Alternative trade strategies and employment in the Argentine manufacturing sector

The paper analyses the employment effects of alternative trade strategies within the manufacturing sector. Estimates of effective protection rates show that Argentinian import substitution (I-S) policies have severely discriminated against exportable manufacturing industries. In turn these industries are shown to be at least 15% more labour-intensive than import-competing industries. Export promotion (EP) policies are characterized by low and relatively uniform protection to domestic and export sales together with the maintenance over time of a realistic exchange rate. The adoption of this strategy would imply a radical departure from I-S policies of escalated incentives and overvalued exchange rates which, as shown in the paper, have on average favoured capital-intensive industries.