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Reports

April 2026

Structural Reform and Residents' Income Growth in APEC Economies: Empirical Assessment and Case Studies

Published Under

Economic Committee (EC)

Accessed

1

Pages

53

This report examines whether and through what mechanisms structural reforms contribute to per capita income growth in APEC economies. Situated in the broader evolution of APEC’s structural reform agenda, this report constructs a five-factor analytical framework and employs principal component analysis, panel fixed-effects models, mediation analysis, bootstrap tests, and system GMM estimation, supplemented by representative case studies. The results show that structural reforms significantly raise both GNI per capita and GDP per capita, though the effects vary across reform categories. Reforms related to resource allocation and openness are especially important for improving productivity and output efficiency, while reforms related to access and innovation contribute more strongly to income growth. Labor productivity is the main transmission channel, with capital accumulation and income distribution effects also playing important roles.