Jorge Katz

From Infant Industry to Technology Exports: The Argentine Experience in the International Sale of Industrial Plants and Engineering Works

Argentina, like most semi-industrialized countries has not so far been regarded as a potential exporter of technology. On the contrary, practically all of the available studies examine its performance as an importer of foreign know-how. There is a preliminary evidence, however, that in the last few years both Argentina and other ‘late industrialize’ — Brazil and Mexico within Latin America — have began to act as suppliers of technology in their neighbouring environments. Such new developments clearly deserve examination and will constitute the subject matter of the present chapter.

Technological Learning, Institution Building and the Microeconomics of Import Substitution

The history of economic thought is marked by a deep divide between the structuralist current originating in the German historicist school and the positivist approach arising from the work of thinkers such as Hume and Smith. While initially both responded to the distinct problems faced by both countries in the world order of nations around the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the differences have persisted, and still form the basis of fierce confrontation on ideological and intellectual matters at the heart of the profession today. The first approach advocates an interventionist policy, which derives from Germany’s need to close the technological gap between it and British best practice. To achieve this, the approach establishes the state as the central agent of social organization, coordinating and directing individual economic relations. The second approach, on the other hand, favours unhindered free trade and sees laissez-faire as the most suitable way of achieving the optimum allocation of available resources.

Import-Substituting Industrialization in Argentina, 1940–80: Its Achievements and Shortcomings

Argentina did not start its import-substituting industrialization (ISI) process in the postwar years, nor were efforts in this direction initially undertaken under the influence of conventional import-substitution policies and tariff protection. Studies carried out by Villanueva (1972), Schvarzer (1996) and other Argentine scholars show that the industrial expansion of the period 1930–44 (Table 10.1) was by no means a major departure from previously established trends. In this respect Villanueva writes: ‘Industrialization takes off well before the 1930s… In 1935 as much as 78 per cent of industrial output was produced by firms which were already in operation before 1930’. Moreover between 1924 and 1930 industrial investment and imports of machinery and equipment grew quite significantly, particularly so in sectors such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs and electrical equipment. The new plants coming on-stream in such sectors add up to a rather large number of meatpacking houses, sugar mills, tanning firms and so on, already active in Argentina since the early days of the century.

Estadios de desarrollo e industria químico-farmacéutica

La industria farmaceutica plantea un complejo conjunto de interrogantes al profesional de las ciencias sociales. Subyacen bajo su realidad cotidiana intrincados problemas economicos, quimico-farmacologicos, medicos, juridicos, etcetera, que resultan dificiles de identificar y ordenar a fin de comprender en su significado individual, en su interdependencia reciproca y en su incidencia uiltima sobre la sociedad. Casi como en ningun otro campo de la produccion industrial, y por tratarse el producto farmaceutico de un insumo fundamental de la industria de la salud, se plantean aqui dificiles problemas eticos y valorativos que no siempre son examinados desapasionadamente.

Aprendiendo con el agro argentino: De la ventaja comparativa a la ventaja competitiva: El rol de las KIBs

La reciente dinamica local e internacional amerita una reconsideracion acerca de la vision tradicional de la agricultura como una actividad sencilla cuyo desempeno se asocia ineludiblemente con la favorable dotacion de recursos naturales. En la actualidad, su explotacion se sustenta en un complejo proceso tecno-productivo. Las producciones basadas en el uso de recursos naturales se encuentran condicionadas por el ambiente y mediadas por la tecnologia disponible para cada localizacion particular. Asi, una parte de las ventajas competitivas responde a las condiciones agroecologicas, mientras que la otra es el resultado de la aplicacion de innovaciones de creciente sofisticacion por parte del conjunto de agentes economicos que sustentan la actividad. La mayor complejidad y diversidad del conocimiento que se necesita para poder llevar a cabo la produccion agricola de manera competitiva ha derivado en la necesidad de contar con agentes mas dinamicos. Por lo tanto, el sujeto agrario deja de ser el productor agropecuario autonomo en su chacra para convertirse en una red de agentes vinculados desde diversos espacios fisicos al sistema productivo de recursos naturales renovables. A partir de esta estructura, el nuevo modelo tecnologico y organizacional permite una reduccion de los costos operativos y un mejor uso de los recursos a la vez que incrementa la productividad.