Flying or Trapped

We develop a unified theory with endogenous technology choice in human/knowledge capital accumulation to establish a rich array of equilibrium development paradigms, including poverty trap, middle income trap and flying geese growth. We then generalize the baseline structure and establish conditions for different development paradigms to arise. By calibrating the general model to fit the data from several representative economies with different income and growth patterns, we identify various prolonged flying geese episodes and middle income traps. By performing growth accounting, we find that improving human capital accumulation efficacy and mitigating barriers to human capital accumulation are most rewarding for advancing the economy and avoiding the middle income trap. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.