Identify a country where you would not like to live and compare its performance and rankings to the more desirable country identified in steps 1 to 3. Be sure to give equal treatment to the country where you would not like to live.

A central theme of this course is that the world is incredibly diverse and that there are meaningful differences both within and among countries.
The research paper asks students to explore this phenomenon in more detail and to research and assess statistical measures of “well-being” in countries around the globe.

More specifically, you should reflect on what you have learned in this course and develop a set of characteristics that describes a country where you would like to live (e.g. low infant mortality rate, high gross national income, long life expectancy, etc.). Then think about the characteristics that are the direct opposite and describe a country where you would not want to live.

Next write a paper in which you:

1) Present a rationale for choosing the kind of country where you would like to live and discusses the reasons for using particular indicators of well-being to select that country (you should use at least 6 indicators);

2) Identify a country where you would like to live based on the desirable characteristics you have selected;

3) Detail and discusses the country’s performance and especially rankings on the characteristics you selected (i.e. justify your choice); and

4) Identify a country where you would not like to live and compare its performance and rankings to the more desirable country identified in steps 1 to 3. Be sure to give equal treatment to the country where you would not like to live.