Chap 3: A Brief History of Economic Dev.

Textbook
Data Activities
Japanese entry

Textbook

Sachs, J.D. (2015). The Age of Sustainable Development, Columbia Uni Pr

Economists have given a name to this kind of growth: endogenous growth. "Endogenous" means something that arises from within a system, rather than from the outside. Endogenous growth means economic advancement that emerges from the internal workings of the economy.
...the growth of a "lagged" country that for whatever reasons of history, politics, and geography lagged behind as the technological leaders charged ahead... Catch-up growth can be considerably faster than endogenous growth. Technological leaders have tended to grow at around 1-2 percent per capita, while the fastest catching-up countries (e.g. South Korea and China) have enjoyed ... 5-10 percent per annum.
The failure to recognize the fundamental differences between endogenous growth and catch-up growth has led to all sorts of confusion in the discussion of economic development... The first is based on innovation; the second on rapid adoption and diffusion of existing (though mostly foreign) technologies (pp.79-81).

Japan was one leader in this process, and it developed a wonderful metaphor: the flying geese model. When geese fly in formation (Fig. 3.5), one goose flies in front, and then in back are others (p.95).

Data Activities

A. Agriculture, Industry and Services (Group)
Go to the World Bank database (http://data.worldbank.org/country ) and look up the following indicators: Agriculture, value added (% of GDP); Industry, value added (% of GDP); Services, etc., value added (% of GDP). Use the graph tool on the website to learn about these indicators for each of the income groups (low, middle, high income).