Middle-income traps in East Asia: An inquiry into causes for slowdown in income growth

If the middle-income traps were merely equated with prolonged growth slowdowns occurring in the middle-income stage, as it is in some empirical studies, this concept would lose the meaning of existence. This paper proposes a new definition that considers the trap the aggravation of slowdowns due to inadequate responses, such as the adoption of counterproductive policies or the failure to adopt policies conducive to growth. By using data from high-, middle- and low-income economies in East Asia, the paper asks which symptoms we should inspect in order to diagnose the middle-income trap when an economy is having a growth slowdown.