The international community is concerned that income inequality between rich countries and poor countries is not shrinking, and in many cases, has grown. A new article from the World Bank argues that while income levels are not converging, other quality of life indicators are converging.
The author notes that many health indicators have been converging over the past century. To illustrate, the article compares Britain and India:
Ultimately, the author argues that it takes one-tenth the income to achieve the same life expectancy in 1999 as it took in 1870. That is because of spillover technology and knowledge from the developed world. For example, modern agricultural improvements boost productivity, which increases calories and income available to families, which allows them to send their children to school. As a result of these spillover benefits, the poor countries are improving their plight, if not their income:
Source: Ronald Bailey, The Poor May Not Be Getting Richer, Reason, March 9, 2005; based upon: Charles Kenny, Why Are We Worried About Income? Nearly Everything That Matters is Converging, World Bank, World Development, Vol. 33, No. 1, January 2005.
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