Economic progress requires technological development, which in turn depends on a country's social capacity to acquire, assimilate, and develop new technologies. Focusing on the evolution of Japan's economy from the Meiji Restoration to the present day, this volume provides an authoritative account, firmly grounded in theoretical and empirical analysis, of the country's attempts to generate the necessary social capacity for technological innovation and absorption. Successive chapters address the specific experiences of a number of key Japanese industries during this process. Each industrial case study is written by an acknowledged expert in the field and presents material of significant interest to specialists in economic development in a form that is also accessible to the nonspecialist. The book concludes with a summary of useful lessons, variously applicable to countries at all the different stages of industrialization.

Markets and the state are usually seen as opposed to each other as instruments of economic development. This important new book attempts to go beyond the state-market debate, which it sees as largely the intellectual legacy of neoclassical economics, and the related pendulum swings of opinion favouring one against the other. Arguing that development can be hindered and fostered by both the state and markets, the contributing authors suggest that the real challenge is not to choose between them but to find ways in which their virtues can be utilized jointly to further the goals of development. The first part provides some general perspectives which critically analyse mainstream neoclassical views on states and markets while also providing some alternative approaches. The contributors to the second part examine state-market interaction in Latin America, South Korea and India.

Continuing the inequality and development debate originally ushered in by Kuznets, this book extends to the possible sociopolitical disruptions of growing inequality and its ramifications for growth and development. Comparing a range of countries in Asia and beyond, the book examines the relationships between growth, distribution and politics. Theoretical and empirical studies are backed up by discussion of historical developments in this interdisciplinary study which will interest political scientists, sociologists, historians and economists.

Economic progress requires technological development, which in turn depends on a country's social capacity to acquire, assimilate, and develop new technologies. Focusing on the evolution of Japan's economy from the Meiji Restoration to the present day, this volume provides an authoritative account, firmly grounded in theoretical and empirical analysis, of the country's attempts to generate the necessary social capacity for technological innovation and absorption. Successive chapters address the specific experiences of a number of key Japanese industries during this process. Each industrial case study is written by an acknowledged expert in the field and presents material of significant interest to specialists in economic development in a form that is also accessible to the nonspecialist. The book concludes with a summary of useful lessons, variously applicable to countries at all the different stages of industrialization.