This up-to-date book demonstrates how the purchasing power parities (PPPs) of currencies are being increasingly used in place of exchange rates for a variety of purposes. These include: comparisons of real income, measurements of global inequality and poverty, calculation of the human development index and assessment of nations economic performance. Despite the increasing popularity of PPPs, many users have very little appreciation of the data and methods used in their derivation. This timely monograph brings together a number of significant contributions from leading researchers in the field, offering a comprehensive review of the latest methods used in the construction and application of PPPs. The authors provide a broad overview of the current state-of-the-art both in terms of techniques as well as current practice with various international organisations. Given the increasing application of PPPs in this truly globalised world, this book will be a stimulating read for researchers and academics involved in international comparisons and development economics, general economists and economist statisticians.

Not only is this excellent collection of papers a fitting tribute to Angus Maddison, it is also a great resource for thinking about future patterns of global economic growth - both in the BRICS and the OECD - based on key insights from historical experience.' - Nicholas Crafts, University of Warwick, UK'Angus Maddison may no longer be with us, but his spirit is very much alive. This collection of essays - including one by Maddison himself - shows how the methods he pioneered continue to shed new light on the comparative performance of nations and inspire successive generations of scholars.' - Barry Eichengreen, University of California at Berkeley, US 'The distinguished editors, leading authorities in the field of comparative quantitative economic development, have gathered a stellar group of authors to address arguably the most challenging question of our time: understanding development dynamics over time and across countries. They are to be congratulated for this comprehensive, stimulating and insightful volume. It is a fitting tribute to the late Angus Maddison, an intellectual giant in the study of long-term economic development, to whom the book is dedicated.' - Hal Hill, Australian National University World economic performance over the last 50 years has been spectacular. The postwar period has witnessed impressive growth rates in Western Europe and Japan, and in recent times China and India. This new book discusses these issues and tackles topical questions such as; what are the socio-economic and institutional factors that have contributed to this impressive performance? Will China and India continue to grow at the same rate over the next two decades? What are the prospects for Japan, the US and other advanced economies? The book brings together contributions by eminent scholars including the late Angus Maddison, Professors Justin Lin, Bob Gordon, Ross Garnaut, Bart van Ark and others to provide answers to these fascinating questions. The chapters analyse the economic performance of selected countries including China, India, Japan, Indonesia and the US, as well as Western Europe, Latin America and developing countries as a group. The time period of the study is from 1850 to the present and includes forecasts to 2030. This well-documented book will be of considerable interest to development economists and country specialists working on countries such as China and India, economic historians who are interested in explaining the growth performance of countries, economists and economic statisticians who are interested in the measurement issues, and international organizations such as the OECD, World Bank and the UN. General readers and non-specialists who are interested in the world economic performance will also find much to interest them in this book. Contributors include: D. Blades, K. Fukao, R. Garnaut, R.J. Gordon, A.A. Hofman, D. Lal, A. Maddison, S. Menshikov, M. O'Mahony, D.S.P. Rao, O. Saito, A. Szirmai, M.P. Timmer, B. van Ark, P. van der Eng, F. Villarreal, H.X. Wu, J. Yifu Lin