Can knowledge intensive services be a new growth engine for Latin America?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52712/issn.1850-0013-628Keywords:
services, global value chains, innovation, economic development, Latin America, foreign tradeAbstract
In the last decades, the service sector has not only increased their presence in the global economic scenario, but it also has suffered deep qualitative transformations, including the emergence and the rapid growth of a number of activities that are characterized by high innovative standards and their contribution to a considerable growth in productivity. We refer to the so called “knowledge intensive services”, which include activities as diverse as accounting and legal services, architecture, audiovisuals, engineering, software, advertising, research and development (R&D), health and education. All these activities share two main features: a) they require an intensive use of high skilled human resources; b) they use and produce information and knowledge to deliver services to their customers. Global value chains have been created in recent years around these activities, which are highly tradable, something that has led to an intense competition between firms and countries to participate and upgrade within those chains. This paper gathers evidence regarding the growing relevance of these services in the global economy. It also analyzes the determinants of competitiveness in those industries, discusses the role and perspectives of Latin America and finally suggests some policy lessons for our region.
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