Elite Participation as a Measure of Global Development

Andreas Bergh ()
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Andreas Bergh: Lund University and, Postal: Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden, https://www.ifn.se/en/researchers/ifn-researcher/andreas-bergh/

No 1561, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: Treating development as the ability to participate in complex, non-subsistence, globally comparable activities, this paper proposes participation in elite activities as an indicator of global development. Using standardized rankings from 1970 to 2025 across domains, including sports, chess, supercomputing, and fine dining, adjusted Shannon diversity and Herfindahl concentration indices are calculated. Results show that global elite diversity has increased and concentration has decreased across all studied areas. Global convergence is nearly complete for the measure with the lowest bar (having a national football team). These trends provide a development perspective less sensitive to purchasing power parity distortions.

Keywords: Global development; Global inequality; Poverty measurement; Leisure and sports participation; Purchasing power parity; Welfare measurement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 I32 O10 O15 Z20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 7 pages
Date: 2026-06-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1561

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