Essay Competition Among Second-Year Master Students
In the framework of the Research Seminar course, two guest scholars delivered lectures for the second-year Master students of the “Governance of Science, Technology and Innovation” programme. Prof. Jeong Dong Lee (Seoul National University, Korea) devoted his presentation to capability transition failure from implementation capability and concept design capability as a source of middle income trap. Prof. Liu Youfa (Shanghai Institute of International Studies, China) discussed relations between China and Russia through the prism of One Belt One Road Initiative. Seven groups of students wrote group academic essays related to one of these topics. Three essays were awarded Best Academic Essay certificates and online publication in the categories listed below.
Media Relevance Сategory
Topic “Overcoming the Middle Income Trap: Best Practices & the Place of Russia”
Authors: Sandra Bit-Varda, Daria Kuzmina, Anastasiya Narkhova, Olga Perfilova, Valeria Vlasova, Nikita Volkov
Abstract
Most developing countries with middle-income status are facing the pressure of globalization and economic volatility. They stuck in middle-income status for a long period of time and are not able to overcome this threshold. This essay discusses the framework of the middle-income trap and focuses on revealing the heterogeneous approaches to avoid the trap and become high-income economies. We examine a leading example of two Asian countries, namely, Japan and South Korea, acknowledging differences and idiosyncrasies across their paths towards advanced economy status, and identify the challenges for China and Russia. We provide a set of recommendations for policymakers in Russia that are designed according to the national context and evidence-based as a result.
Analysis & Synthesis Сategory
Topic “Middle-Income Trap in Brazil: What Slowed Down a Century-Long Growth?”
Authors: Emilie Bertram, Anastasia Schott, Johannes Frank, Simon Jankowiak, Anastasiia Popova, Mona Lau
AbstractThis paper exemplarily examines the phenomenon of the middle-income trap in Brazil and illustrates potential ways to escape this development stage. Initially ranked as one of the wealthiest developing countries in the world, due to its role as an important producer of agricultural commodities, Brazil underwent a long period of economic decline and stagnation followed by various unpleasant events such as hyperinflation and the East Asian crisis. As a consequence, Brazil spent nearly 30 years without further improvement in living standards after a century of growth. Reasons for this include major debt crisis, a shift to new industries and a significant lack of design capabilities. To overcome the middle-income trap, the authors found out that countries need to develop independent implementation and design capabilities to strengthen their position on international markets following a “learning-by-building” approach. Therefore, key measures are needed to escape from the middle-income trap, such as the development of own radical innovations, the increase in high-tech exports and the improvement of infrastructure for attracting foreign investments and reducing spill-over effects. Moreover, Brazil needs to undergo a transition from resource to innovation-driven growth.
Comparative Study Category
Topic “Three ways to escape the middle income trap”
Authors: Dmitry Baryakin, Janneta Tabakova, Tackmoon Kwon, Daniel Gheorghe, Maxim Efremov, Yaroslav Eferin
AbstractUnderstanding the concept of middle income trap (MIT) and how it affects the economic circuit provides us with important insights on how the R&D policies should be created and what they should aim at. Korea was one of the poorest countries in 1953, with merely $67 per capita GDP, but in 2015 its per capita GDP reached $34,549. Korea achieved enormous economic growth, the ‘Miracle of Han River’, within half a century. A very interesting period of Irish history is the economic boom between 1995 and 2007 - the so-called “Celtic Tiger era”. And now Ireland has one of the highest GDP per capita - $65,123.
In the early 1990s Finland experienced a major banking crisis, with the unemployment rate exceeding 15%, and the accumulation of government debt exceeding 60% of GDP. However, Finland has successfully transformed itself into a knowledge-based economy, escaping the MIT and reaching $40,990 GDP per capita.
The case studies showed that the countries had similar investment sources and driver forces. Foreign direct investments were crucial for launching innovation policies and the ICT sector was revealed as a key driver industry for these three countries. Concerning key policies, each country had its own unique mix of policies that ultimately made it successful. To escape middle income trap, Ireland, Finland and Korea used various approaches with strong governmental support, focusing on innovation policies and trying to reorient their economic activity into another direction. These policies were likely to be built not just as a way to escape the middle-income trap, but to drive growth and technological advancement in each country, which in turn led these countries to avoid stagnating in the MIT.