Emerging Markets Redefined: Comprehensive Measurement and Future Prospects

The twenty-first century saw the emerging market countries rise as a cluster, becoming a major force driving the global economic growth and playing an increasingly important role in global governance. The existing definition of emerging market countries is vague and quite one-sided, far from capturing the reality. Based on historical experiences and actual circumstances of developing countries and the basic theories of development economics, this article builds a comprehensive index system comprising the five dimensions of nation-state size, institutional environment, economic growth, socio-economic structure, and development impetus to study 30 countries selected from among the 183 countries (regions) around the world. This provides a new analysis framework and theoretical support for in-depth study of the emerging markets.