This paper provides a working definition of what the middle-income trap is. We start by defining four income groups of GDP per capita in 1990 PPP dollars: low-income below $2,000; lower-middle-income between $2,000 and $7,250; upper-middle-income between $7,250 and $11,750; and high-income above $11,750....

This paper proposes and analyzes one possible reason why some countries get stuck in the middle-income trap: the role played by the changing structure of the economy (from low-productivity activities into high-productivity activities), the types of products exported (not all products have the...

This paper provides a working definition of what the middle-income trap is. It classifies 124 countries that have consistent data for 1950–2010. First, the paper defines four income groups of gross domestic product per capita in 1990 purchasing power parity dollars: low-income below $2,000; lower...

The main gateway for the Philippines to develop and become an upper-middle-income economy - and eventually, a high-income economy - is to expedite the shift of workers out of agriculture and to produce and export more complex products with a higher income elasticity of demand. The actual growth...

We expand the standard balance-of-payments-constrained (BOPC) growth rate model in three directions. First, we take into account the separate contributions of exports in goods, exports in services, overseas remittances, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. Second, we use state-space...

This paper analyzes why the Philippines' growth performance has improved significantly in recent years. As in the medium to long term actual growth adjusts to potential, we posit that the reason behind this improvement is that the country's potential growth is increasing. We derive an estimate...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the degree of structural change of the Philippine economy and examine how linkages among sectors evolved during 1979‐2000. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use the input‐output tables of the Philippines to draw the economic...

This note shows that unit labor costs, the most widely used measure of competitiveness, are equivalent to the labor share in output multiplied by a price-adjustment factor. This has three main implications. First, unit labor costs are not just a technical concept. They embody the social...