Selecting Priority Sectors for Productive Transformation: An Elephant in the Room?

The process of economic development does not just center on the ability of countries and their firms to make more of the same goods and services they already produce. Most of the successful cases of development around the world have been associated with the capacity of countries to produce new and better-quality goods and services—that is, to engage in processes of productive transformation that stimulate economic development. As important as it is, focusing on increasing the efficiency with which production is carried out—characteristic of a static approach to economics of “doing more with less”—is not enough; catching up with advanced countries may require a dynamic process of productive transformation.1