Contents; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Overview; Figure O.1 The recent commodity boom was the largest and longest of any boom since 1900; Figure O.2 Real commodity prices in local currency units increased by between 75 and 150 percent but have fallen since; Figure O.3 Slower growth should...

This paper uses household surveys from 13 developing countries 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 $4 or...