Dictionary

middle income trap en · NOUN

Etymology

Coined by Indian economist Indermit Gill and economist Homi Kharas in 2007 in their book An East Asian Renaissance: Ideas for Economic Growth.

Meanings

1. The situation where a country that attains a certain income gets stuck at that level, being unable to compete with other more developed economies in the high-value-added market.
   • Thailand and Malaysia are hemmed in by the so-called "middle-income trap", which suggests that while countries can move up from the ranks of the very poor, moving further forward is more complex, as competitiveness falls off and costs for investors increase. 2010 December 23, Simon Roughneen, “Vietnam: a development success story?”, in The Guardian:
   • Chinese economists have for many years also worried about the “middle-income trap”, a situation where a country that has reached a certain level of income gets stuck for a long time. 2021 July 1, Vincent Ni, “‘Poverty divides us’: gap between rich and poor poses threat to China”, in The Guardian:

Forms

Translations (3)

vi bẫy thu nhập trung bình (situation faced by developing countries) · ja 中所得国の罠 (situation faced by developing countries) · cmn 中等收入陷阱 (situation faced by developing countries)