SynthesisCONFERENCE SUMMARY
Trevor Morrison – Dean, New York University School of Law – and Eleanor Fox – Professor, New York University School of Law – opened the conference by inviting participants to view the day’s topics through the lens of emerging and developing countries and firms seeking to do business in those countries. Santiago Levy Algazi – Vice President for Sectors and Knowledge, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC – set the scene with his keynote address on the role of antitrust policy in promoting growth and development in emerging and developing countries.
KEYNOTE SPEECH
SANTIAGO LEVY ALGAZI
Dr.Santiago Levy Algazi illustrated that development and long-term growth is about productivity rather than a country’s labor force and capital investment by comparing South Korea and Latin America. In the 1970s through the 1990s, South Korea succeeded in narrowing the gap of per capita income with the United States, by increasing its level of productivity. Analyzing the same parameters in Latin America, despite high capital investments, a large labor force, and high rates of savings, per capita income in Latin America lagged behind the United States and South Korea. Dr. Levy identified low productivity as the reason behind the lack of economic growth and income disparity.