Trade Specialisation, Technology and Economic Growth: Theory and Evidence from Advanced Countries (New Horizons in the Economics of Innovation series)

How does Ricardian specialization affect economic development in relatively advanced countries? Keld Laursen, inspired by the myriad of newly-emergent neoclassical/new industrial economics contributions, makes a detailed study of the role of specialization and structural change in advanced economies. The three key questions addressed in this work are: do countries converge or diverge in terms of their specialization patterns over time?; can the role of technology explain the direction of national trade specialization?; and what are the implications of international specialization patterns (and their changes) for economic growth?