backward advantage

{{Short description|Theory of economic development}}

{{Infobox

| title = Backward advantage

| label1 = Initiator|data1=Alexander Gerschenkron{{cite book|author=Angang Hu|title=China's Road and China's Dream: An Analysis of the Chinese Political Decision-Making Process Through the National Party Congress|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dh5KDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA149|date=1 February 2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-981-10-7422-6|pages=149–}}

| label2 = Introduced|data2=1952

}}

{{Infobox Chinese

| title = Backward advantage

| float =

| collapse =

| t = 後發優勢

| s = 后发优势

| order = st

| p = Hòufā yōushì

}}

The backward advantage{{cite book|author=Fang Cai|title=The China Population and Labor Yearbook, Volume 2: The Sustainability of Economic Growth from the Perspective of Human Resources|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fc-wCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA151|date=25 February 2010|publisher=Brill Publishers|isbn=978-90-474-2699-8|pages=151–}} ({{zh|s=后发优势|t=後發優勢}}), or the 'advantage of backwardness',{{cite book|author=Prema-chandra Athukorala|title=The Rise of Asia: Trade and Investment in Global Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3RvJBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT202|date=12 July 2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-95903-5|pages=202–}} also known as latecomer's advantage,{{cite book|author=József Böröcz|title=The European Union and Global Social Change: A Critical Geopolitical-Economic Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d0SPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA100|date=10 September 2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-25580-0|pages=100–}} is a notion first formulated by the Russian-American economist Alexander Gerschenkron{{cite book|author=Mari Lending|title=Plaster Monuments: Architecture and the Power of Reproduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nsY9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46|date=5 December 2017|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-17714-4|pages=46–}} in 1952.{{cite book|author=Marcel Timmer|title=The Dynamics of Asian Manufacturing: A Comparative Perspective in the Late Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCK2AAAAIAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Edward Elgar|isbn=978-1-84064-231-5|pages=12–}} However, there is one who argues that it was the American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen who developed the concept of the "advantage of backwardness" in his essay Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution, which was published in 1915. {{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/14/books/l-the-fly-swatter-870072.html|title='The Fly Swatter' - The New York Times|author=|date=Jul 14, 2002|accessdate=|work=The New York Times}}

The backward advantage implies that a still-developing country can take advantage of the technology/industry gap with a developed country by implementing a new technology or venturing into an industry that is new to its economy but mature in the developed country. In this case, the innovative costs for still-developing countries will be significantly lower than for developed countries that need to invent or innovate.{{cite web |url=https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---inst/documents/publication/wcms_315667.pdf|title=Making industrial policy work for development - ILO|author=Justin Yifu Lin and Volker Treichel|date=May 5, 2014|accessdate=|work=International Labour Organization}} But when still-developing countries reach a higher stage of development, and when the cost of production factors gradually rises, upgrades are necessary to cope with the rise. Otherwise, these countries will fall into the middle income trap.{{cite web |url=https://www.theborneopost.com/2015/04/26/exorcising-the-spectre-of-slow-growth/|title=Exorcising the spectre of slow growth|author=|date=April 26, 2015|accessdate=|work=The Borneo Post}}

Starting from around 2000, economists Yang Xiaokai and Lin Yifu had a famous academic debate about "backward disadvantage" and "backward advantage", {{cite book|author=Guo Yanru|title=Changes in State Organization in Economic History: The Ming and Qing Dynasties as Examples|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U5UkEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT26 |date=1 June 2008|publisher=China Financial and Economic Press|isbn=978-7-5095-0728-5|pages=26–}} and their debate was essentially about whether the economic development of late-developing countries should take the path of institutional imitation or technological imitation.{{cite book|author=Lin Lefen|title=Development Economics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EftHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT657|date=21 January 2018|publisher=Sonbook Publishing Industry Company Limited|isbn=978-986-492-705-0|pages=657–}}