Consequentially, a more open Costa Rican economy has proven a competitive export
location for products, services and niches in the market that demand high technical
standards and specialized knowledge. In a Hecksher-Ohlin sense, its comparative
advantage lies in products that use human capital intensively. Furthermore, the nature of
the labor market has been changed by the emergence and entry of national and
international companies that produce those products for export. Because human capital
abundance is hard to fake or substitute, the position in the market of those companies and
products is strong.