Manufacturing as the key engine of economic growth for middle-income economies

This paper revisits the role of the manufacturing sector during the middle-income stage of development. By exploiting a large dataset that covers different sectors, we find that in the middle-income stage, manufacturing pulls along all the other sectors, including the services sector. A decline in manufacturing growth negatively affects the growth of all the other sectors, in both the short-run and long-run. Additionally, we attempt to identify the underlying mechanisms of the essential role played by manufacturing during this development stage. We find that a larger share of manufacturing in the economy not only promotes gross private saving ratio but also accelerates the pace of technological accumulation. Our empirical findings in this paper indicate that the manufacturing sector is still the key engine of economic growth for middle-income economies.