets of Luxembourg belong to local banks, other 95% - are assets of branches of international banks which are safe. On the contrary, in Cyprus, 81% of banks are local.

So, the scope of financial sector as itself is not the reason for worries, but the quality of financial sector is what really matters.

Wealth and happiness across the world

People think material prosperity predicts life evaluation and positive feeling.

The new HPI results show the extent to which 151 countries across the globe produce long, happy and sustainable lifes. The overall index scores rank countries based on their efficiency, how many long and happy lifes each produces per unit of environmental output.

How high-income Western countries are compared with the countries that lead the overall HPI rankings?

Was Thomas Malthus right?

In 1798 British economist Thomas Malthus created a theory (Essay on the Principle of Population) according to which uncontrolled world population growth will eventually lead to hunger. The main assumption of his theory is bases on the fact that population grows geometrically while food production grows arithmetically. The most adequate solutions to the problem, according to Malthus, are wars, natural disasters, diseases, etc.

As we can see from official statistics, Malthus fears were vain. However, it is quiet true that world population growth rate is higher than food supply growth, despite the fact that population growth decreases and is expected to continue decreasing in the future, according to the medium-term forecast scenario.