Avoiding the Middle-Income Trap in Asia: the Role of Trade, Manufacturing, and Finance - Paperback

by Bihong Huang (Editor), Peter J. Morgan (Editor), Naoyuki Yoshino (Editor)

Avoiding the "middle-income trap" has become a major topic in the economic literature and a key concern for policy makers, even though a precise definition of it and empirical evidence for it remain elusive. The basic argument is that growth in high-income countries differs qualitatively from that of middle-income countries, and hence requires different factor endowments, industrial structures, and policies. Increased capacity to innovate and economic reforms are seen as vital to support higher value-added production. Since achievement of high-income status is a key goal of many policy makers, understanding the factors that hinder or support this transition becomes important. This volume presents recent research related to the middle-income trap, with a focus on the experience of the People's Republic of China, whose policy makers show great interest in the question.

Author Biography

Naoyuki Yoshino is dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute.

Peter J. Morgan is senior consulting economist and co-chair, Research, at the Asian Development Bank Institute.

Guanghua Wan is principal economist of the Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department at the Asian Development Bank.

Bihong Huang is a research fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute.