This paper documents the existence of a "middle-income trap" for the Middle East and North Africa region and contrasts the evidence with that of the East Asia and Pacific region. The results are two-folds. First, non-parametric regressions show that the average rate of economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa has not only been significantly lower than that in the East Asia and Pacific region, but it has also tended to drop at an earlier level of income. Second, econometric results point to Middle East and North Africa having experienced a relatively slow pace of technology adoption in general-purpose technologies and that a slower adoption pace of technology is associated with lower levels of economic growth. The paper concludes that barriers to the adoption of general-purpose technologies related to the lack of contestability in key sectors constitute an important channel of transmission for the middle-income trap.
Details
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Author
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Document Date
2019/05/30
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Document Type
Policy Research Working Paper
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Report Number
WPS8870
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Volume No
1
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Total Volume(s)
1
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Country
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Region
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Disclosure Date
2019/05/30
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Disclosure Status
Disclosed
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Doc Name
Technology Adoption and the Middle-Income Trap : Lessons from the Middle East and East Asia
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Keywords
technology adoption; relative income; fixed effect; ordinary least squares regression; innovation and productivity growth; country fixed effect; access to the internet; information and communication technology; Trade and Economic Growth; low levels of income; international organization for standardization; level of market concentration; per capita income; real gdp; oil exporting countries; oil importing countries; list of countries; total factor productivity; bits per second; regulation of entry; coefficient estimate; standard error; first stage; lack of competition; high youth unemployment; innovation and growth; principal component analysis; mobile bank; lack of availability; trade and fdi; model of growth; adoption of technology; attitudes toward innovation; emerging market economy; business and politics; higher education expansion; cellular technology; share of asset; horizontal merger guidelines; income rise; long-term orientation; market competition; income ladder; causal relationship; empirical evidence; cross-country regression
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Citation
Arezki,Rabah Fan,Yuting Nguyen,Ha Minh
Technology Adoption and the Middle-Income Trap : Lessons from the Middle East and East Asia (English). Policy Research working paper,no. WPS 8870 Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/314521559247613834/Technology-Adoption-and-the-Middle-Income-Trap-Lessons-from-the-Middle-East-and-East-Asia