Openness and Total Factor Productivity: Test of Temporal Coincidence of the Structural Breaks for Latin America and the Caribbean

German Hector Gonzalez; Fernando Andres Delbianco

doi:10.4067/S0718-88702011000100003

Authors

German Hector Gonzalez CONICET y Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina)
Fernando Andres Delbianco Universidad Nacional del Sur y Universidad Torcuato di Tella (Argentina)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-88702011000100003

Keywords:

Openness, Total Factor Productivity, Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Title: OPENNESS AND TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY: TEST OF TEMPORAL COINCIDENCE OF THE STRUCTURAL BREAKS FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

We study the existence of a structural break in TFP and in several indicators of openness for a sample of 20 Latin American and Caribbean economies for the period 1960-2005. For this purpose, the tests of Zivot and Andrews (1992) and Bai and Perron (1998) on a series of TFP computed from a development accounting exercise (Hsieh and Klenow, 2010) and alternative measures of openness with different characters (Wacziarg, 2001) have been used. The cases of breaks on TFP during the consolidation process of openness in the region (1985-1995) are not significant. Shocks in openness seem to have effects on the rate of growth of TFP.

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