The Great Divergence in living standards can be recovered from a number of proxies. Economists pay too much attention to per capita income. If we pay attention to that, the vast gulf between rich and poor nations is evident. But since per capita income grows exponentially in the modern growth regime, we get a poor sense of when the divergence began. In what follows, the income data is from the Maddison Project and the rest is from Clio-Infra. We arbitrarily define rich nations as those with per capita income at least half that of the United States in 2000.
Demography and Global Polarization
Demography and Global Polarization
Demography and Global Polarization
The Great Divergence in living standards can be recovered from a number of proxies. Economists pay too much attention to per capita income. If we pay attention to that, the vast gulf between rich and poor nations is evident. But since per capita income grows exponentially in the modern growth regime, we get a poor sense of when the divergence began. In what follows, the income data is from the Maddison Project and the rest is from Clio-Infra. We arbitrarily define rich nations as those with per capita income at least half that of the United States in 2000.