This paper expands the product space methodology to analyse the relationship between structural change, economic complexity and distinct paths of economic development. To do so, it presents product space networks for each decade since the 1960's and analyses revealed comparative (dis)advantages indictors for Brazil and South Korea from the 1960s to 2000s. The exercise renders two main findings. First, it shows significant changes of the international division of labour and trade as well as each of the countries' trade evolution in terms of comparative advantages in products classified by technological-intensity. Secondly, the indexes of revealed comparative advantage and disadvantage to analyse economies' diversification, bottlenecks, and complexity show that although having similar initial per capita GDPs, South Korea achieved faster growth than Brazil by specialising early on higher complexity, technology-intensive goods and services. This shows that growth and development is highly path dependent and contingent on production complexity.
This paper uses the product space methodology to gain new perspectives on the relationship between economic complexity and economic development, illustrated by case studies of Brazil and the Republic of Korea. It takes import data as an indicator of revealed comparative disadvantage to highlight the relevance of the local market. Product space networks for each decade between 1960 and 2000 are then presented, revealing the significant changes in each country's position in the international division of labour. Lastly, a structural development index is used to measure economic development in each country. The revealed comparative advantage and disadvantage indices indicate that while both countries had similar levels of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in the early 1960s, the Republic of Korea saw faster growth than Brazil thanks to its early specialization in more complex, technology-intensive goods.
En este artículo se utiliza la metodología del espacio de productos para analizar la relación entre la complejidad económica y el desarrollo económico en el Brasil y la República de Corea. Se toman los datos de importación como indicador de la desventaja comparativa revelada para destacar la relevancia del mercado local, se presenta el espacio de productos correspondiente a cada década comprendida entre 1960 y 2000, para observar los cambios en la posición de ambos países en la división internacional del trabajo, y se utiliza un índice de desarrollo estructural para medir su desarrollo económico. Los índices de ventaja y desventaja comparativa revelada indican que, si bien el PIB per cápita de ambos países era similar a principios de los sesenta, la República de Corea creció más rápidamente que el Brasil, gracias a su especialización temprana en bienes más complejos y con un mayor componente tecnológico. Palabras clave Desarrollo económico, modelos de desarrollo, análisis comparativo, productividad,
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