Output composition, trade structure, and growth regimes in Latin American countries

The Institute of Economics will hold a seminar meeting as part of its Seminar Series on Thursday, November 23, 2023: María Celeste Gómez from University of Cordoba will present the paper “Output composition, trade structure, and growth regimes in Latin American countries".

Abstract:

Under the evolutionary and structuralist frameworks, we assess the extent to which the output composition and the trade structure that Latin American countries have experienced since the sixties have affected their prospects for economic growth. Merging the COMTRADE-UN database and the Penn World Tables we first account for the pattern of industrialization in production and employment, and for the trade structure of 14 countries in the region. Secondly, we construct synthetic indicators capturing comparative advantages at the product-sector and Pavitt-technological class levels. This allows us to assess the degree of specialisation, diversification, and technological complexity of exported products. Third, we explore the trade-structure--growth nexus at the country level. The analysis reveals the relevance of trade structure and output composition in affecting growth regimes: weak specialisation strategies favour the persistence of LACs in the middle income trap.

The Seminar will be held in Aula 10. For online partecipation use this link.