The Middle-Income Trap: Issues for Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

33 Pages Posted: 17 May 2013

Date Written: May 16, 2013

Abstract

The problem faced by many of the economies making up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is whether they can avoid the middle-income trap and advance to the high-income level. What is needed for them to avoid the middle-income trap? This paper attempts to answer this question by building an analytical framework based on the factors that determine each development stage of an economy, and by comparing the current situation of four ASEAN middle-income countries with the experience of the Republic of Korea, a country that managed to overcome the middle-income trap and reach the high-income level in the late 1990s.

Keywords: asean, middle-income trap, republic of korea, viet nam, indonesia, malaysia, philippines, thailand

JEL Classification: O10, O11, O40, O43, O53

Suggested Citation

Tran, Van Tho, The Middle-Income Trap: Issues for Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (May 16, 2013). ADBI Working Paper 421, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2266239 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2266239

Van Tho Tran (Contact Author)

Waseda University ( email )

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