On Evolution Of Technology And Institution In Late-developing Advantage

Based on differences in history, culture, institution, and resources, regional differences and disequilibrium come into being. Economist and historian Gerchenkron raised the notion of the advantage of "latecomer", and argued that, the underdeveloped regions should take good advantages of the lessons, experiences, capital, and technologies from developed regions. In the end, these regions can catch up with the developed regions more quickly and easily. So, the development gap provides the latecomer not only development choice, but also distinctive advantages that developed country lacks, which is called as late-developing advantages. However, the so-called late-developing advantage is only a relatively positive understanding for backwardness. And it shows potential opportunity or possibility for underdeveloped regions to take off, which means uncertainty. Consequently, there is a problem on how to convert the late-developing advantage to later-development benefits, and on how to realize the leap-over and equality in the society.The western theories of regional development have explained the disequilibrium problems in regional economic development from different views, and scholars have drawn different conclusions by different research methods. However, those theories cannot resolve the problems completely and successfully, and, to some extent, they cannot even construct a complete theory mechanism or the methods on how to systemically analyze it, let alone what an overtaking method or way is to exert the late-developing advantage to utmost.The advanced technology does not come into being naturally, but transferred from outsides. There are lots of successful precedents for achieving leap-over development. The logical starting point of the paper is the conception of regional late-developing advantage. Because of the increasingly important role of technology in economic development and great technological gap between developing regions and developed ones, the systemic research on later-development of technology can help developing countries make the best use of the advantage, narrow the gap in technology and accelerate the economic catch-up. Meanwhile, the article attaches importance to two issues. First, by analyzing the development of the economic triangle of Yangtze River Delta, and its history, the paper, finally, comes to the conclusion which is in favor of the major point that technology and innovation is the ultimate drive. And the technological innovation strategy has effectively brought up technology level, optimized in the industry structure, and promoted state enterprise' technology capacity.