ESCAPING INCOME TRAP INDEX (EITI)

Abstract

Middle-income Countries (MIC) that were unable to increase their National Incomes Per Capita (NIPC) to become High-Income Countries (HIC) and were stuck at a certain income threshold fell into the Middle Income Trap (MIT). In this study, 65 countries where 38 of them were HIC which might be taken as an example of economic development success and 26 of them as MIC those had strict competition in the international market along with Türkiye, which was examined as a sample country in the study, have been investigated by Escaping Income Trap Index (EITI). The index consisted of 5 sub-indices and 82 indicators multidimensionally. Türkiye did not have a successful ranking in the overall index and sub-indices. The ratio of Türkiye’s EITI score to leader country’s scores was 65 per cent. It was 60 per cent in the other popular indices generated by international organizations. The relationships of calculated EITI scores with Income Per Capita (IPC) for 65 countries have been tested with both the Cross-sectional Data Method for the 2013-2014 period and the Panel Data Method for twenty-one periods between 1993-1994 and 2013-2014.