"Besides export expansion, a growing middle class in Asia has contributed to the area's economic expansion, providing Asian countries with a window of opportunity to leap from low/middle income levels to high income levels. It may sound easy for these countries to run up the ladder of economic...

Structural transformation in most currently developing countries takes the form of a rapid rise in services but limited industrialization. In this paper, we propose a new methodology to structurally estimate productivity growth in service industries that circumvents the notorious difficulties in...

Structural transformation in most currently developing countries takes the form of a rapid rise in services but limited industrialization. In this paper, we propose a new methodology to structurally estimate productivity growth in service industries that circumvents the notorious difficulties in...

Why did the country that borrowed the most industrialize first? Earlier research has viewed the explosion of debt in 18th century Britain as either detrimental, or as neutral for economic growth. In this paper, we argue instead that Britain's borrowing boom was beneficial. The massive issuance...

The paper presents a decomposition of productivity gap between South-Korea and Estonia for the year 2006. After presenting stylised facts related to income conver-gence, we apply shift-share analysis to explain the patterns of structural disparities both at aggregated sectoral level and within...

The Korean manufacturing sector has undergone active structural transformation in the past few decades. In particular, the composition of core manufacturing products has changed over time. In the 1970s, textiles, which are used to produce fabric, clothes, apparel, and shoes, were the main...