The Relevance of Growth Center Strategies to Latin America

The theory of growth poles is too well known to require a detailed elaboration here [14; 20; 21; 23; 24; 34]. The theory has been broadened considerably since its early and narrow statement by Perroux [37]. Drawing upon the theory of innovations as developed by Schumpeter, Perroux confined the growth pole concept to abstract (economic) space. A growth pole was defined as a large group of industries strongly related through input-output linkages around a leading industry (propulsive industry or industrie motrice). This propulsive in-