A history-friendly approach to the competitiveness of the departaments and to the regional disparities in Colombia

Abstract

For some time now, some specialized organizations have been publishing reports on the competitiveness of the Colombian departments. These reports emphasize, on the one hand, that there are great disparities in the levels of competitiveness of those departments, which have not only been preserved but have even been expanded, and, on the other hand, that the measurements are about the same departments that are again and again in the best and worst positions, which seems to be the result of a structural situation. In particular, these reports have highlighted the leadership position of Antioquia –lthough considerably after Bogotá, Cundinamarca–, but they have not focused enough on interpreting the phenomenon, limiting their work to quantifying it and describing it. Since departmental competitiveness indicators are positively correlated with the relative level of development of the departments and their management policies, this paper offers a history-friendly model to interpret the levels of competitiveness of the Colombian departments, focusing particularly on the level achieved by Antioquia.

Keywords

• history-friendly model
• regional system of innovation
• systemic competitiveness
• path dependence
• local and regional development
• local development policies.