Catch up growth and social capability in developing countries: A conceptual and measurement proposal
While the income per capita in the developing world since the turn of the Millennium has grown faster than that of the developed world, the question whether there is an ongoing process of catching up between countries remains. The notion of income convergence has provided many insights into the sour...
- Autores:
-
Andersson, Martin
Palacio Chaverra, Andrés Fernando
- Tipo de recurso:
- Article of journal
- Fecha de publicación:
- 2017
- Institución:
- Universidad Externado de Colombia
- Repositorio:
- Biblioteca Digital Universidad Externado de Colombia
- Idioma:
- spa
- OAI Identifier:
- oai:bdigital.uexternado.edu.co:001/8438
- Acceso en línea:
- https://bdigital.uexternado.edu.co/handle/001/8438
https://doi.org/10.18601/16577558.n26.02
- Palabra clave:
- Catching up
income gap
social capability
shrinking
- Rights
- openAccess
- License
- http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
| Summary: | While the income per capita in the developing world since the turn of the Millennium has grown faster than that of the developed world, the question whether there is an ongoing process of catching up between countries remains. The notion of income convergence has provided many insights into the sources for long-run growth but has largely neglected the role of social capabilities in economic development. By social capabilities we mean the qualification of the ‘theory of convergence’ which asserts that productivity growth rates between countries tend to vary inversely with regard to productivity levels. The social capabilities approach holds that a country’s potential for rapid growth is strong when “it is technologically backward but socially advanced” (see Abramovitz, 1986:388). This means that the potential to catch up under globalization is strongest for countries in which social capabilities are developed to allow successful use of technologies and where institutional arrangements are conducive to economic progress. Yet there is no clear agreement in the literature on the main components of social capabilities or how to measure them. Our framework argues that the role of capabilities in catching up needs to understand them in terms of structural transformation, economic and social inclusion, state´s autonomy and accountability. Without progress in these dimensions within-country inequality may increase and might in turn lead to stagnating growth and slim prospects for global income convergence. |
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