Apertura y productividad total de los factores: Analisis de la contemporaneidad en los quiebres estructurales para America Latina y el Caribe

Abstract

We study the existence of a structural break in TFP and in several indicators of openness for a sample of 20 Latin American and Caribbean economies for the period 1960-2005. For this purpose, the tests of Zivot and Andrews (1992) and Bai and Perron (1998) on a series of TFP computed from a development accounting exercise (Hsieh and Klenow, 2010) and alternative measures of openness with different characters (Wacziarg, 2001) have been used. The cases of breaks on TFP during the consolidation process of openness in the region (1985-1995) are not significant. Shocks in openness seem to have effects on the rate of growth of TFP.