Scientific paper
Latecomer development in a “greening” world: Introduction to the Special Issue
Anna Pegels and Tilman Altenburg
2020
#Trade and FDI
The current transgression of ecological boundaries requires a transformation to a ‘Green Economy’, with rigorous and fast reductions of pollution and resource consumption. Transformative policy reforms towards this aim can lead to economic co-benefits, but they can also be costly, at least for certain economic actors. Furthermore, they can involve trade-offs between current and future wellbeing. Timing and sequencing of reforms is thus far from trivial. More research is needed to inform policymakers in search of the right coping strategies, in particular in economic latecomer countries with persisting poverty and a high need for short-term growth. The main research question of this article is thus: Which economic opportunities arise from orienting economic latecomer strategies towards green technologies and institutions now, versus growing first and cleaning up later?
