Since the concept of "middle income trap" was proposed by the World Bank in 2006,it become the focus of academic research immediately,and the study focuses on the areas of Latin America,Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe region.Most of the countries(regions) in these areas has shown a significant slowdown of economic growth after they finish the transition from the low income stage to the middle-income stage,such as lack of motivation and technology,human capital shortage,unreasonable industrial structure,too large gap between the rich and poor,ecological environment pollution and many other serious problems,resulting in the long-term stagnation of the national income.Research shows that the average time from low income stage to middle-income stage is over far below the average time from middle income stage to high income stage.The "middle income trap" has become a common challenge for most developing countries(regions).China’s economic growth has shown some signs of slowing down in recent years.Whether China can successfully go beyond the"middle-income trap" is increasingly becoming the focus of social concern.The current research on the "middle income trap" in academic circles mostly concentrates on the analysis of reasons,which may include excessive income gap,backward industrial structure,corrupt government officials,weak financial system,lack of human capital and insufficient scientific and technological innovation.Based on the relevant economic theories,this paper summarizes the experiences of Japan,Korea and other countries(regions) which successfully go beyond the "middle-income trap",and draws lessons from some countries(regions) in Latin America and Southeast Asia which unfortunately fall into the "middle-income trap".This paper empirically analyzes the relationship between the upgrading of industrial structure and the "middle income trap" based on the panel data of 1986-2015 in some typical countries(regions) in Latin America,East Asia and Southeast Asia.The empirical results proved that the upgrading of industrial structure does play a very important role in helping a country across the "middle income trap",so overcoming the difficulties in the process of upgrading the industrial structure,and accelerating the pace of upgrading the industrial structure,keeping rationalizing and upgrading the industrial structure will help a lot to China,because China is facing the risk of falling into the middle-income trap. |