Under the background of the new era, high-quality development is the essential requirement and fundamental feature of China’ s economy from ultra-high speed development to medium-speed development. This paper breaks through the single perspective of research on the impact of structural transformation on economic growth rate and proposes the following research hypotheses: The faster the economic structure of a country or region changes, the more likely it is to have a restraining effect on the rate of economic growth, and at the same time, the greater the effect on the quality of economic growth. Based on the panel data of economic growth in 150 countries, this paper uses quantile regression model for empirical testing. The study found that from the perspective of economic growth rate, structural transformation has a significant inhibitory effect on GDP growth rate; from the perspective of economic growth quality, structural transformation has a significant promotion effect on total factor productivity; in middle-income countries, both the restraining effect of structural transformation on the growth rate and the promotion effect on the quality of growth are more significant than those of high-income countries or low-income countries. The conclusions of this article provide policy inspiration for China's economy to avoid the "middle income trap".
