Comparing the performance of technological and social capabilities in Latin American and East Asian countries, 2000-2012

Pablo Felipe Bittencourt,Carlos Eduardo Matos,Tulio Chiarini

doi:10.4013/pe.2018.142.01

Abstract

The factors that explain economic development of a country continue to generate controversies, even after decades of scientific advances. In line with heterodox tradition, this paper accepts the divergence in the level of development as something intrinsic to the creative destruction process of Technological Revolutions. By this token, the objectives here are: (i) to check for a longer period, the adequacy of relations, already tested once between a set of analytical dimensions can influence the processes of economic development of countries and (ii) to present and discuss evidences of progresses and setbacks of National Innovation Systems of Latin American and East Asian countries. For this, technological ad social capabilities were analyzed, relying on multivariate statistical analysis and econometric. In addition, variations in the performance of the technological and social capacities of three Latin American countries and three of East Asia were also observed and compared rapidly. The results indicate that the higher growth rate of Chinese and South Korean per capita income was sustained by the rapid growth of their technological capabilities, but also by different social capacities, while Argentina, Brazil and Mexico lost the best moment in decades, the commodity boom.

Highlights

The notion of Innovation System considers the ability to generate and disseminate innovations as a central element of the development process
We confirm the format of the relationships found by the authors, which show a direct relation of the level of economic development achieved by a country and the level of technological capability and social capability
The objectives here are: (i) to check for a longer period, the adequacy of relations, already tested once between a set of analytical dimensions can influence the processes of economic development of countries and (ii) to present and discuss evidences of progresses and setbacks of selected National Innovation Systems of Latin American and East Asian countries

Summary

Introduction

The notion of Innovation System considers the ability to generate and disseminate innovations as a central element of the development process. Attempts to broaden the understanding of the elements able to explain the economic development differences among countries emerge from the divergences empirically verified, as well as from the generation and dissemination of both technologies and innovations in a historical perspective. In this sense, the purpose of this article is to compare the Innovation Systems of Latin American and East Asian countries, from the perspective of technological capabilities and social capabilities. We confirm the format of the relationships found by the authors, which show a direct relation (but not necessarily a causal relation) of the level of economic development achieved by a country and the level of technological capability and social capability

Objectives

Methods

Results