Felipe, Jesus, Kumar, Utsav & Abdon, Arnelyn.
In a new paper, Felipe et al. (2010) provide empirical support for the idea that countries that are unable to upgrade and diversify their exports may end up being caught in a middle-income trap. They classify 779 products according to their sophistication and connectivity to other products and use this information to categorize countries. They find that 120 out of 154 countries are in a “bad product” trap, as they mostly export unsophisticated and unconnected products. They conclude that escaping this trap will require policy interventions aimed at addressing the market failures that are pervasive in many developing countries.
Πηγή: Levy Economics Institute