This paper explores China's competitive threat to Latin America in trade in manufactures. The direct threat in exports to third country markets appears small: LAC's trade structure is largely complementary to that of China. In bilateral trade, several LAC countries are increasing primary and...

There remains considerable controversy on the economic impact of TRIPS (interpreted here as the tightening of IPRs) in developing countries; needless to say, the new round of WTO negotiations adds considerable interest to this controversy. This paper focuses on the long-term structural issues...

This paper analyses the case for selective industrial and trade policies in Africa, drawing upon the lessons of East Asia. It reviews the theoretical arguments for government intervention in the context of technological learning, and relates this to the new environment of rapid technical change...

International mergers and acquisitions have become the preferred mode of overseas investment by multinational companies, accounting for the bulk of FDI in the developed world and for increasing shares in the developing world. However, many governments express concern about this mode of MNC...

This paper considers the prospects for Turkish manufactured exports, now dominated by simple labour-intensive products. The importance to Turkey of diversifying its export base has risen with its EU free trade agreement, where it has advantages in labour-intensive exports but where special...

Developing country policy makers worry about national competitiveness and closely watch indices ranking international competitive performance. This paper analyzes from the development economics perspective if competitiveness is a legitimate policy concern, and if the leading indices deserve the...

'Fragmentation', the relocation of processes or functions across countries in response to cost and other differences, has important implications for development. We discuss the drivers of fragmentation and map it for electronics and automotives in East Asia and Latin America. For technical...

After decades of weak growth, Philippine manufactured exports have performed impressively in recent years, better than those of most other South East Asian economies. This paper examines the sources of Philippine export dynamism and asks whether the current pace of growth is sustainable. It...

The relationship between globalization and employment is of growing significance to policy makers in developing countries, but is surprisingly difficult to analyse theoretically and empirically. 'Globalization' means different things to different analysts and it is so multi-faceted that its...

Globalization is a pervasive influence on industrialization in the developing world. As the embodiment of technological progress and more open markets, it offers huge productive benefits to developing countries. However, its effects are very uneven. It is driving a growing wedge between the...