Few countries escape the middle income trap. After 100 years of wars, occupations, and rebirth, Poland's economy bears the same relationship to Germany's as it did in 1918. Today's American south bears the same relationship to the north as it did in the 1840s. Economic structures change very slowly. But the middle income trap is not an economic trap. It is a political trap. Economic tools exist for overcoming it, but few countries use them - writes Professor Salvatore Babones (University of Sydney, Institute for Policy Studies) in CIR's comment "Escaping the middle income trap".

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