Mario Cimoli

Technological paradigms, patterns of learning and development: an introductory roadmap

This paper presents an evolutionary microeconomic theory of innovation and production and discusses its implications for development theory. Using the notions of technological paradigm and trajectory, it develops an alternative view of firm behavior and learning. It is shown then how these are embedded in broader national systems of innovation which account for persistent differences in technological cappacities between countries. Finally, this “bottom-up” evolutionary analysis is linked with an institutional “top-down” approach, and the potential fruitfulness of this dialogue is demonstrated.

Sources of learning paths and technological capabilities: an introductory roadmap of development processes †

This paper aims at building bridges between evolutionary microeconomics and the structuralist theory of economic development, trying to combine both approaches in a systematic way. It is suggested that reducing the technology gap requires persistent supply side efforts for adapting and improving the use of capital equipment and the sequential development of various forms of tacit and incremental learning, associated with the transfer and acquisition of foreign technology. In addition, the expansion of employment along with labour productivity is related to the diversification of the economy, the expansion of high-tech activities and exports and the consequent dynamism of domestic and international demand. The paper argues that technological and industrial policies should take into consideration both dimensions of the development process.

Elites and Structural Inertia in Latin America: An Introductory Note on the Political Economy of Development

Abstract: This paper deals with the idea that the production structure and knowledge diversification define the feasible set of conditions for income distribution and elite concentration. The evidence supports the notion that a diversified knowledge structure generates and distributes rents in a more equitable way. Rents are distributed according to the different competencies (skills and capabilities) and complementarities needed to produce complex products that incorporate knowledge. A production structure based on natural resources or on cheap labor generates rent-seeking behavior reinforcing that pattern and resisting structural change. The paper shed light on the role played by these factors in Latin America.

Specialization, Wage Bargaining and Technology in a Multigoods Growth Model

This paper develops the Ricardian multigoods model in several directions with a view to studying the relationship between the technology gap, the pattern of specialization and the institutional framework that organizes technological learning and wage bargaining. The interaction between the technology gap and relative real wages endogenously defines the pattern of specialization, which is related to economic growth through the condition of equilibrium in current account (external constraint).

Technological intensity of the export structure and the real exchange rate

This paper discusses the effects of the real exchange rate (RER, defined as the price of the foreign currency in units of the domestic currency, adjusted by price levels) on the diversification and technological intensity of the export structure. Based on a North-South Ricardian model of trade with a continuum of goods, in which comparative advantage depends on the RER and leads and lags in innovation and diffusion of technology, two hypotheses are suggested and tested. The first one is that a higher RER allows for a higher diversification of exports. The second hypothesis is that this diversification implies an upgrading in the technological intensity of exports. We find favorable evidence for the two hypotheses from a panel data study, including 111 counties in the period 1962–2008. These results suggest that a competitive RER should be considered a relevant variable in the process of economic development as it encourages the transformation of the pattern of specialization.

Especialización, tecnología y crecimiento en el modelo Ricardiano

The paper presents a North-South trade model that discusses how changes in the technology gap affect specialization and growth in the Southern economy. The contribution of the paper is to propose a new specification for the influence of the technology gap on the pattern of specialization. It also analyzes the implications of the dynamics of the technology gap for the process of international convergence and divergence, within the context of a Ricardian trade model with a continuum of goods. Subsequently, the predictions of the model are tested through a panel analysis of the determinants of economic growth in the nineties. With this objective, new proxies recently proposed by the literature for the technological variable (the Schumpeterian dimension of the model) and for the dynamism of the pattern of specialization (the Keynesian dimension) were included in the empirical work.

Innovation and Economic Development

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are spreading fast across Latin America and the Caribbean. This trend has brought about important economic and social changes, which have largely gone unmeasured until recently. Here, analysts from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean along with other distinguished scholars in the field of ICT, growth and productivity provide theoretical and empirical insights to the debate on the role of ICT in economic development.

ICT, Learning and Growth: An Evolutionary Perspective

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are spreading fast across Latin America and the Caribbean. This trend has brought about important economic and social changes, which have largely gone unmeasured until recently. Here, analysts from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean along with other distinguished scholars in the field of ICT, growth and productivity provide theoretical and empirical insights to the debate on the role of ICT in economic development.

Tecnología, diversificación productiva y crecimiento: un modelo estructuralista

The paper presents a North-South model in which the long run rate of growth of the South depends on technological learning and structural change. It takes as a point of departure the Balance-of-Payments-constrained growth model, which provides useful insights on the necessary conditions for sustained convergence. It is suggested that this requires that the ratio between the income elasticity of the demand for exports and imports to be higher than the unity. In turn, income elasticities are a function of the technology gap and of the patterns of specialization of the economy. The model allows for discussing how the interplay between the productive structure of the South and the dynamics of the technology gap shapes North-South relative rates of growth (and hence convergence or divergence) and relative wages in the long run. The paper also addresses the influence of policy and institutional variables by allowing key parameters in the model to vary.

The Characteristics of Technology and the Development Process: Some Introductory Notes

In this chapter, which is partly based on longer essays by the authors (Dosi, 1988; Cimoli and Dosi, 1988), we shall discuss what we consider to be some major recent advances in the analysis of technology and innovation and suggest some implications for the understanding of economic development.