Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Manufacturing Industries (manufacturing + industry)
Kinds of Manufacturing Industries Selected AbstractsIMPORT LIBERALIZATION AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN INDIAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES IN THE 1990sTHE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 4 2003Bishwanath GOLDAR Total factor productivity growth in Indian manufacturing decelerated in the 1990s, a decade of major economic reforms in India. Econometric analysis presented in the paper indicates that the lowering of effective protection to industries favorably affected productivity growth. The results suggest that gestation lags in investment projects and slower agricultural growth in the 1990s had an adverse effect on productivity growth. The analysis reveals that underutilization of industrial capacity was an important cause of the productivity slowdown. With corrections for capacity utilization, the estimated productivity growth in the 1990s is found to be about the same as in the 1980s. [source] THE SOURCES OF AGGREGATE PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: US MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, 1958,1996BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, Issue 4 2008Jens J. Krüger L16; O12; O33; L60 ABSTRACT The sources of aggregate productivity growth are explored using detailed data for four-digit US manufacturing industries during 1958,96 and a decomposition formula that allows us to quantify the contribution of structural change. Labour productivity as well as total factor productivity are considered with either value-added or employment shares serving as aggregation weights. It is shown that structural change generally works in favour of industries with increasing productivity. This effect is particularly strong in the years since 1990, in high-tech industries and in durable goods producing industries. The impact of the computer revolution can be clearly identified. [source] Growth and Productivity in Singapore Manufacturing Industries: 1975,1998ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 3 2002Soo-Wei Koh Consistently de,ned price and volume relatives are constructed for 18 manufacturing industries under the two-digit industry classi,cations of,cially adopted in 1996. Industry-speci,c output and materials price de,ators for the period 1974,1998 are also constructed. Where the comparison is possible, we arrive at a markedly different conclusion from those in Tsao (1982, 1985) and Young (1994), and narrow the cause to a difference in the choice of output measure. The updated accounts show that the conventional index number measure of total factor productivity growth (TFPG) for Singapore manufacturing is 2.7% per annum for the period 1975,1998, and exhibits a cyclical pattern over time. [source] Factor Determinants of Total Factor Productivity Growth in Malaysian Manufacturing Industries: a decomposition analysisASIAN-PACIFIC ECONOMIC LITERATURE, Issue 1 2009Sangho Kim To decompose total factor productivity growth into technical progress, technical efficiency change, allocative efficiency change, and scale efficiency change, a stochastic frontier approach was applied to Malaysian manufacturing data covering the period 2000 to 2004. The results show that total factor productivity was driven mainly by technical progress but was hurt by deteriorating technical efficiency. Scale efficiency and allocative efficiency also exerted significant influences on total factor productivity. The skill and quality of workers were the most important determinants of technical efficiency, whereas foreign ownership, imports, and employee quality underpinned technical progress. The impact of firm size on scale economies differed across industries. [source] Trade Liberalization and the Geography of Production: Agglomeration, Concentration, and Dispersal in Indonesia's Manufacturing IndustryECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2004Örjan Sjöberg Abstract: The effect of the liberalization of trade on the spatial concentration of economic activities is not straightforward. It has been widely argued that protectionism increases spatial concentration as firms locate close to the main domestic markets. However, it has also been argued that an expansion of international trade primarily favors existing industrial centers and therefore leads to increased regional inequalities. Against the background of ongoing debates in both mainstream economics and in geography, we examine the spatial concentration of manufacturing in Indonesia between 1980 and 1996, a period when Indonesia substantially liberalized its trade regime. The high concentration did not decrease during this period, and establishments that engaged in international trade were actually comparably concentrated. We discuss some possible explanations for the spatial concentration in Indonesia and conclude that a host of factors may affect the outcome of trade liberalizations. In particular, the spatial configuration of the national settlement system is a potentially important factor in this regard. [source] Sharing Wealth: Evidence from Financial Ratios in SpainJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTING, Issue 3 2002José L. Gallizo Firms are managed on the basis of relationships between mutually involved groups, not only because of market forces, but also due to the influence that each group can exert over distribution decisions at a given moment in time. On the basis of a value added statement, it is possible to analyse the ability a firm has to reward all agents and to consider how the residual income is to be distributed. In this paper we set out to establish the tensions that arise between productive agents in the distribution of generated wealth. We carry out a time analysis of the movements between relationships that provide information on the distribution of that wealth, using data drawn from the Spanish Transport Equipment Manufacturing Industry. We propose a new multivariate dynamic linear model that is capable of analysing the joint evolution of the value added distribution ratios, with our particular objective being to throw light on the factors underlying this evolution. This analysis results in one single factor that explains 92.88 per cent of the total variation present in the residuals of the model. [source] Profit Margins in Mexico's Manufacturing Industry: an Econometric StudyMETROECONOMICA, Issue 1 2000Julio Lopez G. Prices, wages and profit margins in Mexico have varied considerably. The purpose of this study is to analyze the evolution of profit margins in the Mexican manufacturing industry during the last two decades and to provide an explanation for the changes. The econometric study shows that surges in the exchange rate provoke increases in prices, both because imported input costs rise and because pressures from foreign competition are relaxed when domestic prices of imported goods rise. A second factor influencing margins is trade openness. Third, the level of profit margins also depends positively on the level of labor costs. An increase in labor costs tends to be passed along in a more than proportional manner to prices. Finally, an increase in interest rates seems to stimulate increases in profit margins, at least in some manufacturing divisions. [source] Measuring the Effects of Exchange Rate Changes on Investment in Australian Manufacturing Industry*THE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 2006ROBYN SWIFT This paper examines the relationship between exchange rates and investment in Australian manufacturing between 1988 and 2001. The effects of exchange rates on investment are found to vary positively with the export share of sales and negatively with the share of imported inputs into production, with lower price-over-cost mark-ups increasing the response. For Australian manufacturing, a 10 per cent real appreciation of the Australian dollar leads to an average 8.0 per cent decrease in total investment through the export share channel, and an average 3.8 per cent increase through the imported input share channel, with most of the response occurring through investment in equipment, plant and machinery. [source] Trade Reform and Manufacturing Pricing Behavior in Four Archetype Asia-Pacific Economies*ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 2 2005Rod Tyers F12; F14; N75 General equilibrium models are constructed of four Asia-Pacific economies that differ according to their levels of development, the comparative sizes of their manufacturing sectors and their patterns of comparative advantage and trade protection. The countries chosen are Australia, an industrialized importer of manufactures; Japan, an industrialized exporter; the Philippines, a developing importer; and the Republic of Korea, a developing exporter. Manufacturing industries are characterized as comprising identical oligopolistic firms producing homogeneous goods that are differentiated from competing imports. Oligopoly behavior notwithstanding, trade reforms are found to yield conventional results in that net economic gains are small while implicit transfers are substantial. More competitive (non-collusive) pricing by oligopolistic firms, which might be achieved through reform of competition law and trade practices surveillance, yields larger net gains and these gains tend to accrue to all domestic primary factors. Such reforms also yield substantial interaction between oligopoly behavior and economic and industrial structure. [source] The Impact of Trade and Exchange-rate Policy Reforms on North African Manufactured ExportsDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2002Khalid Sekkat Three indicators capture the impact of exchange-rate policy in fostering manufactured exports from North Africa: changes in the real effective exchange rate (REER), its volatility, and its misalignment. The impact of trade policy is examined using a trade liberalisation indicator. Export supply equations are estimated for three manufacturing industries: textiles, chemicals, and food. The results suggest that trade and exchange-rate policies matter for export performance, as is evidenced by the negative influence exerted independently by real exchange-rate misalignment and volatility and by the positive influence of trade liberalisation. [source] Firing Costs, Employment Fluctuations and Average Employment: An Examination of GermanyECONOMICA, Issue 266 2000Jennifer Hunt West Germany's Employment Promotion Act of 1985 facilitated the use of fixed-term contracts and increased the number of dismissals above which the employer is required to establish a ,social plan' (involving severance payments). I assess the effect of this reduction in ,firing costs' on movements in employment, using monthly data on a panel of detailed manufacturing industries for 1977-92. I also examine the effect of introducing flexible hours of work in certain industries beginning in 1985. I find that employment adjustment was unaffected by the lower firing costs, but slowed by the greater working hours flexibility. [source] INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL MOBILITY AND TRADE POLITICS: CAPITAL FLOWS, POLITICAL COALITIONS, AND LOBBYINGECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 3 2004Michael J. Hiscox Conventional wisdom holds that increasing international capital mobility reduces incentives for firms to lobby for trade protection. This paper argues that the effects of increased international capital mobility on the lobbying incentives of firms depend critically upon levels of inter-industry mobility. General-equilibrium analysis reveals that if capital is highly industry-specific, greater international mobility among some types of specific capital may increase lobbying incentives for owners of other specific factors and thereby intensify industry-based rent-seeking in trade politics. Evidence on levels of inward and outward investment in US manufacturing industries between 1982 and 1996, and on industry lobbying activities, indicate that these effects may be quite strong. [source] INTRA-REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT GROWTH IN LUXEMBOURG (1994,2005)GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2010Olivier Walther ABSTRACT. The specialization of city-centres towards more advanced service activities has mostly been studied in the largest city-regions, the case of smaller urban centres being less well documented. In that context, the objective of this article is to analyse the role of sectoral and regional factors in employment growth in Luxembourg between 1994 and 2005. Using statistical data from the Luxembourg General Inspection of Social Security, this contribution distinguishes 12 categories of manufacturing industries and services according to an OECD-Eurostat knowledge-based classification. Five intra-regional areas are distinguished based on morphological and functional criteria in the Luxembourg Metropolitan Area. Using several indexes, this article first analyses the sectoral specialization and geographical concentration of employment. A model of intra-regional employment growth, initially developed by Marimon and Zilibotti and applied at the European level, is then shown to account for 40 per cent of employment growth. An estimation of the contributions of sectoral and geographical factors highlights the primacy of the latter over the former. Finally, the construction of virtual economies confirms the City's overall lower performance as compared to its close periphery. Results underscore a process of functional integration in the Luxembourg metropolitan area: as the core of the city undergoes a specialization process, the urban area benefits from a relocation of activities less sensitive to distance and transaction costs, while the periphery becomes increasingly diversified, notably in the South where traditional industrial activities are being replaced by service activities. These results suggest that the evolution pattern of employment growth in Luxembourg is very similar to that of some larger metropolitan centres, owing to its exceptional financial service activities. [source] International Trade and the Changing Demand for Skilled Workers in High-Tech ManufacturingGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2008JULIE A. SILVA ABSTRACT States and localities in the U.S. put considerable effort into attracting and maintaining high-tech manufacturing industries to preserve manufacturing employment. However, little work has examined whether high-tech industries respond differently than traditional manufacturing to changing trade pressures. This study investigates the impact of international trade on skilled and unskilled labor demand across manufacturing sectors. Results of this study indicate that changes in exchange rates and trade orientation have similar effects across high-tech and traditional manufacturing sectors. In addition, findings suggest that there is a high degree of variation in the trade-related effects on labor demand across individual high-tech sectors, and that the direction of these effects often runs counter to the predictions of traditional trade theory. [source] Perceived job stress of women workers in diverse manufacturing industriesHUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 3 2005Jinky Leilanie Lu An investigation of the impact of organizational factors on perceived job stress among women workers in the IT-dominated garment and electronics industries in the Philippines was undertaken. The sample included 23 establishments with 630 women respondents. Questionnaires, walk-through surveys of the industries, and interviews were done. The workplace factors included the content of the job, the nature of tasks, job autonomy, hazard exposure, and management and supervisory styles. Chi-square analysis showed that there were interactions among the organizational factors (P = 0.05 and 0.10). These factors included the need for better quality and new products; tasks requiring intense concentration; exposure to radiation, chemical, noise, and vapor hazards; standing for prolonged periods of time; and highly monitored, repetitious work. Workers experienced job stress (P = .05) when they were subjected to low job autonomy, poor work quality, close monitoring, and hazardous work pressure. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 15: 275,291, 2005. [source] An examination of the use of high-investment human resource systems for core and support employeesHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007David P. Lepak In this study, we examine two competing perspectives regarding the relative use of high-investment human resource (HIHR) systems for core and support employees within establishments. Using data from 420 establishments, we compare a universal perspective suggesting that the level of HIHR exposure core employees receive is always greater than the level of exposure for sup-port employees, with a contingency perspective suggesting that the relative level of exposure for these employee groups is contingent on strategy, HR philosophy, or industry. The results did not provide support for the universal prediction that core employees always receive higher levels of exposure to HIHR systems than support employees within the same establishment. Moreover, while strategy and HR philosophy were positively related to the level of HIHR system use across establishments, they did not influence the relative level of exposure to HIHR systems for core and support employees. Interestingly, however, industry did exert a unique impact such that core em-ployees received significantly greater exposure to HIHR systems than sup-port employees in nonmanufacturing firms. There were no significant differ-ences in exposure for these two groups in manufacturing industries. Implications of the findings are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Balancing Work and Family: The Role of High-Commitment EnvironmentsINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2003Peter Berg Recently, researchers have begun to recognize that the nature of jobs, the workplace environment, and more generally, the culture of the workplace can have a significant impact on the ability of workers to balance their work and family lives. This article examines the effect of high-performance work practices, job characteristics, and the work environment on workers' views about whether the company helps them balance work and family. Using data from a survey of workers across three manufacturing industries, we show that a high-commitment environment,characterized by high-performance work practices, intrinsically rewarding jobs, and understanding supervisors,positively influences employees' perceptions that the company is helping them achieve this balance. This article reinforces the view that helping workers balance work and family responsibilities is not just a matter of benefits and formal family-friendly policies. Rather, it also depends on the characteristics of jobs within the business enterprise. [source] Information technology innovation diffusion: an information requirements paradigmINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2008Nigel Melville Abstract., Information technology (IT) innovation research examines the organizational and technological factors that determine IT adoption and diffusion, including firm size and scope, technological competency and expected benefits. We extend the literature by focusing on information requirements as a driver of IT innovation adoption and diffusion. Our framework of IT innovation diffusion incorporates three industry-level sources of information requirements: process complexity, clock speed and supply chain complexity. We apply the framework to US manufacturing industries using aggregate data of internet-based innovations and qualitative analysis of two industries: wood products and beverage manufacturing. Results show systematic patterns supporting the basic thesis of the information processing paradigm: higher IT innovation diffusion in industries with higher information processing requirements; the salience of downstream industry structure in the adoption of interorganizational systems; and the role of the location of information intensity in the supply chain in determining IT adoption and diffusion. Our study provides a new explanation for why certain industries were early and deep adopters of internet-based innovations while others were not: variation in information processing requirements. [source] Foreign direct investment and exchange rate uncertainty in South-East AsiaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2008Sylvia Gottschalk Abstract We investigate the relationship between exchange rate volatility, exchange rate risk diversification and the location of foreign direct investment in the manufacturing industries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. We found a strong role for the yen/dollar exchange rate in location decisions of the US and Japanese investors. There is evidence in the literature that Japanese firms invest in Asia to circumvent the appreciation of the yen. Our results show that the volatility of the yen and the correlation between local exchange rates and the yen are significant determinants of the US and Japanese investments in the region. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Learning organization in mainland China: empirical research on its application to Chinese state-owned enterprisesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2004De Zhang This paper examines the applicability of the learning organization concept and its measurement in a Chinese context. Based on the theoretical framework proposed by Watkins and Marsick (1993, 1996, 1997), this paper identifies the differences in seven of the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) between traditional state-owned enterprises (SOEs) versus independent listed companies and companies in service versus manufacturing industries in China. Results indicate that the Chinese version of the DLOQ demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties. Service companies exhibit better learning practices than manufacturing companies; however, the independently listed companies failed to show better learning practices than their unlisted counterparts. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. [source] Does Corporate Transparency Contribute to Efficient Resource Allocation?JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 4 2009JERE R. FRANCIS ABSTRACT This paper examines whether a country's corporate transparency environment, which includes the quality of accounting information, contributes to efficient resource allocation. Based on a cross-country study of 37 manufacturing industries in 37 countries, we provide three pieces of related evidence. First, we find the contemporaneous correlations in industry growth rates across country pairs are higher when there is a greater level of corporate transparency in the country pairs, after controlling for country-level economic and financial development. Second, we find the influence of transparency on these correlations is stronger when country pairs are at similar levels of economic development (GDP). Finally, when we control for the level of transparency explained by a country's institutions in place, we find that residual transparency (unexplained by country-level factors) is associated with industry-specific growth rates. Taken together, the results are consistent with corporate transparency facilitating the allocation of resources across industry sectors. [source] Does ,Protection for Sale' Apply to the US Food Industries?JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2008Rigoberto A. Lopez Abstract This paper tests the Protection for Sale model in terms of the structure of protection and how realistic the estimated domestic welfare weight is relative to campaign contributions. Using data from US food manufacturing, empirical results support the key predictions for the structure of protection when either all food manufacturing industries or most of the general population is assumed to be politically organised. The domestic welfare weight is estimated as low as 0.837, the lowest econometric estimate to date, underlining that protection is for sale and that, with a qualified ,yes', the model fits the data for these industries. [source] TFP growth and resource allocation in Singapore, 1965,2002JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 8 2007K. Ali Akkemik Abstract This paper investigates the impact of the reallocations of resources across manufacturing industries on aggregate manufacturing TFP growth in Singapore for the period 1965,2002. This is done by decomposing aggregate TFP growth into its sources, TFP growth arising from within individual industries and from the reallocations of capital and labour. The results show that TFP growth was negative before 1985 but improved remarkably to positive figures after 1985. Resource reallocations are found to account for a large portion of this improvement in aggregate TFP growth. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A SEARCH FOR MULTIPLE EQUILIBRIA IN URBAN INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE,JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2008Donald R. Davis ABSTRACT Theories featuring multiple equilibria are widespread across economics. Yet little empirical work has asked if multiple equilibria are features of real economies. We examine this in the context of the Allied bombing of Japanese cities and industries in World War II. We develop a new empirical test for multiple equilibria and apply it to data for 114 Japanese cities in eight manufacturing industries. The data provide no support for the existence of multiple equilibria. In the aftermath even of immense shocks, a city typically recovers not only its population and its share of aggregate manufacturing, but even the industries it had before. [source] Industry Characteristics Linked to Establishment Concentrations in Nonmetropolitan AreasJOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2000Yunsoo Kim In this paper we investigate industry characteristics associated with the clustering of establishments in three-digit SIC manufacturing industries in nonmetropolitan areas. The dispersion parameter k of the negative binomial distribution is selected as the measure of industry spatial concentration. Associations between industry characteristics and spatial concentration are investigated using OLS regression analysis. Our findings indicate that the spatial clustering of establishments is positively related to industry average establishment size, reliance on natural resource inputs, labor intensity, cost shares of professional and technical employees, and cost shares of low-skilled workers. Agglomeration is negatively related to multiplant structure, employment in precision production, and reliance on local product and input markets. [source] Accounting for Strikes: Evidence from UK Manufacturing in the 1980sLABOUR, Issue 3 2000Daphne Nicolitsas The decrease in the number of strikes in the UK during the 1980s has revived the discussion on the explanatory factors of strike frequency. This paper investigates explanations for the time variation of strike frequency in different industries of British manufacturing. The framework used is that of the joint cost model of strikes; strike frequency is inversely related to strike costs. The results from a panel of 90 manufacturing industries for the period 1983,88 show some support for the hypothesis that strikes decreased because they became more expensive. In the main, we find that factors that affect both employers and employees (such as revenue, inventories) are significant in explaining variations in strike frequency. Factors that affect only employees, however, such as the unemployment rate, are not. [source] The Effect of Trade on Employment and Wages in Italian IndustryLABOUR, Issue 2 2000Mariano Bella The paper analyses the labour market impact of international trade on the Italian manufacturing sector. Using data for a panel of manufacturing industries the effects of trade-induced changes in sales on employment and wages are investigated. The evidence suggests that the industry adjustment to demand shocks took place mainly through employment changes. However, increased exposure to foreign competition had a small effect on the Italian labour market, while technological change seems to have a major role in explaining the increase in unemployment. [source] Product line extensions: causes and effectsMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2008Article first published online: 27 JUL 200, Kostas Axarloglou In this paper, and using data from a sample of five US manufacturing industries, we study the implications of market demand growth on product line extensions and the effects of the latter on industry profit margins. Companies extend their product lines in response to expansions in market demand and this tends to depress profit margins in the industry. Finally, these results are quantitatively significant. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Patterns of corporate governance and technical efficiency in Italian manufacturingMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2007Sergio Destefanis The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the corporate governance system and technical efficiency in Italian manufacturing. We use a non-parametric frontier technique (DEA) to derive technical efficiency measures for a sample of Italian firms taken from nine manufacturing industries. These measures are then related to the characteristics of the corporate governance system. Two of these characteristics turn out to have a positive impact on technical efficiency: the percentage of the company shares owned by the largest shareholder and the fact that a firm belongs to a pyramidal group. Interestingly, a trade-off emerges between these influences, in the sense that one is stronger in industries where the other is weaker. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Endogenous Growth, Increasing Returns and Externalities: An Alternative Interpretation of the EvidenceMETROECONOMICA, Issue 4 2001Jesus Felipe A number of recent papers have used aggregate production functions in an attempt to measure the degree of returns to scale and possible external effects in US manufacturing industries. In this paper I argue that the methods used and the results obtained are deceptive. The reason is that underlying every aggregate production function is the income accounting identity that relates output in value terms to the sum of wages and profits. This identity can be transformed, depending on the empirical paths of the wage and profit rates and of the factor shares, into different mathematical forms which resemble neoclassical production functions. Estimation of these forms, as is done in the literature discussed in the paper, poses serious problems for the interpretation of the results. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||