@article {Kapas133, author = {Manidipa Kapas and Youguo Liang}, title = {Sizing Up the Middle Class in Developing Countries}, volume = {35}, number = {5}, pages = {133--139}, year = {2009}, doi = {10.3905/JPM.2009.35.5.133}, publisher = {Institutional Investor Journals Umbrella}, abstract = {In an effort to determine the number and economic power of individuals who have the ability to use institutional-quality real estate, the authors develop a methodology to estimate the size of the middle class and its economic productivity in developing countries. The authors{\textquoteright} model employs a long-tailed Pareto distribution to estimate the dispersion of wealth and productivity in each country included in the study{\textemdash}Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, and Turkey. The model uses readily available secondary data, namely, GDP per capita and the Gini coefficient, in conjunction with a user-defined global threshold income level to define middle class. The methodology is general enough to be applied to any developing country and any threshold definition.TOPICS: Real estate, factor-based models, analysis of individual factors/risk premia, global}, issn = {0095-4918}, URL = {https://jpm.pm-research.com/content/35/5/133}, eprint = {https://jpm.pm-research.com/content/35/5/133.full.pdf}, journal = {The Journal of Portfolio Management} }