Technology, Economic Change, Heterogeneity and Internationalisation in Latin America

The changing global dynamics provides new opportunities and challenges for Latin American economies. The rapid pace of technological development, increasing trade and FDI flows, and the rapid growth of large emerging economies in Asia (e.g. China and Indi a) are transforming the global economic landscape. The impacts of these profound technological and economic transformations, however, are likely to be distinct in different countries of the region. What are the productive sectors (and countries) of the L atin American economy that are more deeply affected by these transformations, and which are instead in a better position to exploit the new technological and economic opportunities? What are the policy options for the former, and the sustainability prospe cts for the latter? These questions assume great relevance for policy within the Latin American context, as they touch upon the important issues of trade integration and trade policy, and have also direct implications in terms of technology and industrial policy. A proper answer to these questions calls the attention to the dynamics of technological innovation, internationalisation and economic growth that underlies the current processes of industrial transformation, and it requires taking into proper a ccount the complex set of interactions between them. This pre-project intends to build up the theoretical, methodological and empirical framework that will later be used to investigate these questions during the course of the main project. The pre-proje ct will run for a four-month period (15 August-15 December 2008). It will set up the basis for the construction of a consistent theoretical framework, consider in details the availability of and access to statistical data for Latin American countries, and build up an empirical methodology that will later be followed by the analyses that will be undertaken during the main project.