Costa Rica: Boosting productivity to sustain income convergence

Abstract

JT03399434Complete document available on OLIS in its original format This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. ECO/WKP(2016)42 Unclassified English -Or. English ECO/WKP(2016)42 2 OECD Working Papers should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the author(s).Working Papers describe preliminary results or research in progress by the author(s) and are published to stimulate discussion on a broad range of issues on which the OECD works.Comments on Working Papers are welcomed, and may be sent to OECD Economics Department, 2 rue André-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France, or by e-mail to eco.contact@oecd.org.All Economics Department Working Papers are available at www.oecd.org/eco/workingpapers This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.Latvia was not an OECD member at the time of preparation of this paper. Accordingly, Latvia is not included in the list of OECD countries and is not included in the area totals. © OECD (2016)You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to rights@oecd.org ECO/WKP(2016)42 3 ABSTRACT/RÉSUMÉCosta Rica: Boosting productivity to sustain income convergenceIn the latest 30 years, Costa Rica's real GDP per capita has more than doubled, driven by increasing labour utilisation. Labour productivity has instead stagnated at around 30% of the more advanced OECD countries. Productivity growth has been lacklustre despite the opening up of markets to international competition and large FDI inflows. Several obstacles continue to hamper the development of domestic firms and markets. They have fostered a dual speed economy characterised, on the one hand, by an innovative, productive and export oriented FDI sector -increasingly focussing on high value added sectors -and, on the other hand, a domestic sector -dominated by small firms and focused on traditional industries -that is neither innovative nor very productive. Boosting national productivity to sustain the convergence process towards OECD countries liv...