Technology and Industrialisation: Reflections on the Iranian Experience

The particular problems of backward developing economies characterised by a relative shortage of manpower and a relative abundance of capital have not hitherto been the subject of systematic theoretical analysis. Most studies devoted to the effects of the introduction into developing countries of imported technologies are, indeed, based on the hypothesis that these economies have a structural surplus in terms of labour supply. The economic analysis is therefore focused on the problems of the distortions and constraints on the growth process brought about by the introduction of technologies that are inconsistent with factor endowments in those countries.