Historically, latecomer countries have moved up the development ladder by learning from forerunners and adopting what has been learned to their specific starting conditions and resource endowment. However, it has always been puzzling and difficult to understand why some nations managed to learn and emulate technologies and catch-up successfully while others encounter difficulties and remain lagging behind despite the opportunities to learn from or even copy others. To a large extent, these variations are influenced by the long-term strategies and types of policies that countries pursue to initiate economic development and kick-start the process of technological learning and industrialization. This volume has attempted to shed light on the ‘how’ aspect of the learning and catch-up processes and the potential for late-latecomer countries to promote technological learning and catch-up. The combination of theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence in this volume provides a particular contribution to the ongoing debate on the dynamics of learning and catch-up. This chapter looks into the future and considers the implications of its key findings for late-latecomer countries learning and catching up in the twenty-first century. The discussion focuses on the key dynamics of technological learning; industrial policy and manufacturing as prime drivers of learning and catch-up; and finally, catch-up and the scope for policy space in the twenty-first century.
How Nations Learn