Mary Clark’s research while affiliated with University of Wisconsin–Madison and other places

The structure and content of the article results from a selective review of the relevant conceptual and empirical literature concerning export-promotion strategies as well as field research on nontraditional exports in Chile, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. It focuses on product choice and the macro-economic performance of nontraditional exports; the effect of nontraditional export expansion on economywide growth and distribution, and also presents three brief country studies which attempt to analyze some of the major issues according to the most recent field research available. The review of the literature and country studies suggests that although the short-run growth potential of many of the nontraditional commodities may be high, crucial questions remain unanswered regarding the longer-term impact of the strategy on Latin America's economic growth and development potential. Emphasis is placed on factors such as how the expansion of nontraditional exports might affect domestic growth, distribution of income at the social-class and household levels, and the division of labor within the household. -from Authors