Assessing changes in living standards in Southeast Asia in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries -- The colonial period: population and output growth in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors -- The colonial period: measures of welfare and changing living standards -- Confronting the...

"The aim of this short book is to understand which countries do well on key indicators and why. After a short philosophical and historical survey of the literature to put the book into context, the Better-Place Index is developed. This is subsequently tested against a number of policy variables,...

This volume debates the complex nature of the relationships between globalization, social and economic transformations and growing inequalities. Employing a global, world-historical and comparative perspective, the 16 articles brought together in this volume deal with three central questions:...