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.

SPEAKERS:

Vamsi Vakulabharanam

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

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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Branko Milanovic

Senior Scholar, Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality

Professor of Economics, Graduate Center, City University of New York

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Anupama Rao

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

Barnard College, Columbia University

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Carl Riskin

Professor Emeritus, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

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

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