Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Szirmai, Adam
Author-Email: szirmai@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT
Title: Industrialisation as an engine of growth in developing countries
Abstract: This paper examines the emergence of manufacturing in developing 
	 countries in the period 1950-2005. It presents new data on structural 
	 change in a sample of 63 developing countries and 16 advanced economies. 
	 Industrialisation is seen as a single global process of structural 
	 change, in which separate countries follow different paths depending on 
	 their initial conditions and moment of their entry into the industrial 
	 race. With a few important exceptions such as Mexico, Brazil, India and 
	 China, developing countries embarked on industrialisation after 1945. 
	 The paper argues that successful catch up in developing countries is 
	 associated with industrialisation. It examines the theoretical and 
	 empirical for the thesis that industrialisation acts as an engine of 
	 growth and attempts to quantify different aspects of this debate. The 
	 statistical evidence is not straightforward. Manufacturing has been 
	 important for growth in developing countries, but not all expectations 
	 of the engine of growth hypothesis are borne out by the data. The more 
	 general historical evidence provides more support for the 
	 industrialisation thesis.  
Classification-JEL: O14, N60
Keywords: Structural Change, Manufacturing, Engine of Growth, Catching Up,
	 Economic Growth
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2009
Number: 2009-010
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2009/wp2009-010.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2009010