NEWLY AND LATELY INDUSTRIALIZING EXPORTERS - LDC MANUFACTURED EXPORTS TO THE UNITED-STATES, 1977-84

This paper investigates the contribution of transnational outsourcing to the growth of developing country manufactured exports during the period of global high interest rates and slow growth in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The origins and prospects of less developed countries' (LDC) manufactured exports are first examined from alternative perspectives emphasizing LDC trade policy and the changing technological and competitive conditions affecting manufactured exports. Results show that in the period studied, the rate of manufactured export growth by LDCs to the United States was more closely associated with the role of outsourcing in their exports than with their standing on measures of trade policy "orthodoxy" established by the World Bank. Nonetheless, while the share of transnational corporation (TNC) affiliates in total LDC manufactured exports grew over the period studied, some of the most successful LDC exporters had declining TNC-affiliated shares. © 1991.