# middle income trap

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. The situation where a country that attains a certain income gets stuck at that level, being unable to compete with other more developed economies in the high-value-added market.

## Etymology
Coined by Indian economist Indermit Gill and economist Homi Kharas in 2007 in their book An East Asian Renaissance: Ideas for Economic Growth.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/middle-income-trap