“Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—one of the most fertile regions in the world—together will soon have the population of the US and Canada combined. But the income per person is an astonishing 100 times less for UP/Bihar compared to the US/Canada despite India’s relatively fast growth over the last few decades! For all of India compared to the US, that per capita difference is around 30x (or 8x if you adjust for cost of living; similarly, 100x for UP/Bihar becomes, say, “only” 20x after adjustment).
These would be mind-boggling numbers even for as late as the 18th century. For development theoreticians, economic historians as well as practitioners across policy and business—such massive wealth disparities across regions have been a source of great curiosity and debate. Because to understand if there is a convergence ahead for China/India/Africa with the West/Japan, we need to first understand what caused this massive divergence which has been historically otherwise absent…”
Rest here.