<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Emerging markets’ political, economic, and social transition processes led to altered demographic trends and new macroeconomic dynamics in these economies. These changes triggered the growth of the middle class that became an essential factor of emerging markets’ attractiveness for sales and production activities of foreign firms. The purpose of this article is to analyze the demographic and macroeconomic trends of China and India in the decades before the COVID-19 crisis, aimed at estimating their role in the growth of the middle class and the consequent attractiveness of these two important emerging markets for foreign firms. We formulate our research findings on the extensive theoretical foundations and empirical analysis of selected demographic and macroeconomic indicators related to the growth of the middle class. We established that India fell behind China considerably concerning demographic transition and macroeconomic dynamics in the observed periods. China enforced a radical demographic transition. The comparative analysis of macroeconomic dynamics showed a solid leadership of China in economic growth, international trade and investment openness, technological advancement, employment, the structure of the output, domestic investment, urbanization, and salaried workers. Consequently, we estimated the lower growth of the Indian middle class and its lower importance in foreign firms’ decisions to enter the Indian market. The findings brought some implications for international managers at segmenting and selecting target foreign markets.</p>
</abstract>

Emerging markets’ political, economic, and social transition processes led to altered demographic trends and new macroeconomic dynamics in these economies. These changes triggered the growth of the middle class that became an essential factor of emerging markets’ attractiveness for sales and production activities of foreign firms. The purpose of this article is to analyze the demographic and macroeconomic trends of China and India in the decades before the COVID-19 crisis, aimed at estimating their role in the growth of the middle class and the consequent attractiveness of these two important emerging markets for foreign firms. We formulate our research findings on the extensive theoretical foundations and empirical analysis of selected demographic and macroeconomic indicators related to the growth of the middle class. We established that India fell behind China considerably concerning demographic transition and macroeconomic dynamics in the observed periods. China enforced a radical demographic transition. The comparative analysis of macroeconomic dynamics showed a solid leadership of China in economic growth, international trade and investment openness, technological advancement, employment, the structure of the output, domestic investment, urbanization, and salaried workers. Consequently, we estimated the lower growth of the Indian middle class and its lower importance in foreign firms’ decisions to enter the Indian market. The findings brought some implications for international managers at segmenting and selecting target foreign markets.

Exploring Emerging Markets’ Demographic and Macroeconomic Dynamics and the Middle Class Growth: The Case of China and India

University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business

University of Applied Sciences Burgenland

Naše gospodarstvo/Our economy

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Emerging markets’ political, economic, and social transition processes led to altered demographic trends and new macroeconomic dynamics in these economies....

Exploring Emerging Markets’ Demographic and Macroeconomic Dynamics and the Middle Class Growth: The Case of China and India

Article Category: ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER

Published Online: Dec 30, 2021

Page range: 33 - 55

Received: Oct 01, 2021

Accepted: Nov 01, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ngoe-2021-0020

Keywords
emerging market, middle class, demographic transition, macroeconomic dynamics, international business, China, India

© 2021 Author(s), published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Exploring Emerging Markets’ Demographic and Macroeconomic Dynamics and the Middle Class Growth: The Case of China and India

Article Category: ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER

Published Online: Dec 30, 2021

Page range: 33 - 55

Received: Oct 01, 2021

Accepted: Nov 01, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ngoe-2021-0020

Keywordsemerging market, middle class, demographic transition, macroeconomic dynamics, international business, China, India

© 2021 Author(s), published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
emerging market, middle class, demographic transition, macroeconomic dynamics, international business, China, India