Many of the countries in the Southern Africa region have very sketchy trade data, due to disruptions in data collection (caused by war in the case of Mozambique and sanctions-induced secrecy in South Africa, for instance) or weak statistical institutions. These trade data are also often in...

Asian countries have the ability to dramatically improve their standards of living in coming decades, so much so that by 2050 the “converging” middle-income countries could become affluent societies. Historically, however, many fast-growing countries have stagnated upon reaching...