Middle-Income Traps : A Conceptual and Empirical Survey
In recent years, the term "middle-income trap" has entered common parlance in the development policy community. The term itself often has not been precisely defined in the incipient literature. This paper discusses in more detail definiti...
Main Authors: | , |
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/09/18220959/middle-income-traps-conceptual-empirical-survey http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16045 |
Summary: | In recent years, the term
"middle-income trap" has entered common parlance
in the development policy community. The term itself often
has not been precisely defined in the incipient literature.
This paper discusses in more detail definitional issues on
the so-called middle-income trap. The paper presents
evidence in terms of both absolute and relative thresholds.
To get a better understanding of whether the performance of
the middle-income trap has been different from other income
categories, the paper examines historical transition phases
in the inter-country distribution of income based on
previous work in the literature. Transition matrix analysis
provides little support for the idea of a middle-income
trap. Analysis of cross-country patterns of growth provides
additional support for the conclusions in the paper, which
closes with a general discussion of potential policy implications. |
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