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Examining Beneficiation

Author

Listed:
  • Ricardo Hausmann

    (Harvard's Growth Lab)

  • Bailey Klinger
  • Robert Lawrence
  • Arne Nagengast
Abstract
Beneficiation, moving downstream, and promoting greater value added in natural resources are very common policy initiatives to stimulate new export sectors in developing countries, largely based on the premise that this is a natural and logical path for structural transformation. But upon closer examination, we find that very few countries that export raw materials also export their processed forms, or transition to greater processing. The quantitative analysis finds that broad factor intensities do a much better job of identifying patterns of production and structural transformation than forward linkages, which have an insignificant impact despite the fact that our data is biased against finding significant effects of factor intensities and towards finding significant effects of forward linkages. Moreover, the explanatory power of forward linkages is even smaller in sectors with high transport costs, and in sectors classified as primary products or raw materials, which are the most common targets of such policies. Finally, the results are the same even when only considering developed countries, meaning that colonial legacy inhibiting transitions to natural resource processing are not to blame. These results suggest that policies to promote greater downstream processing as an export promotion policy are misguided. Structural transformation favors sectors with similar technological requirements, factor intensities, and other requisite capabilities, not products connected in production chains. There is no reason for countries like South Africa to focus attention on beneficiation at the expense of policies that would allow other export sectors to emerge. This makes no sense conceptually, and is completely inconsistent with international experience. Quite simply, beneficiation is a bad policy paradigm.

Suggested Citation

  • Ricardo Hausmann & Bailey Klinger & Robert Lawrence & Arne Nagengast, 2008. "Examining Beneficiation," Growth Lab Working Papers 13, Harvard's Growth Lab.
    • Handle: RePEc:glh:wpfacu:13
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Farole, Thomas & Reis, Jose Guilherme & Wagle, Swarnim, 2010. "Analyzing trade competitiveness : a diagnostics approach," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5329, The World Bank.
    2. Ricardo Hausmann & Tim O'Brien & Andres Fortunato & Alexia Lochmann & Kishan Shah & Lucila Venturi & Sheyla Enciso & Ekaterina Vashkinskaya & Ketan Ahuja & Bailey Klinger & Federico Sturzenegger & Mar, 2023. "Growth Through Inclusion in South Africa," Growth Lab Working Papers 222, Harvard's Growth Lab.
      • Ricardo Hausmann & Tim O'Brien & Andres Fortunato & Alexia Lochmann & Kishan Shah & Lucila Venturi & Sheyla Enciso & Ekaterina Vashkinskaya & Ketan Ahuja & Bailey Klinger & Federico Sturzenegger & Mar, 2023. "Growth Through Inclusion in South Africa," CID Working Papers 434, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    3. Filippo Bontadini & Maria Savona, 2019. "Revisiting the Natural Resource ‘Curse’ in the Context of Trade in Value Added: Enclave or High-development Backward Linkages?," SPRU Working Paper Series 2019-15, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    4. Savona, María, 2016. "Global structural change and value chains in services: a reappraisal," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 43200, May.
    5. Javier López González & Valentina Meliciani & Maria Savona, 2019. "When Linder meets Hirschman: inter-industry linkages and global value chains in business services," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 28(6), pages 1555-1586.
    6. Frankel, Jeffrey A., 2010. "The Natural Resource Curse: A Survey," Scholarly Articles 4454156, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    7. Mamina, Mathew T. & Maganga, Rutendo & Dzwiti, Kudakwashe, 2020. "An analysis of Zimbabwe's comparative advantage in the beneficiation and value addition of minerals," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Cesar A. Hidalgo, 2012. "Discovering East Africa's Industrial Opportunities," Papers 1203.0163, arXiv.org.
    9. Alexis Habiyaremye & Evans Mupela, 2019. "How effective is local beneficiation policy in enhancing rural income and employment? The case of agro-processing beneficiation in Tzaneen, South Africa," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(4), pages 329-345, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Beneficiation; Linkages; Structural Transformation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

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