Southern Engines of Global Growth

China, India, Brazil, and South Africa are reshaping the world economy. These Southern Engines countries have experienced a dramatic transformation in their productive and trade capabilities, consequently turning into global super powers. The current age of globalization, in which the Southern Engines have a primary role, faces a mixed set of interconnections wherein countries and economic agents are linked closely together by trade in goods and services, flows of capital, and movements of talent and skills. Much has been written about the spectacular performance of the Asian Giants, China and India. Arising from a UNU-WIDER research project, this collection goes further by studying the substantial contribution of other large emerging countries such as Brazil and South Africa. Using a wealth of data, as well as case studies, the book provides a detailed history review of industrialisation and economic development.

The volume explores the foundations of the Southern Engines development experiences, and how these could provide resourceful lessons to the developing world. Additionally, the foremost patterns of international politics and governance are dealt with by leading scholars, who critically assess how the Southern Engines have contributed to rebalance geopolitics. This volume is a stand alone reference for researchers and policy makers concerned with international development and global governance. The studies jointly provide valuable insights for other developing countries in the pursuit of sustainable growth and forward looking development strategies.

Amelia U. Santos-Paulino is a Research Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) in Helsinki, Finland. Previously she was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Davis. She has served as a Research Economist at the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic and as an advisor to the government of the Dominican Republic. She specializes in trade and development, with particular reference to developing and least developed countries, and her work has been published in several academic publications, including The Economic Journal, and World Development. She has been a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for the World Bank, and for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Kent.
Guanghua Wan is a well-known China specialist and applied economist, and author of an expansive list of books and published papers in top refereed journals. His recent work focuses on inequality and poverty in China and elsewhere, and has appeared in Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Review of Development Economics. He is among the leading group of researchers to develop and apply the regression-based inequality decomposition framework. Dr Wan has served as a consultant to many international organizations and advises the Chinese government on rural development, income distribution, and science and technology policies. He is honorary Professor of several leading universities in China, including Fudan University and Zhejiang University.