Paul wrote Sat, 12 Feb 2005
I pointed out various reasons to believe that the PPP method has 'biases' that may automatically show progress in many parts of the "3rd world" (reducing >poverty, closing the gap with the "developed" world) even if nothing in the "3rd world" had >actually changed.
Granting that World Bank statistical methods deserve leftist critique, the biases in PPP statistics may not be as strongly pro-neoliberal as one might think. I compared GDP per capita levels for 100 countries for 1960 and 1999, using constant PPP figures (1985=100) (source: World Bank data) and found the following:
Between 1960 and 1999, 45 (out of 100) countries had growth convergence with USA; and 51 (out of 100) countries had growth divergence with USA (widening of the gap). Examples of convergence include: Singapore (GDP per capita changed from 17% to 86% of USA values); Hong Kong (from 23% to 83%). Examples of a widening gap include: Venezuela (64% to 29% of U.S. GDP per capita), Jamaica (18% to 11%). Thus, the PPP data (stylized facts) do not hide divergence of GDP per capita.
Gernot Paul, please send me a copy of the Pablo Ruiz-Napoles article.
Paul wrote Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005
I pointed out various reasons to believe that the PPP method has 'biases' that may automatically show progress in many parts of the "3rd world" (reducing >poverty, closing the gap with the "developed" world) even if nothing in the "3rd world" had >actually changed.
The biases may not be as pro-neoliberal as one might think. I performed a comparison of GDP per capita levels for 100 countries for 1960 and 1999, using constant PPP figures (1985=100) (source: World Bank data) and found the following:
Between 1960 and 1999, 45 (out of 100) countries had growth convergence with USA; and 51 (out of 100) countries had growth divergence with USA (widening of the gap). Examples of convergence include: Singapore (GDP per capita changed from 17% to 86% of USA values); Hong Kong (from 23% to 83%). Examples of a widening gap include: Venezuela (64% to 29% of U.S. GDP per capita), Jamaica (18% to 11%).
Gernot Please email a copy of the Pablo Ruiz-Napoles article.
