Lotero

Borradores Departamento de Economía no. 2 8

ISSN 1692-2611

Borradores Departamento de Economía

N°28

Abril de 2009

Competitiveness of Colombian Departments observed from an Economic
geography Perspective

Elaborado por:

Jorge Lotero Contreras
Héctor Mauricio Posada Duque
Daniel Valderrama

Este Borrador es derivado de un proyecto de investigación de mediana cuantía,financiado por el Comité para el Desarrollo de la Investigación -CODI- de la
Universidad de Antioquia

Medellín - Colombia
_______________________________________________________________________________________
La serie Borradores Departamento de Economía está conformada por documentos de carácter provisional
en los que se presentan avances de proyectos y actividades de investigación, con miras asu publicación
posterior en revistas o libros nacionales o internacionales. El contenido de los Borradores es responsabilidad
de los autores y no compromete a la institución.
1

Competitiveness of Colombian Departments observed from an Economic geography
Perspective

Jorge Lotero Contreras
Héctor Mauricio Posada Duque
Daniel Valderrama*

Introduction: I. The Ambiguities of theConcept of Competitiveness:
an alternative conceptual framework. II. Competitiveness
Measurement Problems: critical review of literature in Colombia.
III. An alternative Proposal for Measuring Regional
Competitiveness. – Conclusions. – Bibliography.

Summary

In this paper, we analyze the regional competitiveness concept and its measurement
using the old and New Trade Theory and the NewEconomic Geography. The analysis
shows that the competitiveness has no sense when is applied to the goods market, while
has sense (however, not in all situations) when is applied to the productive factors
market. Contrary to most approaches and measurements of the competitiveness of
Colombian departments, we show that is possible to obtain simple measures which, in
addition to being consistent withthe conceptual framework of economic geography, are
the product of the combination of a small number of variables.

Palabras clave: Regional competitiveness, New Trade Theory, Economic Geography,
Colombian departments, Competitiveness Ranking
Clasificación jel: R10, R12, R19

*

Jorge Lotero Contreras: Professor. Dpto. de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. Email:jlotero@economicas.udea.edu.co. Contact adress: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad de
Antioquia. Apartado Aéreo 1226. Héctor Mauricio Posada Duque: Assistant Professor. Dpto. de
Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. Email: hmposada@economicas.udea.edu.co. Contact
adress: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad de Antioquia. Apartado Aéreo 1226. Daniel
Valderrama: Researcher. Grupo deEstudios Regionales de la Universidad de Antioquia. Email:
danielvaldgon@gmail.com. Contact adress: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad de Antioquia.
Apartado Aéreo 1226.

Borradores Departamento de Economía no. 28

Introduction

The topic of competitiveness is new for economic development analysis and public
policies. In Colombia, as well as in most Latin American countries,its origin goes back
to the second half of the 1990s when international insertion and economic aperture
programs were adopted (Peres, 1997).

In its beginnings, the topic was limited to business spheres and national government
officials but in recent years it has gained importance at sub-national levels, becoming in
something like a mantra that is invoked during the analysis, and thepractice, of economic
development (Moncayo, 2003), or

a creed or an “industry” (Lall, 2001),

or in a

dangerous obsession (Krugman, 1995). In a manner, this has lead to thinking that any
reflection about globalization, economic development, or public policies, must
necessarily mention competitiveness.

As a matter of fact, competitiveness in Colombia has become a fundamental element in...