Macroeconomic policy goals for most countries strive toward low levels of unemployment and inflation, as well as stable trade balances. Economists analyze countries based on their GDP per person and ranked as low-, middle-, and high-income countries.

Low-income are those earning less than $1,025 (less than 1%) of global income. They currently have 18.5% of the world population.

growth consensus — a series of studies that show, statistically, that 70% of the differences in income per person across the world is explained by differences in physical capital (savings/investment). converging economy — economy of a country that has demonstrated the ability to catch up to the technology leaders by investing in both physical and human capital. East Asian Tigers — the economies of Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea, which maintained high growth rates and rapid export-led industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990…. middle-income country — a nation with per capita income between $1,025 and $12, 475 and that has shown some ability, even if not always sustained, to catch up to the technology leaders in high-income….