Institutions and Dynamic Comparative Advantage: The Electronics Industry in South Korea and Taiwan

Ashoka Mody

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1990, vol. 14, issue 3, 291-314

Abstract: If development proceeds by stages, then Taiwan (as a more developed economy) should have preceded South Korea into high technology (capital--and knowledge intensive) production. In fact, Korea has overtaken Taiwan in many respects. The resolution of the paradox is traced principally to differences in industrial and firm structures in the two countries. The conglomerate organizational mode in Korea has permitted entry into many markets; the smaller Taiwanese firms have been unable to sustain themselves in these markets. As there firms head onto the 1990s, the limitations of their present industrial structures presage a possible convergence, with each moving towards the other. This paper suggests the importance of studying flexible institutional response, and particularly the inner workings of a firm, as an integral element of a theory of dynamic comparative advantage. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1990
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