Re: OG Medal Points

"MH" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4403810F.60202@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Hmm. Shouldn't you factor in average altitude as well as average distance
from equator ?

Yes, of course. But some very smart economists found out that distance from
the equator is highly correlated with economic growth, good governance, low
infant mortality and a bunch of other good outcomes, while I am not aware of
any research looking at altitude and growth. Bottom line: I had the latitude
data readily available on my computer, but I would have had to work a bit
harder to compile the data on altitude (there's also an issue of what the
appropriate measure is).

Some quite southerly countries actually do have wintery conditions (at
least in part of their territory), like Spain. You can ski within sight of
Africa in the Sierra Nevada.

Spain is not that southernly. It's actually in the top quartile in terms of
distance from the equator.


Or perhaps just using average temperature in January might account for
both average altitude and distance from equator.

Yes.


Also average distance from equator of the capital city is a slightly
distorting statistic (unduly benefitting the US and Britain).

Actually, I correct myself: it's not latitude of the capital city, but the
latitude of the "approximate center" of the country, as defined in the CIA
factbook:

"This entry includes rounded latitude and longitude figures for the purpose
of finding the approximate geographic center of an entity and is based on
the Gazetteer of Conventional Names, Third Edition, August 1988, US Board on
Geographic Names and on other sources."



Would Canada's performance really be better if Toronto were capital
instead of Ottawa ?

In any case it matters little: the variation comes from the difference
between Ottawa and the Malabo (the capital of Equatorial Guinea, the second
richest country in the world according to the CIA factbook -
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html), not
between Ottawa and Toronto.

Daniele


.

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