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Working Paper
A manufacturing renaissance? Industrialization trends in the developing world
This paper examines industrialization trends in developing countries. It uses the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database, which provides time series of employment and real and nominal value added annually by 12 sectors in 51 countries for the period 1990–2018.
Until the early 2000s de-industrialization was widespread, but then the trend reversed. Regressions that control for income and demographic trends suggest significant employment industrialization in developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. We explore the nature of this manufacturing renaissance.