Author/s: Andrés López y Daniela Ramos (Coordinadores); Paulo Bastos Tigre; Marta Calmon Lemme; Jorge Mario Martínez Piva; Andrés Niembro; Ramón Padilla Pérez; Eduardo Portas; Claudia Schatan; Verónica Vega Montoya
Year: 2010
The export of services is one of the most dynamic phenomena in the contemporary international economy. Activities that were previously undertaken largely within borders are now internationally tradable. Such activities range from health and education, to accounting, legal services, research and development, advertisement and design. This is the result of the delocalization and fragmentation of production on a global scale, triggered by the search for lower costs and qualified human resources, all made possible by the use of information technologies and communications.
The world service market offers attractive export opportunities and may help to create employment in developing countries. Thus it comes as no surprise that many of them have tried to integrate into service global value chains (GVC). Latin America has not been an exception to this tendency, although the region still accounts for a low share of the world market, service exports have been very dynamic in many countries and sectors.
The book presents case studies on four service exporting sectors (health, finance, audiovisuals, and research and development) and three countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico). Each chapter undertakes a detailed analysis of these issues and draws policy lessons to improve ?both quantitatively and qualitatively? the performance of the region?s service exports.
