Due to an extraordinary growth performance during the last two decades the Chilean neo-liberal model of development, based on the exploitation of the country's static comparative advantages, has turned into a benchmark for most developing countries. The aim of this paper is to discuss the long...

This work provides an empirical assessment of the 'sophistication' of the Italian international specialization pattern and of its evolution during the period 1980-2000. In particular we analyse the well-known Italian trade 'anomaly' combining the information coming from the PRODY index (Hausmann...

We present a novel argument demonstrating that when trade is characterized by uncertainty the comparative advantages doctrine is misleading and a positive level of diversification is growth enhancing. Applying a result developed in the mathematical biological literature, we show that, in...