Techno-economic paradigm versus the market: on recent theories of late industrialization

The recent resurgence of intellectual interest in industrialization has been stimulated by the emergence of a wealth of empirical evidence which constitutes a reinterpretation of the East Asian experience, and the rise in mainstream academia of the 'new' theories of trade and growth. Both of these two bodies or writings point to the necessity of placing technological development at the centre of industrialization. There is however considerable doubt among economists over this tematic shift away from the hitherto dominant emphasis on incentive. There are also conceptual ambiguites over the nature of technological development that need to be clarified. This paper aims to reaffirm the centrality of technological development, and to argue that the imperative of technological development normally outstrips the capacity of the regulation of the market.