Comparing China and India: Is dividend of economic reforms polarized?

Abstract

The paper compares the economic performance of China and India during the period of their ongoing reform policies. It develops a new measure of development, namely, a development quality index (DQI), to compare performance of China and India. The results show that national-level development quality grew three times faster in China than in India. Conversely, the health quality index grew three times as fast in India than China over the period 1980-2004, narrowing the gap in outcomes. The overall regional development quality level improved in both countries, but polarization widened in China. The direction of overall inter-regional polarization in China indicates a rising concentration of development gains from economic reform policies. The inter-regional economic polarization in recent years is more pronounced in India.