If the middle-income traps were merely equated with prolonged growth slowdowns occurring in the middle-income stage, as it is in some empirical studies, this concept would lose the meaning of existence. This paper proposes a new definition that considers the trap the aggravation of slowdowns due to inadequate responses, such as the adoption of counterproductive policies or the failure to adopt policies conducive to growth. By using data from high-, middle- and low-income economies in East Asia, the paper asks which symptoms we should inspect in order to diagnose the middle-income trap when an economy is having a growth slowdown.

中文翻译：

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东亚中等收入陷阱：对收入增长放缓的原因的调查

如果仅将中等收入陷阱等同于中等收入阶段出现的增长放慢，这在某些实证研究中就是这样，那么这个概念将失去存在的意义。本文提出了一个新的定义，其中考虑了陷阱，这些陷阱是由于应对措施不足而导致的放缓加剧，例如采取适得其反的政策或未能采取有利于增长的政策。通过使用来自东亚高，中，低收入经济体的数据，本文提出了当经济增长放缓时，我们应该检查哪些症状以诊断中等收入陷阱。