U.S. Manufacturing in International Perspective

The health of the U.S. manufacturing sector has long been of great concern to Congress. The decline in manufacturing employment since the start of the 21st century has stimulated particular congressional interest. Members have introduced hundreds of bills intended to support domestic manufacturing activity in various ways. The proponents of such measures frequently contend that the United States is by various measures falling behind other countries in manufacturing, and they argue that this relative decline can be mitigated or reversed by government policy. This report is designed to inform the debate over the health of U.S. manufacturing through a series of charts and tables that depict the position of the United States relative to other countries according to various metrics. Understanding which trends in manufacturing reflect factors that may be unique to the United States and which are related to broader changes in technology or consumer preferences may be helpful in formulating policies intended to aid firms or workers engaged in manufacturing activity. This report does not describe or discuss specific policy options

Innovative Asia: Advancing the Knowledge-Based Economy - Highlights of the Forthcoming ADB Study Report

[Excerpt] The development of knowledge-based economies (KBEs) is both an imperative and an opportunity for developing Asia. It is an imperative to sustain high rates of growth in the future and an opportunity whereby emerging economies can draw from beneficial trending developments that may allow them to move faster to advance in global value chains and in position in world markets. Over the last quarter of a century, driven mostly by cheap labor, developing countries in Asia have seen unprecedented growth rates and contributions to the global economy. Sustaining Asia’s growth trajectory, however, requires developing economies to seek different approaches to economic growth and progress, especially if they aspire to move from the middle-income to the high-income level. KBE is an important platform that can enable them to sustain growth and even accelerate it. It is time for Asia to consolidate and accelerate its pace of growth. Asia is positioned in a unique moment in history with many advantages that can serve as a boost: to name a couple, an expanding middle of the pyramid—Asia is likely to hold 50% of the global middle class and 40% of the global consumer market by 2020; and the growing importance of intra-regional trade within Asia, increasing from 54% in 2001 to 58% in 2011. Many developing economies are well placed to assimilate frontier technologies into their manufacturing environment

Understanding the UK's poor technological performance

In this Briefing Note, we document and disentangle the trends in UK research and development (R&D) over the period 1981-2000, and compare the UK's performance with that of the USA

Vive la différence. Disaggregation of the productivity convergence process

Editada en la Fundación Empresa PúblicaEste trabajo examina el proceso de convergencia en perspectiva histórica a nivel desagregado. Tomando en consideración la producción, la renta y el gasto este trabajo muestra una gran diversidad geográfica y temporal. Cada país se especializó según su ventaja comparativa y la convergencia se produjo tanto a través de cambios en su estructura productiva, como a niveles microeconómicos. Asimismo, variaciones en la proporción de las facturas condujo a una mejor convergencia de la renta sin necesidad de una mayor aproximación de los precios de los factores. El trabajo demuestra también que persistieron importantes diferencias en las preferencias de los consumidores. Así pues, el proceso de convergencia a nivel agregado no condujo necesariamente a la uniformidad de las economías. ¡Vive la differénce!This papaer examines the convergence process at a disaggregated level in a historical context. A trhee-way disaggregation of the national accounts by output, income and expenditure a wealth of diversity, both over time across countríes, i.e. history and geography tnatter. Countries can specialise according to comparative advantage, and convergence at the aggregate level can occur through changes in structure as well as through convergence at the micro level. Similarly, changes in factor proportions may lead to convergence of aggregate incomes without requiring convergence of all factor prices at the micro level. Also, differences in preferences may persist, so that individual components of expenditure do not need to converge in line with aggregate expenditure. Convergence at the aggregate level, then, does not necessarily lead to uniformity. Vive la différence!Publicad

Labor markets in the global economy: how to prevent rising wage gaps and unemployment

The strikingly different labor market performance of major industrial countries suggests that neither globalization nor skill-biased technological change necessarily result in rising unemployment or declining wages of low-skilled workers. Rather, globalization and technological change cause labor market problems in those economies that fail to adjust sectoral production structures in accordance with their comparative advantages. Labor market outcomes in Germany  especially when compared with the United States  suggest that high unemployment is the price for insufficient wage flexibility. However, the experience of Japan and the United Kingdom points to missing links in the debate on labor market effects of globalization and skill-biased technological change. In Japan, both unemployment and wage disparities remained low. The contrasting experience is provided by the United Kingdom, where the rising wage gap did not prevent high unemployment of low-skilled workers. All major industrial countries have been confronted with fiercer import competition and outsourcing in low-skill labor-intensive industries. But the response to this common challenge has different remarkably. Japan has outperformed its major competitors in restructuring manufacturing employment towards more sophisticated lines of production, and in achieving an appropriate pattern of trade specialization. Hence, structural change is the key to avoid labor market problems in the era of globalization. Different labor market outcomes are closely related to differences in the rate of factor accumulation, which comprises physical, human and technological capital. Especially industrial countries currently plagued with high unemployment have little choice but to forego consumption today in order to improve future real incomes and employment opportunities of lowskilled workers. Thus, successful structural change does not come for free. --

Labor costs and productivity trends in selected Brazilian manufacturing industries: An internat. comparison

The analysis focuses on the iron and steel industry, the motor vehicle and the non-electrical machinery industry as well as the manufacture of wearing apparel and footwear. The iron and steel industry and the motor vehicle industry were chosen, because they are characterized by low to middle skill level, capital-intensive production processes (Wolter 1974, 66-67; Walter 1982, 1; Humphrey 1982, 101; Kageyama, 1984, 25). The non-electrical machinery industry was selected, because it depends traditionally more on skilled labor, and less on physical capital (Dick 1981, 30; UNIDO 1984, 5 and 60). Finally the wearing apparel and the footwear industries represent the case of labor-intensive production processes that draw mainly on unskilled labor (Pearson 1983, 65; ILO 1979, 30). Throughout the analysis all manufacturing is used as a common benchmark. Reference is made to major competing newly industrialized countries, i.e., South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mexico, as well as to industrialized countries such as the United States, Spain, Japan, and the Federal Republic of Germany. Section II will clarify the most important conceptual and methodological issues and some shortcomings of previous labor cost analyses, and lay the ground for the empirical investigation pursued in this study. Partial findings of previous studies on Brazilian labor costs will be referred to as complementary information in the empirical part of the study (Section III). In Section IV the major results of the analysis will be summarized.

The Lisbon Strategy and the EU's structural productivity problem

The structural nature of the EU's productivity downturn is confirmed by the analysis in this paper, with the bulk of the deterioration emanating from an outdated and inflexible industrial structure which has been slow to adapt to the intensifying pressures of globalisation and rapid technological change. The EU's productivity problems are driven by the combined effect ofan excessive focus on low and medium-technology industries (with declining productivity growth rates and a globalisation-induced contraction in investment levels); an inability to seriously challenge the US's dominance in large areas of the ICT industry, as reflected in the relatively small size of its ICT production sector; and finally, its apparent slowness in reaping the productivity enhancing benefits of ICT in a range of ICT-using industries, although measurement issues severely complicate an assessment of the gains from ICT production and diffusion.lisbon strategy, productivity, growth, labour market, Denis, Mc Morrow, R�ger, Veugelers, structural productivity

Growth and Structural Change: Trends, Patterns and Policy Options

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