Income traps, and Turkey's risk of falling into the middle income trap

ABSTRACT INCOME TRAPS, AND TURKEY'S RISK OF FALLING INTO THE MIDDLE INCOME TRAP GEZER, Mesut Alper M.A. Thesis, Department of Economics Supervisor: Assisstant of Professor Ercan YAŞAR June, 2014, 155 pages Economic growth is expressed as increment in the per capita income of countries. Economic development expresses development level of a country including economical, political, and social affairs. Income trap is explained as getting stuck of a country in an income group for many years. As for middle income trap is defined as countries could not jump to high income status when they reach middle income level. The concept of middle income trap is derived from per capita values of Solow-Swan growth model's theorotical background. In this thesis, a theorotical infrastructure is constituted to create answer to the questions of why and how countries catch these traps. And also answers to questions on how countries can get rid of this trap which have risk of being caught of this trap or caught. Therefore, examples of specific country cases is taken into consideration by taking countries' economic indicators and development levels. Keywords: Income Traps, Middle Income Trap, R&D, Human Capital, Technological Level, Knowledge-Base, Value Added, Neoclassic.