and furthermore, these levels are increasing strongly over time.
[Please insert Table la about here]
Table lb includes countries like Argentina that have primarily been ex-
porting low-tech goods. Table lb countries educational attainment levels
have been low relative to the countries in Table la throughout the period.
Comparing the ratio of high-tech exports to total exports (using the Broad
definition) for the two groups we observe a striking difference. All the ratios
are less than 50% for the second group while nearly all ratios are above 50%
for the first one.12 We also notice that overall the first group has higher
educational attainment levels although the differences here are less striking.
Comparing tables la and lb there appears to be some correlation between
educational attainment and being an exporter of high tech goods.
[Please insert Table lb about here]
Table lc comprises of a group of South-East Asian economies that have
achieved a remarkable transformation of their economies over the last three
decades. They have moved up the chain. It is clear from Table lc that
one factor that played a crucial role for their success was an emphasis on
human capital accumulation as indicated by their educational attainment
rates. Looking at their patterns of trade trends we observe (using the Broad
definition) that in the early l980s most of these countries (the only exception
here is Singapore) exported primarily low tech goods. By 2000 this turned
around and essentially for all of these countries exports of high tech goods
comprised more than 50% of all exports. It is also worth noting that all these
countries, through their period of transformation, have achieved a very high
rate of economic growth. As we will see later, this might play an important
role in explaining how they moved up the chain of comparative advantage
and became exporters of high tech goods.
[Please insert Table lc about here]
Table ld presents data from Eastern European countries for which a
fast process of trade liberalization, as a result of the collapse of the So-
viet Union, and thus COMECON, rendered many old industrialized sectors
non-competitive and induced them to search for new exporting opportuni-
ties. The change in political geography, for example, the establishment of
goods.
l2The only exception is Italy with l980 and l990 ratios of 48.8% and 49.3%, respectively.