A couple of interesting sites:
The International Networks Archive at Princeton does a series of "Infographics" on world issues. Most of these, in my opinion, suffer from graphic overload--perhaps their designer should take Edward Tufte's seminar next time it comes to town. Their one on globalization as seen through Starbucks and McDonald's however, is interesting and nicely presented.
Speaking of Big Macs, many of us are aware of The Economist's Big Mac Index as a way to measure purchasing power parity by comparing how much a Big Mac costs from place to place around the world. Here's another take on this--UBS has looked at how many minutes of labor it takes around the world to earn enough to earn enough to buy a Big Mac. Their conclusion: "On a global average, 35 minutes of work buys a Big Mac. But the disparities are huge: In Nairobi, one and a half hours’ work is needed to buy the burger with the average net hourly wage there. In the US cities of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami, a maximum of 13 minutes' labor is needed. Although the comprehensive comparison of purchasing power and gross wages puts them at the top of the table, higher production costs mean that workers in Swiss and Scandinavian cities need 15 to 20 minutes for their Big Macs."
There's lots more in this survey, including a list of the most and least expensive major cities in the world. Here's a tip--don't move to Norway. Find the survey overview here, and the entire study on global prices and earnings here.
thanks to Ken Wedding at Teaching Comparative Politics for the UBS study.
