Any discussion of developing nations involves a host of contentious issues,  beginning with a debate over terminology. For example, developing nations are also sometimes referred to as “Third World” nations. This term was introduced by French demographer Alfred Sauvy in 1952 to distinguish countries that had achieved colonial independence after World War II and were no longer aligned with either the United States and its allies (the First World) or the Soviet Union and its allies (the Second World). With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the concepts of a First, Second, and Third World became less relevant.

Another common way to refer to developed versus developing nations is by dividing the globe along geographical lines. The countries of the Northern hemisphere, or “the North,” tend to be richer, while those in the Southern hemisphere, or &ldquo...