Innovation, Competitiveness, and Development in Latin America Lessons from the Past and Perspectives for the Future

by Amann, Edmund; Figueiredo, Paulo N.

• ISBN13: 9780197648070
• ISBN10: 019764807X
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780197648056
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2024-03-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Post-war Latin American economies have failed to close the development gap with advanced industrial countries despite more than six decades of attempted reform and undoubted economic and social progress. Two decades into the twenty-first century, there is little sign of this situation changing for the better. Compared with other emerging regions, notably East Asia, Latin America has underperformed in income, productivity, and innovation terms. All of this suggests that the time is right for a thorough assessment of why Latin America's recent pursuit of economic development has proven so elusive.

Innovation, Competitiveness, and Development in Latin America provides a balanced and topical analysis of the successes and failures of development policy in post-war Latin America. Across nineteen chapters, experts in the economics and policy of Latin American development and policy identify the challenges at hand. They explore why the region is caught in a middle-income trap, where structural impediments frustrate the achievement of accelerated and sustainable growth. At the same time, potential actions are suggested for creating lasting progress. The chapters address vital issues in the region including established or emerging sources of competitive advantage and technological capability; future areas for comparative advantage; policy effectiveness to address under-investment in human capital; poor infrastructure; and uncompetitive market structures. The chapters in the volume draw on evidence from across the region, including countries such as Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Costa Rica. The structural characteristics of economies within the region are identified and the potential implications considered of the re-primarization process witnessed in recent years. The volume concludes with a consideration of policy lessons from these countries and illuminates potential pathways for effective policy action in the region as a whole.

With fresh insights grounded in the reality of modern-day Latin America, Innovation, Competitiveness, and Development in Latin America offers scholars and professionals a crucial window into Latin America's long-term developmental trajectory.

Author Biography

Edmund Amann is Professor of Brazilian Studies at Leiden University and Visiting Professorial Lecturer in the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. His research centers on regulation, innovation, and foreign direct investment in a developing country context, particularly Latin America and especially Brazil. He has published a wide range of books and journal articles and was author of the Economist Intelligence Unit's Brazil Country Report.

Paulo N. Figueiredo is Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in Brazil. Figueiredo's research focuses on the process of technological capability building at the level of firms and industries and considers its causes and consequences for industrial innovation and economic growth in developing economies. He is also Senior Research Associate at the Department of International Development at University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Section I: Introduction and Context
Chapter 1: Introduction
-Edmund Amann and Paulo N. Figueiredo

Section II: Thematic Issues
Chapter 2: Institutional Challenges, the Middle-Income Trap, and the Pursuit of Global Economic Integration in Latin America
-Mahrukh Doctor

Chapter 3: China and the "Middle-Income Trap" in Latin America: Constraints and Opportunities
-Rhys Jenkins

Chapter 4: Development, Trajectories, and Catch Up: Lessons from the Latin American and Scandinavian Experiences
-Claudio Bravo-Ortega and Nicolas Eterovic

Chapter 5: The Co-Evolution of FDI and the Output and Export Structures of Brazil and Mexico, 2000-2015
-André Pineli and Rajneesh Narula

Chapter 6: Global Value Chain-Oriented Policies in Latin America
-Carlo Pietrobelli, Roberta Rabellotti, and Ari Van Assche

Chapter 7: Innovation and Competitiveness: The Regional Dimension
-Carlos Azzoni and Milene Tessarin

Chapter 8: The Extractive Sector and Development in Latin America: The Rising Role of Transparency in Natural Resource Governance
-P. Fenton Villar, E. Papyrakis, and L. Pellegrini

Chapter 9: Environmental, Energy, and Sustainability Issues
-Tereza Bicalho, Rodrigo A. Bellezoni, and Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira

Chapter 10: Energy Transition in Brazil: Contributions from Technological Leapfrogging in the Sugarcane Bioethanol Sector
-Paulo N. Figueiredo

Chapter 11: Digitalisation in Latin America: A Divide in the Making?
-João Carlos Ferraz, Julia Torracca, Gabriela Arona, and Wilson Peres

Section III: Country Experiences
Chapter 12: Argentina: Building New Capabilities and Competitive Advantages in a Challenging Macroeconomic Landscape
-Bernardo Kosacoff and Mariana Fuchs

Chapter 13: Brazil: Economic Crisis, Structural Change, and Breaking out of the Middle-Income Trap
-Edmund Amann

Chapter 14: Colombia's Growth since the 1990s: From Reform to the Risk of the Middle-Income Trap
-Ivan Luzardo-Luna

Chapter 15: Moving up the Value Chain in Mexico: FDI, Learning, Clusters and the Creation of New Capabilities
-Clemente Ruiz Durán and Moises Balestro

Chapter 16: Peru and the Search for a Development Model that Works
-John Crabtree

Chapter 17: Uruguay: Public Policies in a Period of Inclusive Growth without Structural Change
-Carlos Bianchi and Fernando Isabella

Chapter 18: Costa Rica: The Challenge of Diversification in a Small Country Context
-Jeffrey Orozco and Keynor Ruiz

Section IV: Final Remarks
Chapter 19: Conclusions
-Edmund Amann and Paulo N. Figueiredo

Notes
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