Technology, Learning, and Innovation

In this volume, published in 2000, leading scholars analyze in a series of essays and commentaries how newly industrializing countries (NICs), particularly those in East Asia, have transformed themselves from technologically backward and poor to relatively modern and affluent economies over the past thirty years. The contributors provide interesting theoretical perspectives and offer insights into the process of technological progress at both the macro and micro levels in these countries. The essays review how firms, particularly those in electronics and automobiles, have dynamically accumulated technological capabilities at the micro level, how public policies have shaped the process of technological progress at the national level, and what problems some of these countries face today at both levels. In addition, the volume provides a comparison of East Asian NIC's with their Latin American counterparts. The discussion also offers useful lessons for policies in other developing countries.