Technological Change and Development in Latin America: a Comment

Abstract

In the sixties, the current belief in the benefits for LDCs from the use of modern technology developed in the industrialised world seemed beyond question: the technology was available and LDCs had to bear none of the costs of generating it. Nowadays this assumption is being questioned, as LDCs have discovered conflicting implications involved in the use of modern technology (Helleiner, 1977): (i) it is a fact that modern technology plays a crucial role in economic development; but (ii) the technology created by the industrialised countries is not appropriate to the resource endowment of LDCs; (iii) modern technology is not as free of cost as had been thought, as there is a significant flow of foreign exchange involved in acquiring it; (iv) modern technology can produce patterns of growth which may lead to serious problems with the absorption of manpower and concentration in income distribution; and (v) modern technology may constitute a new form of colonialism, which would discourage technological research in LDCs and condemn them to dependence ad infinitum upon imported technology developed in the industrialised world.