The paper analyzes the need for structural change in the Haitian economy, an economy where the majority make their living in agriculture – a sector characterized by a severe erosion problem. It is argued that tourism does not offer any solution, other than possibly in the long run. The only...

This paper provides an overview of the failure of Argentina to benefit long term from export led development in the early and middle decades of the last century. Despite being well positioned to take advantage of significant breakdowns in the international economic system Argentina largely...

Due to an extraordinary growth performance during the last two decades the Chilean neo-liberal model of development, based on the exploitation of the country's static comparative advantages, has turned into a benchmark for most developing countries. The aim of this paper is to discuss the long...

This paper extends the North, Wallis, and Weingast (2009) framework for understanding the problems of development. Our approach distinguishes two development problems that are normally conflated. Most approaches to development focus on the second problem, namely, the transition of societies from...

China's emergence has raised pointed questions about the future of manufacturing in Latin America. This paper looks at this challenge and its implications. It begins by asking: Does manufacturing still matter for Latin America? It argues that the region cannot afford to turn its back to a...

This paper combines insights from law and economics to create a hybrid model that examines the U-shaped relationship between the strength of a country’s IPR protections and its level of economic development over time. This hybrid model is used to analyze whether implementing different levels...

This document starts looking at the long run’s growth process of the Uruguayan economy, showing that this country had a very poor performance contrasting with the world economy’s rates of expansion. In the last years, the economic integration linked Uruguayan growth very closely with...

This article examines the creation of industrial enterprises and the basic models of firm-level technological learning behaviour of the last 20 years in China. Six case studies of technological learning and links to external sources of know-how from the South of China in the Pearl River Delta...

This paper analyses and compares the determinants of innovation in the service industry and its impact on labour productivity at the firm level in three countries of Latin America Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay. The main findings show that, similar to what is observed in the manufacturing...

With the recent liberalization of technology flows, changes in the pattern of domestic invention can be expected in Brazil. This paper models the decision of a firm to engage in innovative activity and to protect the results of that activity. Using a unique firm-level dataset collected for this...