Juan M. Graña

The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the framework for measuring economic activity. However, scholars from critical perspectives have noticed the system’s limitations in capturing key economic flows. This paper examines these limitations with a focus on value appropriation flows, such as rents. First, it surveys the theoretical approaches present in the SNA since its inception. Second, it shows how the SNA’s definitions of production and prices entail an identity between value creation and appropriation, thereby hindering the possibility of including those flows in the system. Finally, building upon insights from the critique of political economy, the article proposes extended accounts within the SNA’s framework that incorporate mechanisms of surplus transfers between branches, enabling a more accurate representation of capitalist dynamics. The results contribute to ongoing debates on economic measurement and call for an extension of the SNA’s research agenda. JEL Classification : D30, D46, E01, N01

En el enfoque mainstream, se presenta al avance tecnológico como el principal factor para explicar el alcance de la automatización. Sin embargo, «avance tecnológico» no es lo mismo que «adopción». De hecho, en las periferias, un mayor potencial para automatizar coexiste con una menor adopción tecnológica. Para explicar esta aparente contradicción, incorporamos dos conceptos teóricos que, normalmente, no son considerados en la bibliografía relativa al futuro del trabajo: la ecuación de reemplazo marxista y las capacidades de adopción del evolucionismo. Al considerarlos conjuntamente, queda claro que la propuesta de «recalificación» como política pública para mitigar los efectos de las tecnologías basadas en inteligencia artificial es insuficiente, ya que tanto cuestiones económicas como de adopción limitan el proceso.

Este artículo examina los procesos de industrialización y desindustrialización en el Este de Asia y destaca la dinámica regional (modelo de los “gansos voladores”) tras el ascenso de China. Las exportaciones chinas compitieron principalmente con países extrarregionales. El análisis de subramas industriales según la intensidad factorial muestra que la región no se limita a exportaciones intensivas en mano de obra, sino que también es prominente en las intensivas en conocimiento. El índice de ventajas comparativas revela que Vietnam es el único país con una dinámica similar a la de China en la industrialización reciente. En resumen, la escala china no sólo lo coloca como un “ganso” junto al líder (Japón) y sus seguidores (Corea y Taiwán), sino que posiblemente limite el crecimiento de sus seguidores.

During the last decade, a new set of information and communication technologies applied to the industrial sector has emerged: Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technological system. In this article, we study the Argentina´s case, focusing on I4.0 goods and services´ supply. We aim to contribute to the literature from the angle of an economy characterized by its heterogeneous productive structure. Developing I4.0 supply is of major importance to increase the technological adoption to catch up. We found that although the Argentina´s I4.0 technological system has a reduced number of firms, it has competences in several technological areas (e,g. software, AI, IoT). Moreover, the productive diversification trajectories are similar to those observed in the global technological system. After studying some of them, we discover that the Argentina´s I4.0 supply is heterogeneous and has different characteristics. In effect, we propose different classifications that can help the public policy. Last, we consider that policy makers have to take into account 3 key dimensions: the structural small/medium size of the firms, the market segmentation and the solutions´ scalability.

This article uses Mercado Libre, the leading digital platform company in Latin America, as an illustrative case to analyse the effect of regional platforms on development, by considering their interplay with both global leaders and local actors. Building on dependency theory, the article identifies the company's structural dependence on algorithms and computing power provided by the largest information technology (Big Tech) companies in the United States. Nonetheless, it also finds that Mercado Libre is at the frontier in applied data analysis solutions tailored for its businesses. Together with a privileged access to personalized and cross‐fertilized market and financial datasets, the company's internal and purchassed technologies are the source of asymmetric relationships with its platforms’ users. The article conceptualizes Mercado Libre's place in digital capitalism as extractivist with local actors and, just like local elites when dependency theory was first formulated, it is complicit with global powers. But, unlike those elite firms, it is not technologically laggard, and its value capture is underpinned by its technological advantage. Thus, this article conceptualizes (digital) dependency as multiple layers of economic power in which leading firms from the peripheries occupy intermediate and interconnecting positions. It shows that, while these regional leaders operate at the technological frontier, economic power relations based on technological asymmetries remain crucial for studying underdevelopment.

El artículo se propone estudiar la evolución del mercado laboral argentino durante las últimas tres décadas a la luz de un abordaje que toma en consideración la vigencia en cada momento del tiempo, con los distintos modelos de acumulación, del determinante estructural del ciclo económico nacional: la relación entre el rezago de productividad internacional y su disponibilidad de fuentes de compensación. Para ello, se analiza la dinámica de diferentes variables laborales relevantes (empleo, salario, evolución del sector informal urbano y calidad del vínculo laboral) en etapas identificadas según la diná­mica económica general: 1991-2002, 2003-2011 y 2012-2021. La principal conclusión es que sólo en instancias de un flujo particularmente elevado de renta de la tierra (2008-2011) se logró una mejora genuina en las condiciones de empleo y de vida de la población argentina, la cual no logró revertir su pronunciado deterioro ocurrido desde mediados de la década de los setenta. Dicho deterioro se realizó a partir de una creciente diferenciación en las condiciones de reproducción de la fuerza de trabajo, lo cual tiene su correlato en la marcada fragmentación que caracteriza a la sociedad argentina actual vis-à-vis aquella de comienzos de la década de los setenta, que se destacaba en el panorama regional.

This article studies the economic determinants – wage and productivity levels – behind the deindustrialization trends of 24 countries divided into three groups (“Developed”, “East Asia”, “Latin America”) for the period 1970–2019. The data shows that deindustrialization, regardless of the country’s level of income, is linked to lower wages in other countries. These determinants explain the origin of this worldwide phenomenon since the new international division of labour, the impact on both developed and developing countries in Latin America, and also the successive waves of industrializing countries in East Asia.

Los aportes latinoamericanos a las teorías del mercado laboral destacan que la región se caracteriza por la existencia de una importante heterogeneidad productiva, que se expresa en la convivencia de unidades de muy variada productividad y calidad del empleo. En este marco, este trabajo tiene dos objetivos. Primero, analizar la situación actual de los mercados de trabajo de América Latina de manera comparada. Para ello se estudia la calidad del empleo e ingresos de asalariados y no asalariados en 13 países latinoamericanos, trabajando con 9 perfiles ocupacionales construidos según calificación del puesto de trabajo y tamaño del establecimiento. En segundo lugar, evaluar cuál es el nivel de deterioro del poder adquisitivo de los salarios de la región y su heterogeneidad entre perfiles. Para ello, se comparan los ingresos de éstos respecto a Estados Unidos, representante de los países desarrollados. Los resultados confirman que los aportes de la literatura siguen vigentes y que los niveles salariales y de calidad del empleo promedio se encuentran marcadamente por debajo de los de Estados Unidos. Se concluye que el rezago productivo que caracteriza a la región se traduce en un deterioro general de las condiciones laborales, que se expresa con mayor fuerza en los pequeños establecimientos. Latin American contributions to labour market theories highlight the fact that the region is characterized by the existence of significant productive heterogeneity, which is expressed in the coexistence of jobs of varying income and quality. Within this framework, this article has two objectives. First, to analyse the current situation of Latin American labour markets in a comparative manner. To this end, we study the quality of employment and income of salaried and non-salaried workers in 13 Latin American countries, working with nine occupational profiles constructed according to the qualification of the job and the size of the establishment. Secondly, and considering that these theoretical arguments require a comparison with countries that do not share the same structural features, evaluate the purchasing power of the wages of the nine profiles in relation to the United States, as a developed country. Results confirm that the contributions of the literature are still valid today, and that wage levels are markedly below those of the United States even for good quality profiles. It is concluded that the productive backwardness that characterizes the region translates into a general deterioration of labour conditions, which is expressed more strongly in small establishments.

This paper examines the innovation strategy of Siemens, a key player in Europe’s digital economy, by performing network and lexical analyses using data derived from Siemens’s patents and scientific publications since 1998. We observe that the company’s innovation efforts evolved from a broader attempt to develop internal information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities – alongside its historical industrial priorities – to a strategy focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) for sector-specific and niche applications (such as life and medical sciences). As a result, it became dependent on tech giants’ clouds for accessing more general AI services and digital infrastructure. We build on the intellectual monopoly literature focusing on the effects of tech giants on other leading corporations, to analyse Siemens’s experience. By abandoning the development of general ICT and given the emergence of tech giants as digital economy intellectual monopolies, we show that Siemens is risking its technological autonomy towards these big tech companies. Our results provide clues to understand the challenges faced by Europe and its firms in relation to US and Chinese tech giants.

The ‘zombie’ literature emphasizes the financial characteristics of firms and focuses on financial channels to explain their rise. This is incomplete because it conflates together firms with very different productive characteristics. Drawing on Marx and Minsky’s insights, we build a taxonomy of firms showing both their productive and financial characteristics based on the rate of profit of enterprise and the interplay between its three determinants: the profit rate, the difference between the profit and the interest rate, and the leverage ratio. Considering the different possible combinations of these variables, we classify firms into seven types: normal and regular small capitals (hedge finance); speculative small, super small, and leveraged small capitals (speculative finance); and financially stressed small and zombie capitals (Ponzi finance). We show the composition and evolution of U.S. listed firms as well as relevant descriptive statistics by type of firm from 1950 to 2019. Our main finding is that the principal problem of U.S. firms is productive, not financial, as there is a high share of firms with increasingly negative profitability even before the payment of interest and despite having relatively low leverage.