Four mutually supportive strategic pillars and related policy priorities would help Kazakhstan continue the structural transformation that stalled during the oil booms, in order to eliminate poverty and build a large and secure middle class: 1. economic management for diversification, to...

Indonesia has seen tremendous progress in poverty reduction over the past couple of decades and, as a result, has made a successful transition from low-income to middle-income country status. As millions have moved out of poverty and extreme poverty, we have also witnessed the rise of...

A decade of rapid economic growth has supported upward mobility and the expansion of the middle class in the Philippines. While the Philippines' record of economic growth has been sound, many East Asian countries have performed better, resulting in higher levels of economic mobility and more...

This paper introduces a variety of concepts and methods to examine living standards improvements in Nepal in a dynamic perspective. Using data from three rounds of Nepal Living Standards Surveys conducted in the past two decades, together with data from a nationally representative survey that...

This paper presents estimates of the relationship between the share of income accruing to the middle class and gross domestic product per capita of economies from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The increase in gross domestic product per capita that these economies experienced during...

The economic debate on existence and definition of the middle class has become particularly lively in many developing countries. Despite this growing interest, the identification of the middle class group in these countries remains quite challenging. Building on a recently developed framework to...