[Capítulo] Transnational Corporations and the Restructuring of the Argentine Automotive Industry: Change or Continuity? / Sebastián Guevara y Alejandro Fitzsimons

[Capítulo] Transnational Corporations and the Restructuring of the Argentine Automotive Industry: Change or Continuity? / Sebastián Guevara y Alejandro Fitzsimons

Guevara Sebastián y Fitzsimons Alejandro (2016), “Transnational Corporations and the Restructuring of the Argentine Automotive Industry: Change or Continuity?”en The New International Division of Labour: Global Transformations and Uneven National Development, Starosta y Charnock(edits.) Palgrave MacMillan, Londres,Pp.183-214.

Revisiting the historical development of the Argentine automotive industry from the mid-1950s to the present, Fitzsimons and Guevara challenge the dominant point of view that the development of the new international division of labour led to its qualitative restructuration during the 1990s. Instead, they show that low scales of production, obsolete technology and a resulting low global competitiveness characterised the local auto industry throughout the period. Based on empirical analysis and the international comparison of wages and prices, they argue that transnational automotive-manufacturers compensated for their ‘backwardness’ with the appropriation of a portion of the relatively abundant ground-rent available in Argentina. The NIDL therefore did not replace the old form of industrialisation related to the ‘classic’ international division of labour.