Abstract

DOMINGUEZ, Rafael  and  CARIA, Sara. Ecuador in the middle income trap. Prob. Des [online]. 2016, vol.47, n.187, pp.89-112. ISSN 0301-7036.

The middle income trap (MIT) alludes to the challenges that middle income countries face in converging with developed nations, due to their inability to complete the productive transition from low value-added sectors (commodities and natural resource- and labor-intensive manufactured goods) to high value-added sectors (technology-intensive manufactured goods). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the causes behind the MIT in which Ecuador has been entrenched for the past 60 years and the country’s prospects for emerging from this trap, analyzing official development strategies and the conditions that the emerging literature about the MIT (which connects with the theory of the developmentalist State and its problematic exportation to the Latin America region) has found are needed for countries that export just a few commodities to make strides forward in development.

Keywords : Middle income trap; commodities; economic growth; structural change; education; innovation; industrial policies.