I am not sure where you get your data. It seems to me that inequalities have risen, poverty has slighly decreased -- mostly thanks to China, but the situation in Africa and some parts of Asia remains difficult. And I am not sure these positive results can be related to the IT revolution. Sassen, Castells and others have shown the existence of a polarization effect, with concentration of high and low income (and, to some extent, the development of a "new middle class", well educated, but with low possibilities to move upwards). In other words, the GDP growth has benefitted only a few people, which explains why the inequalities have grown -- this is the thesis of Piketty, but I find his data convincing.

Then, in relation to your question, I would risk an hypothesis. The top 10 percent of 1 percent get richer; the bottom 10 or 20 percent stagnated or progressed sliglthly, and did benefit to better food and better health services (the malnutrition rate has decreased worldwide), thanks to the economic growth in China as well as slow progress in some African countries. This was done at the detriment of the "classic" middle class in developed countries and cities, which has not been compensated by the rise of the new middle class (this explains the many "Occupy movements" worldwide. IT has a role in this process, as well as globalization. We would need to verify with data, but it may means that the limited progress in the devoping world are "compensated" by the increase of poverty in large developed metropolises (I have written on that for HK -- to be published soon).

OK,  I don't answer your question, and these are onl comments to fuel the debate.

Appreciate the contribution Louis,

Welcome to the debate

The annual GDP data is sourced from the World Bank Data Statistics site (URL below)

http://beta.data.worldbank.org/?end=2014&indicators=NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG&start=1993&view=chart

Some GDP annual growth averages for various country and regional groupings over the last two and a half decades are reported in Table 1, page 14,  of paper;

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299747565_SMEs_and_the_Talent_Challenge_Discussion_Paper?ev=prf_pub

Technical Report Towards a talent-driven outward-oriented globally-competitiv...

OK. I  was just refering to that part: "

Approximately 5 billion lives, across all geographies, have seen a massive transformation in terms of rising income, leaving poverty, better health and increased education since 1995 to date. And here, it may not be enough to rely on GDP. For example, it has been shown that inequality (in terms of income) has been rising if the gini coefficient is calculated by country, but decreasing if the population weight for each country is taken into account. It means that even though inequality in China is rising, the economic growth in the country is strong enough to lead to a decrease of world inequality (in proportion to its population).

Understand Louis,

The empirical research and analysis behind the findings of improvements in health, education, reducing poverty and widespread improvements in general well-being for billions of people in emerging economies across all geographic regions (outside of China) over the last two decades was published by Georgetown Prof Steven Radelet in 2015.

The phrase"Great Surge" was borrowed from Radelet's 2015 book of the same name (pdf with overview below)

http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Great-Surge/Steven-Radelet/9781476764788

Louis,

So the essential enquiry is this.  We have had two great global phenomena over the last two decades

a. the great surge in the Knowledge Era / Third Industrial Revolution through digital technologies, connectivity, communications etc

b. the great surge in the fortunes of the emerging economies

The questions becomes: 

1) are these two events correlated in any way shape or form.  Or are they merely parallel, unconnected, unassociated phenomena ?

2) If they are connected, how are they connected ?

3) Will the connections, if they exist, morph as the 4th industrial revolution unfolds ?

Silburn

Louis,

Supporting World Bank dataset attached

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300404360_WB_Stats_Annual_GDP_Growth_Rates_Data_1960_-_2015_all_countries

Data WB Stats Annual GDP Growth Rates Data 1960 - 2015 all countries

ICT, Solid Mineral extraction, Greater accountability in the extractive industries, SME Expansion,Technology & Agriculure will continue to drive these economies

Okechukwu,

When you look at the map of 2014 gdp growth (attached), the regions of  Africa and Asia are the stand out growth poles

Silburn

.

Dear Pro Clarke

I think that of course, besides the traditional determinants as traditional growth theory stated such as capital, human capital, labor, technology (as we discuss as ICT), the external factors such as FDI, trade activities. Do we need to consider to institutional quality of these countries, the institution is not directly impacts on economic growth but it effects to the productivities of other factors (as we may call as the elasticity of capital or labor).

As i'm working on the some developing countries, they are strongly effected by this factor.

It is some of my ideas, i hope that make sense

Best

Phuc Canh

The developing countries need to go back to the basics, namely, generate positive value from their natural resources, products and services. This would entail increasing effectiveness, efficiency and in particular, productivity where they have the comparative advantages over other countries and regions. Trade sector protectionism and the market principles should prevail in government.

Phuc,

Makes perfect sense

You are absolutely spot on in your identification of Institutional Quality as a critical factor to explain the economic performance of countries.  One dimension is whether the institutions have been developed or not, the other dimension is the quality of the staffing, governance structure and systems.   This factor is evidenced in areas such as rule of law, quality of the judiciary (independence, equity, trust), transparency of the central bank in its economic guidance and decision-making, corruption prevention systems, independence of the public sector from political dictates (separation of powers), evidence-based and data-driven policy-making, quality of indigenous public service, active civil society,  an engaged diaspora (supply of talent, spillover of advanced progressive ideas).

Some papers that offer some further insights:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299604127_Human_Factors_Affecting_Productivity_in_Jamaica_Technical_Report_on_Preliminary_Findings

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260638458_Strategies_for_enhancing_Jamaican_competitiveness_in_the_global_knowledge_economy

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305687139_Priority_policy_recommendations_for_transforming_individual_productivity_and_SME_competitiveness_in_Jamaica

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303114038_Synthesis_of_major_cross-cutting_recommendations_from_the_TIPC_Working_Groups

Conference Paper Strategies for enhancing Jamaican competitiveness in the glo...

Technical Report Human Factors Affecting Productivity in Jamaica: Technical R...

Technical Report Synthesis of major cross-cutting recommendations from the TI...

Technical Report Priority policy recommendations for transforming individual ...

They include: