Economic Development: The Examples of India and China

February 18, 2012 10:20 AM

"This is an intriguing little video summarizing the hypothesis of a new study by Vamsi Vakulabharanam. It looks at the puzzle of why China and India are exceptions to the Kuznets curve, that economic development at first increases income inequality but then starts to produce less disparity. But that did not occur in India and China. Vakulabharanam argues that the difference lies in changes in institutional arrangements, and the inflection point was roughly 1980."
posted by marienbad (3 comments total)

The simpler answer is that the Kuznets curve is, and always was ridiculous bullshit. The few examples where it fits the available data are accidents of history.
posted by Anoplura at 10:47 AM on February 18, 2012 [7 favorites]

tl;dwatch it all: national and international political institutions influence economic outcomes.

I generally agree with the conclusion and am a fan of the blog, but I'm not sure why this on its own is worthy of a post.
posted by RandlePatrickMcMurphy at 11:19 AM on February 18, 2012

Because India hasn't had time to have one since gaining independence and China has had it's revolution co-opted by the same powerful elite they thought they were overthrowing?

"Income disparity" doesn't just magically disappear. The non-rich simply get sick of being repressed and fight back.
posted by DU at 5:15 PM on February 18, 2012