The Terciarization Of Regional Economic Structures In Colombia

One of the features observed in the Colombian economy during the second half of the 20th century is an increase in the share of the tertiary sectors in the GDP. This work has new evidence that help to understand this process in the Colombian regions, by using data on departmental GDP and employment. The evidence does not show a clear relationship between the tertiary production and the relative economic performance. However, the employment data reveals that those regions with a higher economic development have a greater employment in the tertiary sectors and a lower level of labor informality. Finally, some results support the hypothesis that the lagged regions trend to present a spurious tertiary transformation, while the prosperous ones are more associated to a genuine one.