Transformación estructural y convergencia: evidencia comparada para Uruguay y otros países especializados en bienes intensivos en recursos naturales

Abstract

This article is immerse in the debate over the determinants of countries income level convergence and states that the productive structure of a country is one of the most important of such determinants. A comparative study is performed, testing the potentiality for structural change, for Uruguay and nine other countries with a commercial specialization that may be considered similar between them. In order to do this, the article propone a new interpretation of the Product Space created by Hausmann and other Harvard University researchers, based upon the theoretical framework of the latest works of the ECLALC, which points at the technological capabilities as one of the most important causes of potentialities for a productive structure to modify itself. The article main conclusion is that Uruguay shows different potentialities for structural change that those countries with a similar specialization.Convergence, Structural Change, Technological Capabilities, Product Space