Marwil J. Dávila-Fernández
DEPS, USiena
Serena Sordi
DEPS, USiena
Abstract
This article makes two contributions to the literature on growth and structural change. First, we estimate the multisectoral version of Thirlwall's law and provide some empirical evidence on the stratification mechanism proposed in Dávila-Fernández et al. (2018). Second, we develop two models of structural change which assume that the capacity of adaptation of the economy is a function of attitudes towards change. Societies whose past experiences condition them to regard innovative change with antipathy are in sharp contrast to those whose heritage provide them with favourable attitudes. The models are used to discuss the experiences of Latin America and Asia since the 1960s. They highlight how a complex economy is likely to be associated with a better distribution of political and economic power. Our resulting nonlinear dynamic systems are shown to admit multiple equilibria. A Hopf-Bifurcation analysis establishes the possibility of persistent and bounded cyclical paths, allowing the investigation of further insights on the nature of structural and institutional change.
Keywords
Structural change; Institutions; Attitudes towards change; Hopf bifurcation; Path dependence.
Jel Codes
E12; E32; O40
