Can Service Be a Growth Escalator in Low Income Countries?
Several high-level reports have raised the concern that low-income countries, especially in Africa, are experiencing premature de-industrialization. The concern is that they are growing without transforming. Have the latecomers to development misse...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank Group, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/07/19877603/can-service-growth-escalator-low-income-countries-can-service-growth-escalator-low-income-countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19352 |
| Summary: | Several high-level reports have raised
the concern that low-income countries, especially in Africa,
are experiencing premature de-industrialization. The concern
is that they are growing without transforming. Have the
latecomers to development missed the boat? Although these
concerns are well placed, Africa's growth seems to be
benefitting from a structural transformation of a different
kind. The manufacturing sector as a share of gross domestic
product has shrunk, but countries have benefitted from the
third industrial revolution with globalization of services
being at the forefront of this technological revolution. As
services produced and traded across the world expand with
globalization, the possibilities for low-income countries to
develop based on their comparative advantage expand. That
comparative advantage can just as easily be in services as
in manufacturing. Comparative advantage need not be a
one-trick pony. |
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