ABSTRACT
This chapter considers changes, in the international economic context, in the development of technology and in ideas about technological change, and attempts to draw some conclusions for industrialisation policies in developing countries. It argues for more dynamic approaches to industrialisation than current orthodoxy, with its dominant preoccupations with static efficiency in resource allocation, finds acceptable. The shift towards open economy industrialisation, and export orientation, changes the terms of reference for technology policies. It helps to focus on two key issues. First, export orientation implies that industrialisation policy must help firms in the home country to enter global markets which in many cases are oligopolistic. Second, when firms seek a place in a global industry they need to be concerned with more than just the problem of initial entry. Orthodoxy on industrialisation is strongly non-interventionist, and rests primarily on the free market prescriptions arising from the Hecksher- Ohlin approach to trade.
