Next Convergence

With the Industrial Revolution, part of the world's population (Europe, America, and Japan) started to experience extraordinary economic growth yet four-fifths of humanity remained mired in poverty. Till the Second World War the world remained a profoundly unequal place. Then the pendulum began to swing the other way. Some countries, mainly in Asia, started growing at unprecedented rates at about 7 percent a year. More recently, the two most populous countries in the world-China and India-have begun to grow at rates close to 10 percent. This convergence between the developing and developed worlds-a revolution just as profound as the Industrial Revolution-is reshaping the world today argues Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Spence. Spence looks at what caused this dramatic shift, the implications of this new convergence, and the challenges these growing economies face. He argues that maintaining the high growth rates in developing countries presents serious difficulties for them in governance, international coordination, and ecological sustainability. The implications for those living in the advanced countries are also great but little understood. The Next Convergence is big picture economics at its finest-a lucid, deeply intelligent analysis of the global economy and a riveting introduction to the most critical debates today.