Latin American Industrialization

Abstract

The Latin American industrialization strategy conceived in the post-WWII years has reached a cul-de-sac and is no longer providing growth, competitiveness in international markets, and expansion of domestic technological capabilities. The explanation is to be found both in inadequate macroeconomic management and in the lack of sector-specific interventions favouring the structural transformation of the economy, the creation of human capital, and the development of domestic technological capabilities. This chapter examines different aspects of a possible alternative growth strategy based upon knowledge-intensive exploitation of the region’s rich natural resource endowment. The various aspects of an industrial policy designed for this purpose is informed by the Chilean experience developing salmon-farming activities over the past three decades. The industry evolved from an artisanal sector initially populated by numerous family-owned SMEs to a highly concentrated oligopolistic activity in which less than twenty companies supply today nearly one-third of the world’s salmon output. The chapter examines how industrial policies implemented by public authorities changed in the course of time pari passu with the transformation of the industry in structure and behaviour.