Komla Avoumatsodo, Ph.D.

Komla Avoumatsodo, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Economics

Posts by Collection

CV

research

Innovation, International Trade, and Structural Change

   Abstract Traditional theories of structural transformation fail to account for the disparities between employment and value added shares, which poses a significant puzzle. To address this issue, I propose a Schumpeterian framework, incorporating technological innovation and trade at the sector level. This framework makes distinct predictions regarding employment and value added shares. In a closed economy, the model establishes an equilibrium where the share of value added equals the share of employment. However, when a country opens up to trade and achieves a monopoly through innovation in a specific sector, it results in higher profits and greater value added relative to employment in that sector. Consequently, the share of value added increases more rapidly than the share of labor. Conversely, in sectors where the country lacks global monopolistic control, the share of value added diminishes due to lower profits for intermediate good producers, resulting in a value added share that is lower than the employment share.

Financial Development, Globalization, and Structural Transformation in Developing Countries

Presentations : UQAM internal seminars, 2023 Canadian Economic Association, 18th CIREQ Ph.D. Students’ Conference, and Quebec Social Sciences PhD Students Presentations.

   Abstract Rodrik (2016) pointed out that late industrializing countries are experiencing a lower peak at lower income levels in the manufacturing employment share hump-shaped path. The present study develops a theoretical model to analyze the dynamics of industrialization and deindustrialization in developing countries and their integration with earlier industrialized economies. The findings suggest that financial development plays a crucial role in both accelerating industrialization and facilitating deindustrialization. Moreover, the model reveals that when developing countries integrate with economies in deindustrialization, the technological frontier in the manufacturing sector becomes relatively further ahead compared to the services sector. This discrepancy in technological proximity between sectors influences the differential productivity growth rates in manufacturing and services, driving an early shift towards the services sector. The model is calibrated to South African data from 1960 to 2010 and provides empirical support for these findings.

Financial Development, Technology Adoption, and Sectoral Productivity Convergence

Job Market Paper
Presentations:University of Northern British Columbia, Calvin University, 2024 Graduate Student Conference of ESG-UQAM (Winner), 2022 Bank of Canada Graduate Student Paper Award Workshop, 2022 African Econometric Society, 56th Annual Canadian Economics Association Meetings, and 17th CIREQ Ph.D. Students’ Conference

   Abstract I document significant differences in the patterns of productivity convergence across key economic sectors and develop an endogenous growth model to explain these observed patterns. The model predicts that sectors with higher growth rates at the technological frontier, such as agriculture, will converge more slowly than those with lower frontier growth, like services. It also shows that the threshold level beyond which financial development no longer influences technology adoption varies by sector, with those closer to the frontier becoming unconstrained more quickly. Furthermore, the model categorizes countries into three groups based on their levels of financial development and GDP per capita, demonstrating divergent and conditional convergence for lower-income groups, and unconditional convergence for higher-income, financially developed countries. More importantly, as GDP per capita increases, leading to greater financing capacity, initially divergent sectors within a country can start to converge.

teaching

Teaching experience 1

Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014

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Teaching experience 2

Workshop, University 1, Department, 2015

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