Third world incomes before World War I: Some comparisons

Existing estimates and conjectures concerning per capita incomes in the Third World before World War I are summarized and are augmented with new ones derived from the work of the United Nations International Comparison Project (ICP). Inspection of the older estimates reveals that they present a misleading picture of the level and distribution of Third World incomes historically and are an unsound basis for some generalizations about Third World economic history. The radical revisions of the ICP for recent times are held to apply to the past as well, raising questions about existing accounts and overviews of the economic history of the Third World. The alleged desperate poverty of India and China before World War I is treated with particular skepticism. The historical estimates also are used to address questions of international economic convergence raised by W. Baumol 1986, ( American Economic Review, 76, 1072–1085).