But the structural transition of their economies from low-productivity to high-productivity activities has also led to rising income gaps and spatial inequalities. It is likely that these countries can maintain high average incomes while gradually closing their income gaps over time through the fuller absorption into high-productivity activities of the w orkers who now remain employed in disadvantaged areas and activities. A less benign distributional outcome will probably result if a shift from export-oriented production, emphasizing manufacturing, to production oriented more towards domestic markets leads increasingly to employment and wage opportunities in service activities, which tend to be less well remunerated than jobs in manufacturing.