Exports and inovation: an analysis for Latin America and South-Southeast Asia

Abstract

The objective of this work is to compare the performance of the countries of Latin America and South / Southeast Asia in the last three decades in relation to the technological intensity of their exports. The main contribution of this article is to build an indicator of technological intensity that allows to adequately measure the degree of knowledge content of exports from both regions. This indicator was calculated for all countries in the sample for the period 1983-2008, based on COMTRADE / WITS data and clearly show how Asian countries have a technological intensity of their exports that is much higher than that of Latin America.

JEL Classification: F14.