Leapfrogging
Topic: Economic Growth Theories and Business Cycles · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Leapfrogging means skipping the middle stages of technology or development and going straight to the latest option. A late-developing country can then avoid building costly older systems. It can raise productivity quickly. However, it creates few mass jobs for low-skill workers.
Example
Many Indians got mobile phones without ever having a landline. India also went straight to digital payments through UPI and digital public infrastructure such as Aadhaar and the India Stack. Even so, PLFS data still show agriculture as India's largest employer. Leapfrogging has not absorbed the farm workforce.
Don't confuse with
- Premature deindustrialisation: here manufacturing's share of jobs and output peaks at a much lower income level than it did in today's rich countries. It describes a pattern of structural change, not the choice to adopt a newer technology.