The rise of the middle class and economic growth in ASEAN

Markus Brueckner, Era Dabla-Norris, Mark Gradstein and Daniel Lederman
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Markus Brueckner

Journal of Asian Economics, 2018, vol. 56, issue C, 48-58

Abstract: We present instrumental variables estimates of the relationship between the share of income accruing to the middle class and GDP per capita. The increase in GDP per capita that ASEAN economies experienced during 1970–2010 significantly contributed to a higher share of income accruing to the middle class in these countries. Econometric model estimates show that the impact of a rise of the middle class on economic growth depends on initial levels of GDP per capita. In the majority of ASEAN countries, a rise of the middle class that is unrelated to GDP per capita growth would have had a significant negative effect on economic growth for levels of ASEAN economies' GDP per capita in 1970. In contrast, for recent values of GDP per capita a rise of the middle class would positively contribute to growth of GDP per capita in ASEAN. We show that investment is an important channel through which the income share of the middle class affects economic growth.

Keywords: Middle class; Inequality; Economic growth; ASEAN (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Rise of the Middle Class and Economic Growth in ASEAN (2017)
Working Paper: The rise of the middle class and economic growth in ASEAN (2017)
Working Paper: The rise of the middle class and economic growth in ASEAN (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:asieco:v:56:y:2018:i:c:p:48-58

DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2017.12.008

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