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 twofold. First, nonparametric 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 has also tended to drop at an earlier level of income. Second, econometric results point to the 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 significantly lower 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.

中文翻译：

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技术采用和中等收入陷阱：中东和东亚的教训

本文记录了中东和北非地区存在“中等收入陷阱”，并将证据与东亚和太平洋地区的证据进行对比。结果是双重的。首先，非参数回归表明，中东和北非的平均经济增长率不仅明显低于东亚和太平洋地区，而且在收入水平较早的水平上也有下降的趋势。其次，计量经济学结果表明，中东和北非在通用技术方面的技术采用速度相对较慢，技术采用速度较慢与经济增长显着放缓有关。