Can Malaysia Escape The Middle-Income Trap? A Strategy For Penang

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Returning Home: The Middle‐Income Trap and Gendered Norms in Thailand

“…Writing of the ‘tiger’ economies of Southeast Asia for example, Yusuf and Nabeshima () say that the ‘underlying worry is that [their slowing economic performance] presages the beginning of a downward trend, the harbingers of which are lower rates of investment, persistently low rates of total factor productivity, and low levels of innovativeness … a creeping economic sclerosis or what some observers are calling the middle‐income trap ’ (p. 3 [emphasis in original]). This is because, for a set of reasons variously linked to education, state industrial policy, and research and innovation, these countries have not managed to upgrade their economies into high‐skill, high‐value‐added and therefore high‐wage activities (Yusuf and Nabeshima, , ; Ohno, ; Eichengreen et al ., ). The middle‐income trap as it pertains to Thailand has been explored in a series of recent papers (Pasuk Phongpaichit, ; Jitsuchon, , Warr, ) and has also been commented on by Thailand's planning agency, the National Economic and Social Development Board ().…”

On the Existence of a Middle‐Income Trap

“…The term 'middle-income trap' (MIT hereafter) was coined by Gill and Kharas (2007) to describe apparent growth slowdowns in many former East Asian miracle economies, and a general pattern of slow growth among many middle-income countries. They raised the concern that sustaining growth through the middle-income band requires significant reforms to the institutions of economic policy-making and political processes (Yusuf & Nabeshima, 2009;Woo, 2009;Ohno, 2010;Reisen, 2011). Likewise a growing literature claims to find evidence of MITs across a wide number of countries (Eichengreen et al, 2011;World Bank, 2011, 2013Kharas & Kohli, 2011;Felipe et al, 2012;Aiyar et al, 2013).…”

Causes of the Convergence Slowdown in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, 2008-2014

“…A number of valuable research studies were undertaken in relation to some Latin American and East Asian countries (Yusuf and Nabeshima [41]; Felipe [12]). Much of the research work has been done and/or supported by international financial institutions, for example the Asian Development Bank (Felipe [12]), the World Bank Development Research Group and the Inter-American Development Bank (Yusuf and Nabeshima [41]), as well as by the OECD Development Centre (e.g., Jankowska, Nagengast, and Perea [22]). …”