This paper analyze the colonial institutions set up by the British to collect land revenue in India, and show that differences in historical property rights institutions lead to sustained differences in economic outcomes. Areas in which proprietary rights in land were historically given to...

Household surveys from 13 developing countries are used to describe consumption choices, health and education investments, employment patterns and other features of the of the economic lives of the “middle classes†defined as those whose daily consumption per capita is between $2 and...