ABSTRACT
This paper analyzes the process of related diversification at the regional level in two emerging countries: Brazil and Mexico. It claims that apart from regional available capabilities, capabilities coming from abroad in the form of imports may play an important role in the development of new products. In this sense, it proposes a new index to measure the impact of imports on the process of product diversification. The empirical analysis confirms that: the process of productive diversification is highly path dependent; productive density explains the creation of advantages in related products; and interregional and international relations contribute to encourage new activities.
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DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Víctor Martín http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2001-7283
Notes
1. See http://dataviva.info/en/.
3. Owing to data coverage, we could not replicate the estimation results for Mexico with six-year intervals.
4. This unconditional probability is calculated over the total number of products at the four-digit level of disaggregation, regardless of whether or not those product were being exported at the beginning of each period.
5. See note 3.