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Abstract
The paper develops a metric of structural transformation that can account for the production of new
varieties of goods embodying advancements in technological know-how and design. Our measure
captures the dynamics of an economy’s transformation and can be viewed as an extension of Hausmann
and Klinger’s static measure. We apply our measure to four-digit-level SITC trade data of China,
Malaysia, and Ghana over the period 1962–2000. The results show that two important factors characterize
the rapid transformation of the Chinese economy: the high proximity of its export basket to three main
industrial clusters—capital goods, consumer durable goods, and intermediate inputs—and the increase in
the values of the new goods belonging to those three clusters. Malaysia exhibits a similar but more
modest pattern. In contrast, the structure of the Ghanaian economy appears unchanged over the entire
1962–2000 period. That economy is dominated by primary goods clusters, and the values of the goods in
those clusters have remained relatively low. We also discuss qualitatively the role of policies and
institutions in spurring transformation in the three countries.