The middle-income trap was initially interpreted as an inevitable slowdown in economic growth as countries approach the technological frontier. Yet growth in Latin America (LA) stalled at low levels of labour productivity — about half of the levels of the technological leaders. Productivity...

Social protection programmes have expanded rapidly in the developing world in recent years. In Southeast Asia, the experience of the Asian Financial Crisis of the 1990s heightened awareness of vulnerability to poverty and the role of government in protecting households from a sudden loss of...