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: Suggested Citation