THE NEW CONTEXT FOR DEVELOPMENT AROUND NATURAL RESOURCES: An opportunity for Latin America (and other resource rich countries)?
Prof. Carlota Perez, Centennial Professor of International Development at the London School of Economics (LSE), U.K.; Professor of Technology and Development at the Nurkse Institute, Technological University of Tallinn, Estonia; Research Affiliate at CFAP/CERF, Cambridge Fina
For many decades the raw-materials-exporting nations have been trying to reach development by moving away from natural resource production (or using its proceeds) in order to invest in manufacturing industry. Natural resources have been seen, since Prebisch's and Singer's "price scissors", as at a disadvantage vis-a-vis industrial products and as lacking in technological dynamism. More recently the notion of the "resource curse" has intensified these convictions. This presentation will propose a different view of the problem. It will argue that opportunities are a moving target, dependent on the diffusion of technical change, and that the information revolution has modified the global context in such a way that the markets for natural resources, as that of every other product, are now highly segmented and capable of frequent technical change, of specialised high-value niches and of creating networks of innovation up and downstream. It will discuss the various aspects in which conditions for innovation in natural resources and in the developing country contexts have changed favourably, including the competition for access to them between East and West. And it will finally touch upon the conditions for these possibilities to be realised.
About the speaker
Researcher, lecturer and international consultant, specialized in the social and economic impact of technical change and in the historically changing conditions for growth, development and competitiveness. She is Centennial Professor of International Development at the London School of Economics (LSE), U.K.; Professor of Technology and Development at the Nurkse Institute, Technological University of Tallinn, Estonia; Research Affiliate at CFAP/CERF, Cambridge Finance, Judge Business School, Cambridge University, U.K., and Honorary Professor at SPRU, Science and Technology Policy Research, School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex, U.K. Her articles from the early 1980s and her book Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages [Elgar 2002] have contributed to the present understanding of the relationship between technical and institutional change, between finance and technological diffusion and between technology and economic development. As consultant and lecturer she has worked for various public and private organizations, for major corporations and governments in Latin America, North America and Europe as well as for the EU, the OECD, the UN and several multilateral agencies. She is frequently invited to participate as international keynote speaker in academic, public policy and business events.
Venue: Conference room
Date: 28 May 2014
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CET
