Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Obama Keeps Fueling The Myth Of Manuafacturing, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Decline Of U.S. Manufacturing Employment, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

U.S. manufacturing experienced a precipitous and historically unprecedented decline in employment in the 2000s. Many economists and other analysts—pointing to decades of statistics showing that manufacturing real (inflation-adjusted) output growth has largely kept pace with private sector real output growth, that productivity growth has been much higher, and that the sector’s share of aggregate employment has been declining—argue that manufacturing’s job losses are largely the result of productivity growth (assumed to reflect automation) and are part of a long-term trend. Since the 1980s, however, the apparently robust growth in manufacturing real output and productivity have been driven by a relatively …

What Works To Help Manufacturing-Intensive Local Economies?, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

The Decline Of U.S. Manufacturing Employment - Automation And Trade, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Impact Of Manufacturing Extension Services On Establishment Performance, Clifford A. Lipscomb, Jan Youtie, Philip Shapira, Sanjay K. Arora, Andy Krause

Philip Shapira

Do Foreign Companies Pay Higher Wages Than Their Local Counterparts In Malaysian Manufacturing?, David Lim

Prof. David Lim

This paper shows that foreign companies pay higher wages than their local counterparts in Malaysian manufacturing. Step-wise regression analysis shows that this is due to two factors. The first, and perhaps the more important, is the greater capital intensity of the production processes used by foreign companies. The second is their tendency to pay wages that they consider, or that are considered to be, commensurate with the wages that they pay in their home countries. This may be called the demonstration effect of wage remuneration in less developed countries.

Capital Utilisation Of Local And Foreign Establishments In Malaysian Manufacturing, David Lim

Prof. David Lim

It is often argued that foreign firms operating in less developed countries have greater X-efficiency than their local counterparts. However, little empirical evidence has been presented to substantiate this claim. This paper attempts to fill part of this gap, first, by presenting data on the level of capital utilisation in Malaysian and foreign firms in Malaysian manufacturing and, second, by testing the importance of X-efficiency in determining differences in the utilisation levels of the two categories of firms...

An Evaluation Of Competitive Industrial Structure And Regional Manufacturing Employment Change., Joshua Drucker

Joshua Drucker

The Handbook Of Manufacturing Industries In The World Economy

Jennifer Clark

Full Employment Requires Job Growth In Manufacturing, Reduction In Trade Deficit / Commentary, Susan Houseman, Dean Baker

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Measuring Manufacturing: How The Computer And Semiconductor Industries Affect The Numbers And Perceptions, Susan N. Houseman, Timothy J. Bartik, Timothy J. Sturgeon

Susan N. Houseman

Growth in U.S. manufacturing’s real value-added has exceeded that of aggregate GDP, except during recessions, leading many to conclude that the sector is healthy and that the 30 percent decline in manufacturing employment since 2000 is largely the consequence of automation. The robust growth in real manufacturing GDP, however, is driven by one industry segment: computers and electronic products. In most of manufacturing, real GDP growth has been weak or negative and productivity growth modest. The extraordinary real GDP growth in computer-related industries reflects prices for computers and semiconductors that, when adjusted for product quality improvements, are falling rapidly. Productivity …

Outsourcing, Offshoring, And Productivity Measurement In U.S. Manufacturing, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

I discuss reasons why manufacturing productivity statistics should be interpreted with caution in light of the recent growth of domestic and foreign outsourcing and offshoring. First, outsourcing and offshoring are poorly measured in U.S. statistics, and poor measurement may impart a significant bias to manufacturing and, where offshoring is involved, aggregate productivity statistics. Second, companies often outsource or offshore work to take advantage of cheap (relative to their output) labor, and such cost savings are counted as productivity gains, even in multifactor productivity calculations. This fact has potentially important implications for the interpretation of productivity statistics. Whether, for instance, productivity …

SubcontratacióN Y MedicióN De La Productividad En La Industria Estadounidense, Susan Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Manufacturers' Outsourcing To Employment Services, Matthew Dey, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka

Susan N. Houseman

We estimate the effects of manufacturers' use of employment services—comprised primarily of temporary help and professional employer organizations—on measured employment and labor productivity in manufacturing between 1989 and 2004. A major contribution of the paper is the construction of panel data on employment by occupation and industry from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. We use these data to document the dramatic rise of production and other manual occupations within the employment services sector and, in conjunction with information from the Contingent Worker Supplements, to estimate the number of employment services workers assigned to manufacturing over the period. Although measured employment …

Measuring Offshore Outsourcing And Offshoring: Problems For Economic Statistics, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Outsourcing And Offshoring: Problems For Price And Productivity Measurement, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Externalisation, Délocalisations Et Mesurede La Productivité Dans L'Industrieaux Etats-Unis, Susan Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Outsourcing, Offshoring And Productivity Measurement In United States Manufacturing, Susan Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Outsourcing To Staffing Services: How Manufacturers' Use Of Staffing Agencies Affects Employment And Productivity Measurement, Matthew Dey, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Measuring Manufacturing: How The Computer And Semiconductor Industries Affect The Numbers And Perceptions, Susan N. Houseman, Timothy J. Bartik, Timothy J. Sturgeon

Timothy J. Bartik

Growth in U.S. manufacturing’s real value-added has exceeded that of aggregate GDP, except during recessions, leading many to conclude that the sector is healthy and that the 30 percent decline in manufacturing employment since 2000 is largely the consequence of automation. The robust growth in real manufacturing GDP, however, is driven by one industry segment: computers and electronic products. In most of manufacturing, real GDP growth has been weak or negative and productivity growth modest. The extraordinary real GDP growth in computer-related industries reflects prices for computers and semiconductors that, when adjusted for product quality improvements, are falling rapidly. Productivity …

The Impact Of Marginal Business Taxes On State Manufacturing, Richard Funderburg, Timothy Bartik, Alan Peters, Peter Fisher

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of The Manufacturing Technology Partnership (Mtp) Program, Kevin Hollenbeck

Kevin Hollenbeck

No abstract provided.

Interest Rate Variability And Manufacturing Industry Cash Flow: An Empirical Analysis, Suzette M. Lebrasseur-Serwin, Abdur Chowdhury

Abdur R. Chowdhury

To examine the impact of floating rate loans and interest rate volatility on aggregate cash flow, quarterly data covering the period 1974 to 1990 for 14 two-digit Standard Industrial Classification manufacturing industries were analyzed. The results indicate that changes in the short-term interest rate and-or interest rate volatility have a significantly negative impact on the cash flow of a total of 11 of the 14 firms considered. Although the inverse relationship between corporate cash flow and interest rate is worth mentioning, the heterogeneity of this relationship across industries, however, is more interesting. The magnitude of the decline in cash flow …

Factors Affecting The Export Participation And Performance Of Thai Manufacturing Small And Medium Sized Enterprises (Smes), Yot Amornkitvikai, Charles Harvie, Teerawat Charoenrat

Charles Harvie

This paper employed the 2007 Thai Industrial Census to empirically examine the effects of firm-specific and industry factors on a firm’s decision to export and the export performance of 65,111 Thai manufacturing SMEs which are classified into eight submanufacturing groups. Six econometric models are indentified to capture linear and nonlinear effects of firm-specific factors as well as to analyze each industry effect for Thai manufacturing SMEs. Four limited dependent variable models (i.e., the probit model, the logit model, the linear probability model, and the Tobit model) are used to study the factors affecting a firm’s export decision and its export …

How Do Vietnamese Smes Perform? Technical Efficiency Of Smes In The Manufacturing Sector And Its Sub-Sectors, Cong Luyen Viet Le, Charles Harvie

Charles Harvie

This paper evaluates the technical efficiency performance of Vietnamese manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) over the period 2002 to 2007. Using firm level data from three surveys in 2002, 2005 and 2007 with a total of 5,204 observations of domestic non-state manufacturing SMEs the paper assesses the technical efficiency level of SMEs for the aggregate manufacturing sector and separately for nine subsectors including: (i) Food and Beverages; (ii) Textiles, Garments and Footwear; (iii) Electrical and Electronic Equipment (iv) Wood and Furniture Products; (v) Chemical, Rubber and Plastic Products; (vi) Paper, Printing and Publishing; (vii) Metal Products; (viii) Non-metallic Products; …

Overcoming The Challenges To Organizing In Manufacturing, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Robert Hickey

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] By 2002, the decline of organizing in the U.S. manufacturing sector has reached crisis proportions. In the 1930s it was industrial organizing that built the labor movement and brought a decent standard of living to millions of industrial workers, their families, and communities across the country. Absent intensive efforts to organize the nation's most mobile industries, U.S. workers will lose their only hedge against the worst effects of the global economy, and American manufacturing employers will lead the race to the bottom in workplace democracy, wages, working conditions, and living standards. The American labor movement needs its industrial base …

Profitability Analysis Of Listed Manufacturing Companies In Sri Lanka And Malaysia: An Empirical Investigation, Anura De Zoysa, Athula Manawaduge, Palli Mulla K A Chandrakumara

Anil Chandrakumara

This paper uses empirical data on 161 listed manufacturing companies in Sri Lankaand Malaysia over the period of 2006 to 2008, and compares the performance of thesecompanies against two commonly used financial performance indicators: Return onAssets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). The results indicate that during this periodSri Lankan manufacturing companies were considerably more profitable than theircounterparts in Malaysia in terms of ROA but less profitable in terms of ROE. It alsoidentifies a relatively weaker position of equity investments in the manufacturing sectorof Sri Lankan companies and attributes this to a number of factors, including: arelatively poor equity market, …

Manufacturing On The Move? Beyond The High Dollar In The Debate About Making Things In Australia - The Case Of The Australian Surfboard Industry - Ausccer Discussion Paper No. 2012/2, Andrew Warren, Chris Gibson

Chris Gibson

In October 2011 surfboard manufacturer BASE abruptly closed its factory on the Gold Coast resulting in the direct loss of 50 jobs. A few days later, nearby D’Arcy Surfboards also announced it was shedding workers and downsizing from a state-of-the art purpose built factory into a backyard workshop. Each business exported surfboards internationally and employed some of Australia’s best known surfboard-makers. The troubles facing these workshops added to those brewing at the very same in Australia’s steel, aluminium, automotive and garment industries. With renewed public debate and media commentary on the future of manufacturing, we now face a crisis in …

Changing Manufacturing Practices: An Appraisal Of The Processual Approach, Patrick M. Dawson

Patrick Dawson

There has been a longstanding interest in human factors and the processes of change in manufacturing organizations. This paper focuses attention on the establishment and contribution of a processual perspective to understanding change. A history of the processual approach is outlined and some of the main defining elements and ongoing developments are appraised. Field data drawn from a study of cellular work arrangements at a mirror manufacturing plant is used to highlight the interlocking and overlapping dynamics between substance, context, and politics. In advocating the benefits of a processual perspective, it is argued that during the uptake of cellular manufacturing …

A Tale Of Two Decades: Changes In Work And Earnings In Massachusetts, 1979–1999, Randy Albelda, Marlene Kim

Marlene Kim

Over the past twenty years, Massachusetts has replaced the mantle of old-style manufacturing with a robust “new economy.” Our economic vitality has never been better. But not all individuals benefited from the 1990s boom as they had from the one a decade earlier. Some of our residents are worse off than they were before.