Introduction: Towards an Explanation of the Uneven Growth Experiences

The typology of growth experiences is diverse. It includes a few ‘successful’ convergences but more commonly truncated convergences, growth collapses and development traps. The ‘successful’ ones, although ‘divergently upward’, have been highlighting substantial changes in their economic structure in several dimensions generating new dynamic activities with reallocation effects. Their rapid structural transformation and sustained economic growth have been mostly set first by the dynamic manufacturing sector, which has the potential for higher productivity gains than other sectors since it offers special opportunities for capital accumulation, economies of scale, technological progress, linkage effects and operation of Engel’s Law; second by strengthening economic linkages both within the national economy and by participation in the world market; and third by the development of institutional capabilities. The diversification of manufacturing, including high-technology exports, witnessed by the fast-growing economies also reflects the pattern of structural change and technological upgrading. In this creative race, the global value chain for upgrading the manufacturing, production networks and vertical trade have been expedited rapidly, bringing them to the forefront of rapid expansion. In this growth dynamics, declining transport costs and scale economies have interacted, providing stimulus to the ‘virtuous circle’.