The Economics of Technological Change in Developing Countries

The role of technology in economic development is critical, pervasive, and indispensable. In today's world, the degree of a country's development or underdevelopment depends critically on the extent to which technology has been harnessed to facilitate the production of goods and services in agriculture, industry, commerce, and professional activities. This at least implies a systematic approach to control of production through labor-saving techniques and a sophistication of communications, transportation network, etc. However, the key issues of the role of technological change in the development process have received vary scanty attention by the policy makers in the developing countries. Furthermore, the development of science and technology in the poor countries are implicitly taken usually by default since for a long time those nations did not seriously direct their attention to the formulation and implementation of explicit technological policies let alone devote adequate resources to research and development (R and D) and other science and technology activities.