EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Transitioning from low-income growth to high-income growth: is there a middle-income trap?

David Bulman, Maya Eden () and Ha Nguyen
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Nguyen Phu Ha () and Ha Nguyen

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 2017, vol. 22, issue 1, 5-28

Abstract: Is there a ‘middle-income trap’? Theory suggests that the determinants of growth at low and high income levels may be different. If countries struggle to transition from growth strategies that are effective at low income levels to growth strategies that are effective at high income levels, they may stagnate at some middle-income level; this phenomenon can be thought of as a ‘middle-income trap.’ Defining income levels based on per capita gross domestic product relative to the United States, we do not find evidence for (unusual) stagnation at any particular middle-income level. However, we do find evidence that the determinants of growth at low and high income levels differ. These findings suggest a mixed conclusion: middle-income countries may need to change growth strategies in order to transition smoothly to high income growth strategies, but this can be done smoothly and does not imply the existence of a middle-income trap.

Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2016.1261448 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Transitioning from Low-Income Growth to High-Income Growth: Is there a Middle-Income Trap? (2017) Downloads
Working Paper: Transitioning from low-income growth to high-income growth: is there a middle income trap ? (2014) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:22:y:2017:i:1:p:5-28

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjap20

DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2016.1261448

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy is currently edited by Leong Liew

More articles in Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-31
Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:22:y:2017:i:1:p:5-28