Im, Fernando GabrielRosenblatt, David2013-10-022013-10-022013-09https://hdl.handle.net/10986/16045In recent years, the term "middle-income trap" has entered common parlance in the development policy community. The term itself often has not been precisely defined in the incipient literature. This paper discusses in more detail definitional issues on the so-called middle-income trap. The paper presents evidence in terms of both absolute and relative thresholds. To get a better understanding of whether the performance of the middle-income trap has been different from other income categories, the paper examines historical transition phases in the inter-country distribution of income based on previous work in the literature. Transition matrix analysis provides little support for the idea of a middle-income trap. Analysis of cross-country patterns of growth provides additional support for the conclusions in the paper, which closes with a general discussion of potential policy implications.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOACCELERATORSAVERAGE GROWTHAVERAGE INCOMEAVERAGE INCOMESBENCHMARKBUSINESS CYCLECAPITA GROWTHCAPITAL ACCUMULATIONCONDITIONAL CONVERGENCECONSTANT RETURNSCONSTANT RETURNS TO SCALECONVERGENCE PROCESSCOUNTRY CLASSIFICATIONSDATA SETDEBTDESCRIPTIVE STATISTICSDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSDEVELOPMENT OUTCOMESDEVELOPMENT POLICYDEVELOPMENT STRATEGYDIFFERENCES IN INCOMEDISTRIBUTION OF INCOMEECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC GROWTH RATESECONOMIC HISTORYECONOMIC INDICATORSECONOMIC OUTCOMESECONOMIC POLICYECONOMIC PROGRESSECONOMIC STRUCTUREECONOMICS LITERATUREEMPIRICAL EVIDENCEEMPIRICAL LITERATUREEMPIRICAL REGULARITYEXCHANGE RATESEXTERNALITYFINANCIAL CRISISFINANCIAL MARKETSFLUCTUATIONSGDPGDP PER CAPITAGROWTH INCREASESGROWTH MODELSGROWTH RATEGROWTH RATESGROWTH VOLATILITYHIGH INCOMEHIGH INCOME COUNTRIESHIGH INCOME COUNTRYHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEHOUSEHOLD INCOMEHUMAN CAPITALINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME DYNAMICSINCOME GROUPINCOME GROUPSINCOME GROWTHINCOME LEVELSINDIVIDUAL COUNTRIESINFANT MORTALITYINSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTINTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUNDINVESTMENT CLIMATELEVEL OF INCOMELICLIFE EXPECTANCYLOW INCOMELOW INCOME COUNTRIESMACROECONOMIC STABILITYMEASUREMENT ERRORMEDIAN INCOMEMIDDLE CLASSMIDDLE INCOMEMIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIESMIDDLE INCOME COUNTRYMIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIESMORTALITY RATESMULTIPLE EQUILIBRIANATIONAL INCOMENEGATIVE SHOCKSNEOCLASSICAL GROWTHNEOCLASSICAL GROWTH MODELPER CAPITA GROWTHPER CAPITA INCOMEPER CAPITA INCOMESPOLICY DETERMINANTSPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOLICY IMPLICATIONSPOLICY RESEARCHPOSITIVE GROWTHPOVERTY MEASUREMENTPRODUCTIVITY GROWTHPUBLIC INFRASTRUCTUREPURCHASING POWERPURCHASING POWER PARITYRATE OF GROWTHREAL GDPRELATIVE DISTRIBUTIONRELATIVE INCOMERELATIVE INCOME DISTRIBUTIONRELATIVE INCOMESSECONDARY ENROLLMENTSKILLED LABORSOCIAL OUTCOMESSTAGNATIONSTANDARD DEVIATIONSTANDARD OF LIVINGTOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITYVOLATILITYWAGESWELFARE ECONOMICSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-6594