The aim of this paper is to observe the evolution of technological specialization, convergence and the process of building technological competences for two groups of countries - Asia and Latin America - between 1985-1995 and 1999-2008. Between these periods, most of the countries in these groups registered growing levels of global integration in terms of goods, services and capital markets. The main conclusions of the study are: i) there is no unique pattern of technological convergence between countries; ii) Latin-American countries specialize in technologies linked to natural resources while the Asian countries explored the electronic and telecommunication paradigms; iii) persistency is a phenomenon associated to de-specialization and is concentrated in marginal and core competences; iv) considering rapid rates of catch-up, mobility can become more relevant than persistency and can be only marginally explained by technological accumulation; v) there is no evidence that Latin-American specialization on stagnant technologies would be a constraint to its technological dynamism.
Technological specialization; Catching-up; Structural change; Asia; Latin America
