Stages of Diversification
Jean Imbs and
Romain Wacziarg
No 2642, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Abstract:
This Paper studies the evolution of sectoral labour concentration in relation to the level of per capita income. We show that various measures of sectoral concentration follow a U-shaped pattern across a wide variety of data sources: countries first diversify, in the sense that labour is spread more equally across sectors, but there exists, relatively late in the development process, a point at which they start to specialize again. We introduce a model with endogenous costs of trading internationally that provides an explanation for this new empirical fact. The model highlights a trade-off between the benefits of diversification in the context of high trading costs, and the benefits of specialization in a Ricardian sense.
Keywords: Specialization; International macroeconomics; International trade; Comparative advantage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F15 F43 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000-12
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)
Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP2642 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
Related works:
Journal Article: Stages of Diversification (2003) 
Working Paper: Stages of Diversification (2003)
Working Paper: Stages of Diversification (2000) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:2642
Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP2642
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().