The division of labor and economic development

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: RodriguezClare, A
• 署名单位: University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/0304-3878(95)00051-8
• 发表日期: 1996
• 页码: 3-32
• 关键词: returns from the division of labor; non-tradable intermediate goods; decreasing average costs; multiple pareto-rankable equilibria

摘要

Building on three widely accepted premises (productivity gains from the division of labor, efficiency gains derived from the proximity of suppliers and users of certain inputs, the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market) this paper shows that a small, open economy may be caught in an underdevelopment trap in which a shallow division of labor (i.e., a low variety of specialized inputs) is self-reinforcing. In turn, the shallow division of labor leads to a relatively low rate of return to capital, so foreign investment or domestic capital accumulation may not materialize.