A study of how latecomers catch up in high-tech industries and modern services, based on an in-depth analysis of Taiwan's premier enterprises and government policies. In this book Alice Amsden and Wan-wen Chu cover new ground by analyzing the phenomenon of high-end catch-up. They study how leading firms from the most advanced latecomer countries like Taiwan have increased their market share in mature high-tech industries and services. The profits that true innovators in these industries once enjoyed have already declined, but profit rates are still above average. The latecomer firm that succeeds in capturing these rents earns "second-mover" advantage. Amsden and Chu examine the successful second movers in electronics and modern services. The critical factors, they show, are the government policies and large-scale firms that drive skills, speed, and scale. R&D in Taiwan was usually undertaken in conjunction with government labs, which prepared the way for local production of the next hot, mature product. Speed in ramping up at the firm level depended on project execution capabilities and access to capital. Scale proved to be an absolute entry requirement in modern service sectors, and was crucial to win subcontracts from leading foreign firms and to secure key components from world-class suppliers in the electronics industry. The authors challenge current orthodoxy along two lines. First, they argue that government played an important role through interventions that went beyond the market model and overcame the limitations of networking. Interventions possibly promoted mature high-tech even more than mid-tech. Second, the entrepreneurs in Taiwan were nationally owned large-scale firms rather than multinational companies.

Examines the nature of late adolescent and adult thought and concludes that there is describable and significant cognitive development during those stages of life which goes beyond Piaget's stage of formal operations.

This book examines the development model that has driven China's economic success and looks at how it differs from the Washington Consensus. China’s Development Model (CDM) is examined with a view to answering a central question: given China’s peculiar matrix of a socialist party-state juxtaposed with economic internationalization and marketization, what are the underlying dynamics and the distinctive features of the economic and political/legal/social dimensions of the CDM, and how do we properly characterize their interrelations? The chapters further analyse to what extent and under what circumstances is China's development model sustainable, and to what degree is it readily applicable to other developing countries. Based on their findings in this volume, the authors conclude that the defining feature of the CDM’s economic dimension is "Janus-faced state-led growth," and the political/legal/social dimension of the CDM is best characterized as "adaptive post-totalitarianism." The contributors illustrate that the CDM’s parameters are shown to be much less sustainable than the CDM’s outcome in developmental performance and the extent to which the CDM can be applied to other late-developers is subject to more qualifications than its sustainability.

Moving beyond abstract economic models and superficial descriptions of the market, Beyond the Developmental State analyses the economic, political and ideological interests which underpin current socio-economic processes. Through this approach, the contributors show the close interrelation between states and markets in both national and international contexts. Drawing on a wide range of case studies and themes, the book exposes the theoretical and empirical limitations of the developmental state paradigm, offering alternatives as well as discussing the policy implications and challenges they raise. For scholars, students and practitioners of development, Beyond the Developmental State presents a decisive break with the old dogmas of both neoliberal orthodoxy and theories of "market-imperfection," and outlines theoretically and empirically grounded alternatives.

This book looks at developmental pathways to poverty reduction that emphasize employment-centred structural change, social policies that both protect citizens and contribute to economic development, and types of politics that support economic transformation and participation of the poor in growth processes.

Significant historical and geographical differences account for the many processes and trajectories of regional development in East Asia. These historical and geographical specificities in East Asia have prompted serious re-examination of existing theories in regional development, and in particular the "new regionalism" approach associated with such ideas as the learning region, institutional thickness, relational assets, and regional innovation system. This book brings together a group of leading researchers specializing in local and regional development in East Asian economies. Through in-depth empirical studies of specific regions and localities, these authors offer fresh and innovative perspectives on how regions evolve and develop over time in the world’s most dynamic macro-regional economy. In particular, their work points to the critical importance of local and trans-local processes in shaping regional development trajectories. The book is timely given that the debate on the nature and dynamics of regional development in both academic and policy circles has now moved on. From the earlier focus on endogenous regional assets (such as localized networks of association and trust), scholars and policymakers are now analyzing the complex relationship between economic globalization and regional change. This high calibre collection makes a significant contribution to the literature on local and regional development in Asia and provides an important resource for researchers, students, and policy makers interested in East Asia. This book was published as a special issue of Regional Studies.

Before the arrival of the twenty-first century, Taiwan was widely regarded as a successful model of a country which had not only transformed herself from an underdeveloped economy into a high-tech industrialised island, but had also undergone a revolution from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. Taiwan is now experiencing a significant economic slowdown and facing multifaceted challenges including low productivity, stagnant innovation culture of small and medium-sized enterprises, ageing population, sustainable energy mix, pension reform, upgrading of human resources, devising competition policy to provide incentives for innovation as well as to limit abuses from monopolies, warding off competition from countries with lower labour cost and managing complicated cross-Strait relationship with China. The edited book looks at Taiwan’s past successful development model, summarises Taiwan’s current situation, outlines the future challenges beyond the year 2020 and provides policy recommendations in the aforementioned aspects. The contributors of this volume are accomplished veteran scholars in the fields. Several of them used to be policy-makers at the level of ministers or deputy ministers. The book offers not only academic contribution but policy-relevant insights.