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Is the Fourth Industrial Revolution a window of opportunity for upgrading or reinforcing the middle-income trap? Asian model of development in Southeast Asia

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Listed:
  • Keun Lee
  • Chan-Yuan Wong
  • Patarapong Intarakumnerd
  • Chaiyatorn Limapornvanich

Abstract

This paper focuses on the cases of Malaysia and Thailand and investigates the possibility of upgrading these countries from the middle-income trap and the possible roles of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) in this process. The 4IR may induce firms to introduce factory automation to facilitate upgrade into higher segments with local spillovers. A key factor for this positive scenario is local institutions facilitating the training and upskilling of their local workforce. By contrast, increased problems are expected for other countries with the mid-range level of wages and mid-level of educated population, and firms in these economies mostly execute labor-intensive production and are likely to be substituted by additional factory automations or their multinational firms may move to neighboring countries for low wages.

Suggested Citation

  • Keun Lee & Chan-Yuan Wong & Patarapong Intarakumnerd & Chaiyatorn Limapornvanich, 2020. "Is the Fourth Industrial Revolution a window of opportunity for upgrading or reinforcing the middle-income trap? Asian model of development in Southeast Asia," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 408-425, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jpolrf:v:23:y:2020:i:4:p:408-425
    DOI: 10.1080/17487870.2019.1565411
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ridha Nouira & Sami Saafi, 2022. "What Drives the Relationship Between Export Upgrading and Growth? The Role of Human Capital, Institutional Quality, and Economic Development," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 1944-1961, September.
    2. Kim, Jinhee & Lee, Keun, 2022. "Local–global interface as a key factor in the catching up of regional innovation systems: Fast versus slow catching up among Taipei, Shenzhen, and Penang in Asia," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    3. Keun Lee & Di Qu & Zhuqing Mao, 2021. "Global Value Chains, Industrial Policy, and Industrial Upgrading: Automotive Sectors in Malaysia, Thailand, and China in Comparison with Korea," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(2), pages 275-303, April.
    4. Mingkai Liu & Changxin Liu & Xiaodong Pei & Shouting Zhang & Xun Ge & Hongyan Zhang & Yang Li, 2021. "Sustainable Risk Assessment of Resource Industry at Provincial Level in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-15, April.
    5. San Choi & Jongtaik Lee & Hyun-Woo Park, 2020. "A Comparative Study of Sustainable Transition from Catch-up to Post Catch-up of South Korea and China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-23, June.
    6. Xiaoshan Hu & Guanghua Wan & Chen Yang & Anqi Zhang, 2023. "Inequality and the middle‐income trap," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 1684-1710, October.
    7. Zongbao Zou & Yuxin Liang & Lihao Chen, 2024. "Should Multinational Suppliers Relocate Their Production Capacity to Preferential Tariff Regions with Unreliable Supply under the Impact of Tariffs?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-27, September.
    8. Upalat Korwatanasakul, 2023. "Thailand and the Middle-Income Trap: An Analysis from the Global Value Chain Perspective," PIER Discussion Papers 202, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Éltető, Andrea & Sass, Magdolna, 2021. "A kapitalizmus változatai és az ipar 4.0 a visegrádi országokban [Varieties of capitalism and industry 4.0 in the Visegrad countries]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(5), pages 490-514.
    10. Kruger, Sean & Steyn, Adriana Aletta, 2024. "Developing breakthrough innovation capabilities in university ecosystems: A case study from South Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    11. Lee, Keun, 2019. "Economics of Technological Leapfrogging," MPRA Paper 111034, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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