About the book:

China and India have long been central to the world economy. Two and a half centuries ago, they contributed 50% of the world’s output; after suffering a decline thereafter, their share fell to a paltry 9% in 1950 but has since resurged to about 25% today. This book shows that the growth and inequality experiences of China and India have had strikingly similar trajectories, especially after 1980, despite their very different political and social institutions. It offers novel insights using a class lens to analyze and compare the Chinese and Indian inequality stories, locating them within the larger contexts of Asian and global capitalism. Vakulabharanam demonstrates that the interconnectedness between Chinese and Indian growth and inequality dynamics and the transformation and evolution of global capitalism is key to understanding the within-country inequality dynamics in both countries. The book thus offers a new perspective on economic development and inequality that builds on and adds to the insights of Kuznets and Piketty.

About the author:

Vamsi Vakulabharanam is Co-Director of the Asian Political Economy Program and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has previously taught at the University of Hyderabad and the City University of New York. His recent research focuses on inequality in India and China and the political economy of Indian cities through the axes of gender, caste, class, and religion. In the past, he has worked on agrarian change in developing economies, agrarian cooperatives, and the relationship between economic development and inequality. In 2013, Vakulabharanam was awarded the Amartya Sen award for his contributions to social sciences by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.

SPEAKERS

VAMSI VAKULABHARANAM

Associate Professor of Economics; Co-Director, Asian Political Economy Program

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Full Bio

BRANKO MILANOVIC

Research Professor, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Senior Scholar, Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality

Full Bio

ANUPAMA RAO

Professor of History and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and South African Studies

Barnard College, Columbia University

Full Bio

CARK RISKIN

Professor Emeritus, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Queens College, City University of New York

Full Bio