Anti-dumping policies and safeguard measures in the context of Costa Rica's economic liberalization

This paper reviews the most important changes, both in the economy and in the legal and institutional framework, to deal with unfair trade practices that Costa Rica has experienced during its trade liberalization process. It also evaluates whether the sectors that as a result of such a process have been facing increased foreign competition, and may have attempted to use the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules adopted by Costa Rica as a protectionist instrument. Costa Rica's legal framework against unfair trade practices at the multilateral level emerged when the country adopted the WTO rules on antidumping policies and safeguard measures. That has been reinforced at the bilateral level through the subscription of free trade agreements with Central America, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Chile, and Canada. So far, only six antidumping petitions and five safeguards have been received by the government. In reviewing these petitions, the government has paid particular attention to the impact of any action on the competitiveness of the domestic market and on the possibility that it would support modernization of the industry. Behind the political acceptance of this disciplined approach lies widespread recognition of the social as well as economic progress that liberalization has supported.TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access

Productive Development Policies in Costa Rica: Market Failures, Government Failures, and Policy Outcomes

This paper analyzes five Productive Development Policies (PDPs) implemented in Costa Rica, finding that they are not optimally addressing market failures. Moreover, government failures rather than market failures represent the main justification for PDPs. Even in the presence of market failures, the policy instruments applied are not necessarily the most economically efficient but rather the most politically feasible options. In addition, the lack of policy evaluation and monitoring prevents adjustments and corrections of such policies. Addressing the arguments for policy intervention and incorporating the results of evaluation into policy design and reform are necessary conditions for success. In spite of positive policy outcomes, limitations to enhance competitiveness and create the conditions for productivity growth are still present. An umbrella approach in the case of those PDPs that reinforce each other is necessary for productivity growth.Policy Analysis, Policy Making, Industrial Policy, Costa Rica

Insertion of Costa Rica in global value chains: A case study

This study sheds light on how Costa Rica's insertion in global value chains occurs by examining governance patterns, the type of activities involved, and the level of underlying innovation in the selected value chain. The paper describes in detail two case studies of electronic-related companies in the aeronautic GVC that operate in Costa Rica as suppliers of global players in this industry. The final objective of the research is to contribute to the understanding of how public policies can be employed to improve Costa Rica's exporting and innovating performance

Servicios Subcontratados que se suplen por medio de la Internet

Proyecto de Investigación. Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Escuela de Administración de Empresas, 2009La economía basada en el conocimiento presenta nuevos retos y oportunidades para Costa Rica. En términos generales, las empresas principalmente de los países desarrollados, están experimentando un intenso proceso de reestructuración organizacional, el cual las está llevando a trabajar cada vez más en forma de redes (network enterprises), y poder así aumentar su productividad y capacidad innovadora. Esto ha dado pie al surgimiento de nuevas actividades de exportación en el sector de los servicios, tanto entre países ricos como entre estos y algunos países en vías de desarrollo. En respuesta a este fenómeno, el presente proyecto pretende llevar a cabo una investigación sobre los servicios subcontratados que se suplen por medio de la Internet (SSSI) en de las empresas del sector de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TICs) de Costa Rica, así como el monitoreo del desarrollo de este tipo de actividades en el país, a fin de obtener un mejor conocimiento sobre sus principales características y determinantes.The knowledge based economy has new challenges and opportunities for Costa Rica. Generally, the developed countries enterprises have experiment a process of organizational redesign to work as network enterprises rising their productivity and innovation capacity. These process generate new activities of exportation in services sectors in developed and undeveloped countries. Answering this phenomenon, the project research is about offshore outsourcing services in the IT- sector of Costa Rica to get and monitoring their characteristics and determinants

El Impacto de las Empresas Multinacionales en la Economía Costarricense: Derrames de Conocimiento y Externalidades Positivas por medio de la Movilidad Laboral.

Proyecto de Investigación. Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Vicerrectoría de Investigación y Extensión (VIE). Escuela de Administración de Empresas, 2012Este trabajo buscó determinar la existencia e importancia relativa de derrames de conocimiento (knowledge spillovers) asociados con la movilidad laboral de trabajadores desde las empresas multinacionales (MNCS por sus siglas en inglés) que operan bajo el régimen de zonas francas en Costa Rica. Para ello, se identificaron 41.149 ex empleados de MNCS que dejaron de laborar en ellas entre los años 2001 y 2007, lográndose determinar, a su vez, cuántos de ellos crearon sus propias empresas y cuántos se trasladaron a laborar en empresas locales. Los resultados muestran que hubo un total de 1735 nuevos emprendimientos generados. De estas empresas un 83.3% (1445) aún seguía operando para el año 2010, lo que implica una muy baja tasa de mortalidad. Además, según los dueños de estas empresas (fundadores originales) sus rendimientos en ventas y financiero, son iguales o superiores al promedio de sus competidores. En cuanto al impacto de los derrames de conocimiento sobre el desempeño de empresas locales que han contratado ex empleados de MNCS, se exploró la existencia de derrames de conocimiento y su impacto sobre las ventas, empleo y productividad. Mediante modelos econométricos, se encontró evidencia de que estas empresas obtienen un mejor desempeño en términos de crecimiento de sus ventas reales y empleo que empresas donde no laboran ex empleados de MNCS. No obstante, no se encontró esta evidencia cuando el desempeño de las empresas locales se midió en términos de la productividad media del trabajador.This work aims to determine the existence and relative importance of knowledge spillovers through labor mobility from multinational companies (MNCs) that operate under the free zone regime in Costa Rica. For it, 41,149 former MNCs employees were identified between the years 2001 and 2007, inclusive. It was also determined how many of these employees created their own companies in Costa Rica after they left the MNCs and how many moved to work at local companies. The results show that there were a total of 1,735 start ups. Of these new companies 83.3% (1,445) still continued operating in the year 2010, which implies a very low rate of mortality. In addition, according to the owners of these companies (original founders) their yields in sales and assets are equal or superior to the average of their competitors. It was also explored the impact of the knowledge spillovers on the performance of local companies that have hired former MNCs employees. In so doing, we try to measure such an impact on sales, employment and productivity. Using some econometric models it was found evidence that these companies obtain a much better performance in terms of the growth of their sales and employment than companies that do not hire former MNCs employees. However, it was not found such evidence when the performance of the local companies was analyzed in terms of the average labor productivity.Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Vicerrectoría de Investigación y Extensión