China, India and Russia: economic reforms, structural change and regional disparities

This paper studies the different patterns of growth of China, India and Russia by exploring and comparing the processes of reforms that have generated and accompanied their high and sustained rates of growth. Focusing on the sector transformations involved into the three economies, we show that the growth strategies implemented present specific characteristics in terms of gradualism and policy choices. We analyze the effects of economic growth on regional income disparities and to what extent the recent increase in prosperity has been homogeneously distributed within the three giants. Making use of Theil's T statistics and transition probability matrices, our findings reveal that income disparities within the Indian states and Chinese provinces have increased and, more in particular, landlocked and rural areas are in general still far from reducing the income gap from coastal and richest regions. In the case of Russia, the great divide is fuelled by the presence of hydrocarbons resources, which tend to be concentrated in the West Siberia.