The Spread of Manufacturing to the Poor Periphery 1870---2007

Agustín S. Bénétrix, Kevin H. O'Rourke, Jeffrey G. Williamson

NBER Working Paper No. 18221
Issued in July 2012
NBER Program(s):   DAE

This paper documents industrial output growth around the poor periphery (Latin America, the European periphery, the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa) between 1870 and 2007. We find that although the roots of rapid peripheral industrialization stretch into the late 19th century, the high point of peripheral industrialization was the 1950-1973 period, which saw widespread import- substituting industrialization. This period was also the high point of unconditional industrial catching up, defined as the tendency of less industrialized countries to post higher per capita manufacturing growth rates, and which occurred between 1920 and 1990.

You may purchase this paper on-line in .pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery.

This paper was revised on August 15, 2013

Acknowledgments

Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX