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How to avoid middle income traps ? evidence from Malaysia

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  • Flaaen, Aaron
  • Ghani, Ejaz
  • Mishra, Saurabh

Abstract

Malaysia's structural transformation from low to middle income is a success story, making it one of the most prominent manufacturing exporters'in the world. However, like many other middle income economies, it is squeezed by the competition from low-wage economies on the one hand, and more innovative advanced economies on the other. What can Malaysia do? Does Malaysia need a new growth strategy? This paper emphasizes the need for broad structural transformation; that is, moving to higher productivity production in both goods and services. This paper examines productivity growth for Malaysia at the sectoral level, and constructs several measures of the sophistication of goods and services trade, and puts these comparisons in a global context. The results indicate that Malaysia has further opportunities for growth in the services sector in particular. Modernizing the services sector may provide a way out of the middle income trap, and serve as a source of growth for Malaysia into the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Flaaen, Aaron & Ghani, Ejaz & Mishra, Saurabh, 2013. "How to avoid middle income traps ? evidence from Malaysia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6427, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6427
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    1. How to avoid middle-income traps? Evidence from Malaysia
      by ? in VoxEU.org on 2013-07-22 06:00:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Lim, King Yoong, 2019. "Industrial Transformation With Heterogeneous Labor And Foreign Experts," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(8), pages 3225-3266, December.
    2. Glawe, Linda & Wagner, Helmut, 2020. "China in the middle-income trap?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    3. Pierre-Richard Agénor, 2017. "Caught In The Middle? The Economics Of Middle-Income Traps," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 771-791, July.
    4. Helmut Wagner, 2015. "Structural Change and Mid-Income Trap – Under which conditions can China succeed in moving towards higher income status?," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 12(2), pages 165-188, December.
    5. Mehmet Hanefi Topal, 2020. "The Middle Income Trap: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Bogazici Journal, Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Bogazici University, Department of Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 51-75.
    6. David Bulman & Maya Eden & Ha Nguyen, 2017. "Transitioning from low-income growth to high-income growth: is there a middle-income trap?," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 5-28, January.
    7. Aaron Flaaen & Ejaz Ghani & Saurabh Mishra, 2013. "How to Avoid Middle-Income Traps?," World Bank Publications - Reports 22602, The World Bank Group.
    8. Rabah Arezki & Rachel Yuting Fan & Ha Nguyen, 2021. "Technology adoption and the middle‐income trap: Lessons from the Middle East and East Asia," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1711-1740, August.
    9. Ke‐wei Cheng & Chen Feng & Yao Zhang, 2021. "Land price control and employee wages: A bunching analysis of factor cost transfer," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 2477-2508, December.
    10. Jungsuk Kim & Jungsoo Park, 2018. "The Role of Total Factor Productivity Growth in Middle-Income Countries," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(6), pages 1264-1284, May.
    11. Pierre-Richard AGENOR, 2016. "Caught in the Middle? The Economics of Middle-Income Traps," Working Papers P142, FERDI.
    12. Linda Glawe & Helmut Wagner, 2016. "The Middle-Income Trap: Definitions, Theories and Countries Concerned—A Literature Survey," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 58(4), pages 507-538, December.
    13. Mishra, Saurabh & Tewari, Ishani & Toosi, Siavash, 2020. "Economic complexity and the globalization of services," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 267-280.
    14. Mirjalili, Seyed Hossein & Mohseni Cheraghlou, Amin & Sa'adat, Hossein, 2018. "Avoiding Middle-income Trap in Muslim Majority Countries: The Effect of Total Factor Productivity, Human Capital, and Age Dependency Ratio," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 5-21.
    15. Gill,Indermit S. & Kharas,Homi, 2015. "The middle-income trap turns ten," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7403, The World Bank.
    16. King Yoong Lim, 2017. "Assessing The Double-Edged Sword Of Using Imitation As A Stepping Stone To Innovation: A Case Of Malaysia’S K-Economy Puzzle," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 65(01), pages 131-159, November.
    17. Fernando Gabriel Im & David Rosenblatt, 2015. "Middle-Income Traps: A Conceptual and Empirical Survey," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(03), pages 1-39.
    18. Antonio Angelino, 2017. "Human capital shortages in the Vietnamese industry. A firm-level analysis," Working Papers 1701, c.MET-05 - Centro Interuniversitario di Economia Applicata alle Politiche per L'industria, lo Sviluppo locale e l'Internazionalizzazione.
    19. Bill Battaile & Mr. Saurabh Mishra, 2015. "Transforming Non-Renewable Resource Economies (NREs)," IMF Working Papers 2015/171, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Kumagai, Satoru, 2014. "The middle-income trap from the viewpoint of trade structures," IDE Discussion Papers 482, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    21. Riana Razafimandimby Andrianjaka & Eric Rougier, 2017. "What difference does it make? Revue de littérature et analyse empirique des déterminants de la Trappe à Revenu Intermédiaire," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2017-16, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    22. Saurabh Mishra & Robert Koopman & Giuditta De-Prato & Anand Rao & Israel Osorio-Rodarte & Julie Kim & Nikola Spatafora & Keith Strier & Andrea Zaccaria, 2021. "AI Specialization for Pathways of Economic Diversification," Papers 2103.11042, arXiv.org.

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