Resumen de La evolución del desarrollo industrial en los países en desarrollo: aplicación al caso del norte de africa. Un análisis del impacto de posibles acuerdos comerciales y de la industrialización verde de la región
The last decade has witnessed a renewed interest of the international community in industrial development as an engine of national economic growth. Industrialization offers responses to sluggish economic growth, poverty reduction, job creation and stability in the world. The North African region is closely observed both for the social and political changes it has undergone during the last decade and the development challenges it faces.
This doctoral dissertation analyses the status and progress of industrial development as well as the existence of distinct patterns within the region of North Africa. It also analyses the impact of regional trade agreements and the role of green industry in its industrial development.
This doctoral dissertation is submitted as a compendium of research articles. The results are presented in this document that is organized in the following sections. The first section introduces the research and objectives. The second section presents the research articles that constitute the backbone of this dissertation. The first article ¿Industrial development in North Africa: a comparative analysis in the period 2004-2012¿ analyses the status and progress of industrial development in the region in terms of industrial production and trade. The main result is the existence of two patterns of industrial development. One based on the wealth in natural resources and the other one on the existence of a significant industrial base.
The second article ¿Optimal Regional Trade-Integration Schemes in North Africa: Toward a Pro-Industrialization Policy¿ analyses the impact of several trade agreements of the North African region. The article underlines the significant differences of different trade agreements on the commerce of manufactured products as well as the positive effect of trade facilitation measures.
The last article ¿How green is manufacturing? Status and prospects of national green industrialization. The case of Morocco¿ introduces a new method to measure green industry. The latter constitutes a domain where no measurement methodologies have been developed in the past. The analysis of the case of Morocco confirms that the mere existence of green industry policies does not result in the development of that kind of industry.
The last section of this doctoral dissertation introduces the results of every research article, the general conclusions drawn, the limitations and the potential future research lines.
The doctoral dissertation has been elaborated using data from different international organizations. From a methodological point of view, several techniques including, among others, the identification, calculation and interpretation of key indicators of industrial production and trade as well as the use of modelling to assess the impact of regional trade agreements on industrial development and computation techniques to measure green industry are used. Each article has constructed databases which build exclusively upon leading data sources.
Among the main conclusions of this doctoral dissertation one could cite that the region of North Africa has not undergone significant changes in terms of industrial development during the period 2004-2012 as well as the proposal of an innovative methodology to measure green industry.
Among the worth mentioning implications, one can cite the lack of an integrated analytical model to undertake studies of the industrial development of developing countries as well as of the green industry importance for the development of countries.
