In latin america, a longer history of political independence plus a more shared colonial heritage has meant that in spite of geographic and demographic diversity, the countries possess relatively similar economic,social,and cultural institutions and face similar problems,albeit with particular hardships for indigenous peoples and descendants of slaves. Latin American countries have long been middle-income but rarely have advanced to high-income status reflecting a situation now known as the middle-income trap. In asia, different colonial heritages and the diverse cultural traditions of the people have combined to create different institutional and social patterns in countries such as