How do the countries of
India, China, Japan, and
North Korea answer basic
economic questions?
Standards:
• SS7E8a. Compare how traditional, command,
market economies answer the economic questions
of (1) what to produce, (2) how to produce, and (3)
for whom to produce.
• SS7E8b. Explain how most countries have a mixed
economy located on a continuum between pure
market and pure command.
• SS7E8c. Compare and contrast the economic
systems in China, India, Japan, and North Korea.
• SS7E9c. Explain why international trade requires a
system for exchanging currencies between nations.
Southern &
Eastern Asia
Economic Systems
Activity
Use the Southern & Eastern Asia
Economic Systems Graphic Organizer
to record information
China
• China is moving from a command
economy completely controlled by the
Chinese Communist government to a
mixed market economy overseen by the
Communist government.
• China is gradually reducing government
control and allowing more foreign
investment.
China
China’s reforms of adding components
of a market economy have led to
excellent economic growth.
India
• India has moved from a command
economy to a mixed economy.
• After independence in 1947, India’s
government set up a command economy.
In 1991, India started lifting some of the
government control and allowed citizens
a role in running some of its industries.
India
Although the movement from a command to a mixed
economy has been good for India’s economy, millions
of people still live in poverty (food production is
mainly for their own family consumption).
Japan
• Japan has a mixed market economy (one of
the strongest in the world)
• Japan has built its economy around
manufacturing (it has little natural
resources and farmland).
• Japan imports raw materials and then uses
them to manufacture goods to export
around the world.
Japan
The Japanese government
owns few businesses other
than the country’s major
TV network, but does not
oversee many aspects of
the economy like banking
and trade.
North Korea
• North Korea has a command
economy controlled by its
Communist government.
• The government controls all the
resources and decides what is to be
produced.
North Korea
• Farmers work on cooperatives where
up to 300 families share the work.
• The North Korean economy has
serious problems and massive food
aid from other countries has been
needed to avoid widespread
starvation.
With a seat partner, discuss:
•
•
•
•
In which country would you most like to
live? Why?
In which country would you least like to
live? Why?
In which country would you have
opportunity to become an
entrepreneur? Why?
Why do you think governments with
command economies eventually begin
to give up some of their control?
Southern & Eastern Asia Economic
Systems: Which one does not belong?
Southern & Eastern Asia Economic
Systems Summarizer