Middle-income countries

According to Investopedia, middle-income countries are defined as: "According to the World Bank, middle-income countries (MICs) are defined as economies with a gross national income (GNI) per capita between $1,136 and $13,845 as of 2024. MICs consist of lower-middle-income countries and upper-middle-income countries, both of which are part of the income categories that the World Bank uses to classify economies for operational and analytical purposes."

Asian Development Bank: The middle-income countries transition to high-income counties around the globe: Characteristics of graduation and slowdown

The abstract for the Asian Development Bank 2015 paper entitled The Middle-Income Transition around the Globe: Characteristics of Graduation and Slowdown indicates:

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The paper investigates the situation of middle-income economies around the world. Since 1965, only 18 economies with a population of more than 3 million and not dependent on oil exports have made the transition to being high income. Many more have not been able to move beyond the middle-income stage. We conduct statistical tests of differences between two groups of economies across a range of growth and development variables. The results suggest that middle-income economies are particularly weak in the following areas: governance, infrastructure, savings and investment, inequality, and quality—but not quantity—of education. The findings are used to suggest whether the People’s Republic of China is successfully progressing through the middle-income stage or whether it may get caught in a middle-income trap.

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Innovation and countries going from middle-income countries to high-income countries

See also: Innovation

Below are articles on innovation and countries going from middle-income countries to high-income countries:

• Innovation key to avoiding middle-income trap, Daily Star, 2024

• Escaping the Middle-Income Trap: Innovate or Perish, Asian Development Bank, 2017

• Caught in the Middle? The Economics of Middle-Income Traps, 2015

• The Middle-Income Trap: Stagnant Innovation and Growth in Latin America

Middle-income trap

See also: Middle-income trap and Innovation

The middle-income trap refers to an economic situation where a middle-income country is failing to transform itself to a high-income economy due to its rising costs and declining competitiveness (Historically few countries successfully manage the transition from low to middle to high income).

The Asia Society describes the middle-income trap thusly: "The “middle-income trap” is a theory of economic development in which wages in a country rise to the point that growth potential in export-driven low-skill manufacturing is exhausted before it attains the innovative capability needed to boost productivity and compete with developed countries in higher value-chain industries. Thus, there are few avenues for further growth — and wages stagnate."