This setting lets you change the way you view articles. You can choose to have articles open in a dialog window, a new tab, or directly in the same window.
Open in Dialog
Open in New Tab
Open in same window
Open in New Tab
Open in same window
Journal of Economic Perspectives: Vol. 11 No. 3 (Summer 1997)
JEP Volume. 11, Issue 3 | 
Previous ArticleNext Article
Sign up for Email Alerts Follow us on Twitter
Full-text Article (Complimentary)
View Comments on This Article (0) | Login to post a comment
Previous ArticleNext Article
Expand
Quick Tools:
Print Article Summary Email Link to this Article Export CitationSign up for Email Alerts Follow us on Twitter
Explore:
Divergence, Big Time
Article Citation
Pritchett, Lant. 1997. "Divergence, Big Time."
Journal of Economic Perspectives,
11(3): 3-17.
DOI: 10.1257/jep.11.3.3
DOI: 10.1257/jep.11.3.3
Abstract
Historical data are unnecessary to demonstrate that perhaps the basic fact of modern economic history is massive absolute divergence in per capita income across countries. A plausible lower bound on per capita income can be combined with estimates of its current level in the poorer countries to place an upper bound on long-run income growth. Between 1870 and 1990, the ratio of richest to poorest countries' income increased from roughly 9 to 1 to 45 to 1, the standard deviation of (natural log) per capita income doubled, and the average income gap between the richest and all other countries grew nearly tenfold from $1,286 to $12,000.
Article Full-Text Access
Full-text Article (Complimentary)
Authors
Pritchett, Lant (World Bank)
JEL Classifications
O47: Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
N10: Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations: General, International, or Comparative
N10: Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations: General, International, or Comparative
Comments
View Comments on This Article (0) | Login to post a comment
