Determinants of Technological Development

Abstract

In this chapter we shall consider some of the general factors which determine the process of technological development in less-developed countries, which, in other words, affect how far progress is made along the different stages of the learning sequence and how widely this progress is spread over different industries. We shall also advance some tentative hypotheses as to why India, with its low per capita income, slow rate of growth and a rather faltering export performance, nevertheless it seems to have emerged as the leading exporter of technology in the Third World. We shall not at this stage try to judge whether or not success in technology exports has been worth the cost and effort that have gone into generating the technological developments that underlie it. Insofar as such a judgment can be made, we shall leave it for the following chapter.