Economic Development, Upgrading, and Coordination
This chapter sets the stage for the remainder of the book by presenting in detail the contours of industrial upgrading in Spain and Korea, the problems with competing explanations, and the alternative explanation adopted in this study. It consists of four sections. The first assesses the change in Spanish and Korean industries by comparing two stylized images: one of Spain and Korea in 1985, at a time when they were starting to upgrade, and another in 2011, when they had already reached advanced country status. The second takes stock of the broader debates on industrial upgrading and economic transformation and their implications for how we understand the transformation of the two countries. The third proposes nonhierarchical coordination as an alternative explanation and discusses how it helps understand the Spanish and Korean cases. The final section concludes by presenting a preview of the rest of the book.