Industrial Transformation and Sustainable Development in Developing Countries

We examined the relationship between industrial transformation and the positive and negative impacts of industry on sustainable development in developing countries. We started by assigning developing countries to five groups based on the extent to which they have transformed and reoriented their manufacturing sectors. We then compared the changes in economic, social and environmental variables that occurred in these groups between the years 1990 and 2004. We found that those groups that experienced the greatest industrial transformation were the ones with the greater positive impacts in terms of per capita industrial output and employment and greater reductions in impacts in terms of energy intensity. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.