Originally created by an investment banker's imagination as a marketing tool, the BRIC acronym now represents the shift in the balance underlying the world economy from industrialized countries to emerging economies. Due to their exceptional growth over recent years, Brazil, Russia, India and China have managed to reduce their populations' poverty and move hundreds of millions of people into the middle class. This result has been achieved through globalization, trade, and investment, by following an original path in which public policy has supported the economy's transformation. If these changes have created many winners, they have also had harmful consequences in terms of social inequality and abuse of finite resources. This book describes these novel developments, both their positive and negative facets, and helps the reader understand their complexity.

Andrea Goldstein is an economist at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and an expert on emerging economies.