Ideas for Developing Asia and the Pacific

Call for Papers: Escaping the Middle-Income Trap: Urbanization, Structural Change, and Sustainable Development in Asia

Conference on Escaping the Middle-Income Trap: Urbanization, Structural Change, and Sustainable Development in Asia
Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, Japan and National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing, PRC
27–28 November 2015

Following the Second World War, few economies managed to avoid falling into the middle-income trap. In Asia, these include Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taipei,China. They achieved high growth for a sufficient period of time to reach high-income status, among others, through well managed urbanization, smooth structural change, and technological progress. Whether other Asian economies, particularly the People’s Republic of China, can follow suit is of great interest for both theoretical and empirical research.

Against this background, the Asian Development Bank Institute and the National Natural Science Foundation of China Key Project (NSFC 71133004) invite submissions of unpublished papers which address any aspect of the middle-income trap issue in Asia. Topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Lessons and experiences based on the East Asian model of urbanization, structural change, and sustainable development
  • Country case studies on the prospect of escaping the middle-income trap
  • Major social and economic effects of urbanization and structural change in Asia
  • The role of government in managing urbanization and structural change, particularly at different development stages
  • The major challenges for Asian economies to escape the middle-income trap
  • Other relevant issues

Accepted papers will be considered for publication in a book or special journal issue. The organizers will meet the costs of travel (roundtrip economy-class ticket) and accommodation as well as a small allowance for one author per paper to present at the conference. No registration fee will be charged.

Important dates:

  • Deadline for submission of extended abstracts/draft papers: 15 October 2015
  • Deadline for submission of complete papers: 15 November 2015
  • Conference date: 27–28 November 2015

Abstracts/draft papers (in English) should be submitted to: Guanghua Wan, Director of Research, and/or Peter Morgan, Senior Consultant for Research, at [email protected]. Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, Japan. www.adbi.org. Only authors of accepted papers will be notified before 20 October 2015. For inquiries, please e-mail [email protected].

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