Keywords: Structural change; Consumption Patterns; Economic Complexity; Diversity
 

"Essays on the Structure of Supply and Demand"

This thesis investigates the characteristics of the productive structures and the demand structures of economies at different stages of development. It shows that development is associated with being producing goods in similar proportions to world demand, rather than specializing. The implication is that, even if some countries might get rich selling oil, to develop you need to master a wide range of capabilities. so far only economies that industrialized achieved that. Regarding consumption. consumption patterns have converged since the 80s. This has occurred without the convergence in income that everyone would assume. This means that if a country was three times poorer than say Switzerland 40 years ago, now it might still be 3 times poorer but the consumption of people is much more similar to that of Switzerland. This is a testament of the expansion of the mode of production and ways of living of capitalist societies.

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