Exploring diverging paths: identifying gaps in Nordic and Latin American comparisons

Abstract This article reassesses Nordic–Latin American comparisons: two regions with similar 19th-century export specializations diverged. Reviewing 24 comparisons, it shows explanations cluster around institutions and reforms, human capital, and industrial diversification, tracing overlaps, contradictions, and gaps. It tests these claims through Chile and Norway. “Nordic advantages” are less clear-cut: both built technical education, negotiated resource control through regulation, and combined liberal trade with targeted support. These factors mattered as specific configurations whose effects depended on timing, sequencing, and industry. Drawing on Marc Bloch and others, the article separates correlation from causation and outlines a mixed-methods strategy linking macro-indicators to sectoral and archival studies of taxation, education, regulation, unions, and coalitions to specify the concrete channels through which these factors operated.