"First, because the productivity gap between the periphery and the industrial core has never been larger, what Alexander Gerschenkron called the "advantages of backwardness" are now uniquely great."
That reminds me of Reagan's old anecdote about the boy who opened the barn door on Christmas day to find a big pile of horseshit waiting for him. But he didn't despair, he was overjoyed - "there must be a horse here somewhere then!" As Pritchett's paper shows, or as anyone who plays with Maddison's data or the Penn World Tables can see, the "backward" have been steadily slipping further backward. Does that mean they're just getting richer with potential every day?
Doug