Competitividad Ex Post de la Industria Metalmecánica en Ecuador

Much has been said about the importance of the metal-mechanic industry as the backbone of industrial development in emerging economies. However, in Ecuador, its competitiveness has not been studied yet. Confronting this, two indicators of revealed comparative advantages based on exports and domestic sales, are used in this research to determine quantitatively, the level of competitiveness of metal-mechanic industry, firstly from a cantonal approach and later from the economic classes’ point of view. According to the longitudinal behavior of these indices between 2009 and 2014, it is shown that the metal-mechanic industry located in Cuenca is the most competitive to a country level based on its exports. Regarding domestic sales, Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca and Ambato present very weak competi-tive advantages. The other metal-mechanic industries throughout the country have very accentuated comparative disadvantages.