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London School of Economics: The Global Economy’s Shifting Centre of Gravity
In a London School of Economics paper, Professor Danny Quah says the global economy's "center of gravity" is moving eastward.
Danny Quah, Professor, Economics, London School of Economics (3/22/2011)
 
In a paper from the London School of Economics, Professor Danny Quah traces what he calls the global economy’s “shifting center of gravity.” By this Quah means the average location of economic activity around the world.

Quah’s paper considers GDP produced by all countries around the globe. He finds that since 1980, the “center of gravity” moved from the western to the eastern world. In 2008, the center of gravity was pulled between Helsinki, Finland, and Bucharest, Romania. By 2050, this economic center of gravity is expected to be located between India and China, if trends continue.

As economic dominance moves eastward, so, too will global and political influence in the next 50–100 years. Many policy questions will not change, but approaches to them may, such as political and military interventions.

 
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About the Author

Danny Quah, Professor, Economics, London School of Economics
Danny Quah is Head of Department and Professor of Economics at The London School of Economics and Political Science. Quah obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University and his A.B. from Princeton University. He joined LSE in 1991 after having taught as an assistant professor in MIT's Economics Department. In the UK, he has served on the Academic Panels of H.~M.~Treasury and the Office for National Statistics. Quah is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London and a Governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. From 1996 through 1998, he held a British Academy Research Award to study ``Growth and distribution in dematerialized, knowledge-based economies'', and from 1998 through 2000, an ESRC award for ``Trade and growth across weightless economies.'' In July 1998 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded him a grant for continued study of the weightless economy and the economics of information technology. He continues to work on income distribution dynamics. To do much of his empirical research, Quah has developed his own econometrics shell tsrf, which he makes freely available (under the GNU Public License).
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