Comment by 0xcde4c3db

I'm no economic historian and don't know where the relevant figures would be for Israel, but having skimmed some history of South Korea and Taiwan I get the impression that when a small country overperforms like this it usually involves a combination of generous domestic subsidies/incentives and a massive influx of foreign capital, which can come in numerous forms including technology transfer. Having a diaspora in more developed countries probably doesn't hurt a country's chances either (see e.g. Morris Chang).