Resumen:
In his paper on the “Structure of Development”, Leontief (1963) claimed that underdeveloped countries are poorer because they are by far less economically diversified. In this paper it is shown that a model of international trade with strong international restrictions on factor mobility, a stable input-output structure, and a productivity externality due to input diversification, is consistent with Leontief ́s hypothesis. The model also implies a growth-rate gap between industrialized and less industrialized economies.