Catching Up at Different Speeds

Coherent programs to promote economic catch up are relatively straightforward.

Growth took off in China. The Chinese started catching up very quickly with the United States.

To begin, the national champions of the catch up phase must be rendered accessible to competitive assault.

Some developing countries, especially in Africa, are late starters and their markets are relatively underdeveloped.

Leaders of OECD countries should look at Italy and recognize the dangers emerging from their young people who are being left behind.

Without relatively high savings, a developing country like China may never catch up.

Coherent programs to promote economic catch up are relatively straightforward. But the transition from follower to leader at the frontier of the innovation economy is more challenging and elusive.

If that happened, other countries Australia, New Zealand, and, most importantly, India might seek to jump on the bandwagon.

But the economics of innovation are very different for those at the frontier versus those who are followers striving to catch up.

First, although some parts of the economy reached advanced industrialization in record time, other parts (and institutions) are struggling to catch up.

It permits self confident political leaders to take charge of their own future. It allows them to shape the narrative that underpins market confidence, rather than play catch up.

This time, TFP growth soared to 5 6 , partly owing to the catching up process facilitated by China s adoption of foreign technology and know how.

Manufacturing enables rapid catch up because it is relatively easy to copy and implement foreign production technologies, even in poor countries that suffer from multiple disadvantages.

Leaders of OECD countries should look at Italy and recognize the dangers emerging from their young people who are being left behind. In Italy itself, it is high time that older generations start acting with wisdom.

Some conspiracy minded commentators even suggest that this is related to Europe s lack of competitiveness instead of trying to keep up, they say, Europe has decided to find a way to slow everyone else down.

Earlier cases of successful economic catch up, such as the US or Germany, were no different.

But their ability to grow is being impaired because they lack the resources to confront the massive business lobbies of the EU s most developed and richest countries.

This opens up some room for governments to maneuver. It permits self confident political leaders to take charge of their own future. It allows them to shape the narrative that underpins market confidence, rather than play catch up.

HONG KONG For 250 years, technological innovation has driven economic development. But the economics of innovation are very different for those at the frontier versus those who are followers striving to catch up.

Political institutions needed to catch up.

The third phase was one of economic catch up, which, unlike the first two phases, has not really been successful in Hungary, which today may even be falling back.

Many of them have rejoined their families.

So long as Japan was playing catch up with the West, and government and industrial resources were concentrated on economic growth, the system worked quite well.

In any meaningful international comparison, China s per capita stock of physical capital is still 8 10 times lower than in advanced countries like the United States and Japan. Without relatively high savings, a developing country like China may never catch up.

The new government s biggest challenge will be to implement reforms that enable Italy s economic performance to catch up to that of its neighbors after years of bad policies and neglect.

If I would split China, look here, Shanghai has already catched up.

Young people, housewives and children. They are all running.

That is today s Europe in a nutshell, with America not far behind.

India s experience offers hope to other development late comers.

Its consequences are about to catch up with America, and the world.

Yet some other high income countries, such as the United States and Canada, are not keeping up.

But China has attained much higher GDP growth than the OECD economies, driven largely by the rapid productivity gains that characterize the initial catch up phase of emerging market development.

Unless we learn how to respect it, we will all miss the boat.

A democratic Russia would want to catch up with the West and integrate into Western institutions.

The gap between developed and developing countries continues to be impressive, although developing countries are slowly catching up.

The new government s biggest challenge will be to implement reforms that enable Italy s economic performance to catch up to that of its neighbors after years of bad policies and neglect. This requires increased investment in innovation and human capital.

The United States elected a black man president. And now we are in a phase in which Asia is catching up with the West and American hegemony is being challenged.

In 2002 a special effort was made to catch up', during which the police submitted more cases.

If Germany provided this kind of leadership, other countries would be quick to follow.

Many Europeans doubt that Asia can catch up with Europe in terms of regional integration.

While it may be difficult to argue against a set of clear and transparent rules for what companies like Google and Yahoo can and cannot do within other nations, this step forward seems to have merely highlighted the lack of larger scale changes that many Cubans and Cuban Americans may be hoping for. The thumbnail image used in this post is by manfrys, used under a Creative Commons license.

We tried to follow up on their plans and how they are doing it. Bella and I decided to go spontaneously and took advice from them as well as people on the ground.

Even Burma has gotten on board, resuming diplomatic engagement with the US while trying to work its way out of China s shadow.

Developing countries can thus sustain service led growth, given the huge room they have for catch up and convergence.