Keywords
structural changes
industrialization
human capital
human capital-intensive services
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Abstract
Economies not only grow, but also change their output structure in the process. Although structural changes take place throughout the whole process of economic development, the author identifies certain phases of that process, which in his opinion are of particular significance. They are: industrialisation (a shift in the development engine role from agriculture to industry) and an emerging engine role of human capital-intensive services (a shift of dominance from industry to services).
The first of these phases has been intellectually much better researched than the second. There are numerous researches that prove general standardised patterns of structural transformation as well as differences between them. The author notes that the inflection point, when the share of the manufacturing sector reaches its maximum level (between 30% and 40% GDP), is probably somewhat overstated, given various distortions generated by activist developmental strategies. Also, he points out to the studies that place the beginning of intensive growth (growth on per capita basis) in poor countries at a much earlier date than it would arise from the established literature sources.
The second phase is less well recognised both theoretically and empirically. There are no ‘fixed’ issues and the theoretical part, as well as the empirical, are at the very early stage of development. The only certain fact, or constant, is the positive correlation between the level of development (in terms of GNP p.c.) and the share of human capital-intensive services calculated in different ways.
The author’s contribution to the study of the second phase of transformations concerns the link between the level of GNP p.c. and the level of economic and civic freedoms. It is stressed that while in the industrialisation process the correlation between the two variables is weak, it is much stronger in the second major phase of emerging dominance of human capital-intensive services.
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