Technical Change in the North: Some Complications for Southern Options

Abstract

The debate about choice of technique in developing countries has been about choice at a particular point in time.¹ Yet perhaps the most obvious fact about technology in modern economies is that it is continuously changing, both with respect to products and processes. Conclusions based on the static picture (given technology set and product) are likely to become obsolete. The nature and direction of technical change determines the set of technologies available to a developing country at a point of time, and how that set is changing: hence the nature of technical change has considerable implications for development patterns. This essay discusses aspects of this question.

First published in Pasinetti and Lloyd (1987).