Related Research

• Hamilton, C. and G. J. de Vries (2023). The Structural Transformation of Transition Economies. GGDC Research Memorandum 196. Data available for download at https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/structuralchange/ETD-Transition-Economies

This paper provides the detailed sources, methods, assumptions, and construction procedures for the Economic Transformation Database of Transition Economies

• WIDER Technical Note 2/2021: "The Economic Transformation Database (ETD): content, sources, and methods", DOI: 10.35188/UNU-WIDER/WTN/2021-2

The technical note describes in detail the sources and methods used in the construction of the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database on a country-by-country basis.

• WIDER Working Paper 28/2021: "A manufacturing renaissance? Industrialization trends in the developing world", DOI: 10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2021/966-2

Published as: Kruse, H., E. Mensah, K. Sen, and G. J. de Vries (forthcoming). “A manufacturing renaissance? Industrialization trends in the developing world” IMF Economic Review. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1057/s41308-022-00183-7

This paper examines industrialization in developing countries. It introduces the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database, which provides consistent annual data of employment, real and nominal value added by 12 sectors in 51 economies for the period 1990–2018. Regressions that control for income and population indicate a manufacturing renaissance in several middle-income countries since the 2000s. We observe industrialization in many low-income Asian and sub-Saharan African countries. The industrial naissance in sub-Saharan Africa appears characterized by unregistered firms that expand employment. Replication package

• WIDER Working Paper 172/2021: "Industrialization in developing countries: is it related to poverty reduction?", DOI: 10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2021/112-9

This paper proposes an empirical framework that relates poverty reduction to production growth. We use the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database to measure the contribution to growth of productivity improvements within sectors and structural change—the reallocation of workers across sectors—for 42 developing countries from 1990 to 2018. Next, the contributions are used in a regression analysis, which indicates that poverty reduction is significantly related to structural change and productivity growth in manufacturing. An attribution exercise suggests that structural change and agricultural productivity growth account for a substantial share of poverty reduction in developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and that productivity growth in manufacturing accounts for poverty reduction in developing Asia, but not in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Reijnders, L. S. M., and G. J. de Vries (2018). “Technology, Offshoring, and the Rise of non-Routine Jobs”, Journal of Development Economics, vol 135, pp. 412-432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.08.009; Replication Package