New data shows “middle class” label misleading; skews market analysis
Anyone familiar with the literature and handwringing around the size of the African middle class that’s an ongoing sidebar to the emergence of the continent’s economies, will appreciate the FT’s analysis of recent research results. The global middle class is both smaller and poorer than previously thought, according to a new study, with hundreds of […]
Why the Search for the Middle Class is a Waste of Time and Money
Once we stop focusing only on the search for the mythical middle class, we see the very real changes that have taken place, globally, over the past 25 years. The Pew Report in the previous post focused primarily on the middle income/middle class, overlooking in their haste that even this segment of the world’s population […]
Global emerging middle classes are Africa’s GEMs
Kentucky Fried Chicken at The Junction, Nairobi, Kenya 2011 Photo Credit: Niti Bhan Bright Simons cautioned us about hyperbole and exuberance in a recent article published on the HBR site. In “Beware Africa’s Middle Class“, he points out with great clarity that the ’emerging market consumers’ spotted by the optimists over at the African Development […]
