Technology, foreign-owned firms and competitiveness in the middle-income countries

  1. Isabel Álvarez 1
  2. Georgina MALDONADO 1
  1. 1 Universidad Complutense de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR 02p0gd045

Journal:
Analele Stiintifice ale Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iasi - Stiinte Economice (1954-2015)

ISSN: 0379-7864 2068-8717

Year of publication: 2009

Volume: 56

Pages: 397-419

Type: Article

More publications in: Analele Stiintifice ale Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iasi - Stiinte Economice (1954-2015)

Abstract

Some economies inside the diverse group of middle-income countries (MIC) have shown an active behavior in exports of technology-intensive goods that is strictly better than the group average.Among the factors explaining such a behavior we find the national technological capabilities that affect the dynamism of their productive and trade structure generating competitiveness gains. Anotherelement is the potential impact that foreign direct investments (FDI) flows generate in those economies since foreign owned firms have contributed to the industrialization and modernization of theirproductive systems. In this paper we show a descriptive analysis of those competitive factors throughthe Global Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum and the Enterprise Surveys formthe World Bank, with the aim of highlighting the relative importance of them and the differencesacross middle-income economies.

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