The term "middle income trap" has been widely used in the literature, without having been clearly dened or formally tested. We propose a statistical denition of a middle income trap and derive a simple time-series test. We nd that the concept survives a rigorous scrutiny of the data, with the...

China’s growth has been rapid but the value of China's international trade has grown even faster. This trade-biased growth is bringing both challenges and opportunities for Asian economies that are highly integrated with Chinese trade networks. Moreover in ASEAN countries such as Indonesia and...

India’s investment rate has increased fourfold since 1950 and is now nearly 40% of GDP. Many studies have suggested that this rising investment rate is the most significant component of India’s growth acceleration. I assess these hypotheses using the neoclassical growth model decomposition...

Much of the debate about the impact of China on the international political economy arises from the many dimensions of the potential impact and the lack of historical precedent for such a large change. This paper provides some context for thinking about these issues by contrasting China’s...

In India, the mother-in-law is all powerful. At least they are often portrayed as such in Indian popular culture. Similarly, in the socio-economic literature, the influence of the Indian mother-in-law is often taken for granted. However, most of the empirical evidence relies on qualitative data...

As a result of the strong desire for sons in India, millions of female foetuses have been aborted over the last three decades alongside an abnormally high mortality rate of infant girls. Given the extent of the problem, a large amount of literature exists on the overall root causes of son...