In 1950, agriculture employed nearly a quarter of the population of the major economies. Today it employs less than 7 per cent. In recent years, new technologies, particularly information technologies, have intensified the pressure for change on industrial structures and have helped develop global markets. In developed economies, they can help such sectors to avoid decline. In the developing world, they can transform them into global competitors.
New technologies can quickly create high-value markets around the world.
The pace of change is fastest in those developing nations which are open to world trade and encourage competition, both of which provide incentives for entrepreneurship and technological progress. It took Britain 60 years to double its real income per head after the start of the industrial revolution. The US took 50 years to do the same after industralisation got underway, Japan 35 years and South Korea around a decade. China has recently doubled its real income per head in less than ten years. 6.11 Successful developing countries grow faster than high-income countries because they start from a low base and because it is relatively easy and cheap to copy existing technology.