Heterogeneidad estructural, asimetrías tecnológicas y crecimiento en América Latina[Structural heterogeneity, technological asymmetries and growth in Latin America]

The book structural Heterogeneity, technological asymmetries and growth in Latin America permitted the publication of five guided studies to describe and examining principal mechanisms that explain the patterns of structural change at the region, origins of structural heterogeneity and the relation that exists among the same ones and the economic growth. The first study analyzes the changes in the structure of job and also evidences that the problems of heterogeneity tend to get worse in the region and moreover, they derive of weakness of the weight of the technologically-more-dynamic sectors in the productive structure and in the vector exporter. In second study is presented as referential framework a North-South ricardian model of international commerce, enriched for the contributions of ECLAC and schumpeterian literature. Here, it is analyzed in detail the sources of increase of labor productivity in the industry of the region during the last 30 years and it is demonstrated than even though there are important differences among countries, productivity gains are explained principally by the ones that occur at the same level in each sector, and no for the relocation of the labor force from sectors of low productivity toward the ones with higher productivity. For that reason, heterogeneity does not tend to disappear in the long term. The third study measures the productive heterogeneity in Brazil starting from the dispersion of levels of productivity, among sectors and within each sector. A descriptive analysis at sectorial level is performed, and it is proposed a typology whereon sectors are classified as: leaders, stagnant, rasing or falling-behind; according to their respective performances in terms of the level and of rate of variation of productivity of work. With the help of a conventional technique called "shift and share", it is examined the contributions of the direct, composition and adaptation effects, to the variation of productivity. The fourth study retakes and develops the concept of heterogeneity for the Mexican case. Productive activities are defined according to two distinct sectorial patterns. The first is the global productive activities, which are associated to the specific tariff regimes of the maquila sector (IME ) and to the program of temporary importations to produce goods destined to the exporting (PITEX ). The fifth study analyzes how the interaction among the dynamic macro, the patterns of commerce and the structural transformation explain the process of development in Costa Rica. It is focused on the effects of foreign direct investments ( IED ), evaluating the capability to activate the national learning systems and innovation.