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The United States Electronics Industry in International Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

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Extract

This note analyses the recent experience of the United States electronics industry in terms of a ‘product cycle’ view of international competitiveness. This view starts from the observed fact that, as a product passes from invention to maturity, the rate of growth of demand will vary ; it will begin slowly, accelerate for a time, and then slow down again when the product becomes mature. The proposition put forward here is that these phases of growth tend to be accompanied by changes in the relative importance of the various factors of production-skilled and unskilled labour, capital, and management ability. These changes-set out in abbreviated form in table 1 and chart 1-have implications for international competitiveness.

Type
Research Article
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 34 , November 1965 , pp. 92 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © 1965 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

This note was prepared by Mr. Seev Hirsch; it is taken from a doctoral thesis on The Location of Industry and International Competitiveness, presented at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. The research was supported by the Harvard University Programme on Technology and Society under a long-term grant from the International Business Machines Corporation.

References

Notes

note (1) page 92 See, for example, S. Kuznets, Economic Change, New York 1953, page 254; J. P. Jordan, Yale, ‘The Strategy of Nylon's Growth, Creative New Markets’, Modern Textiles Magazine, February 1964; C. F. Rassweiler, ‘Product Strategy and Future Profits’, Research Review, April 1961; A. Patton, Top Management Stake in a Product's Life Cycle’, T. L. Berg, and A. Shuchman (ed.), Product Strategy and Management, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963.

note (1) page 93 The Standard Industrial Classification numbers for the six groups are as follows : Government and industrial electronics—SIC 3662; Special purpose electron tubes— SIC 3673; Components and accessories—SIC 3679; Con sumer products—SIC 3651; Radio and television receiving tubes—SIC 3671; Cathode ray picture tubes—SIC 3672.

note (2) page 93 These indices of the rise in value do not allow for price changes. However, the difference in growth-rates between the three rapidly growing sectors and the rest is so marked, over the whole period 1947-62, that it would almost certainly show up in volume indices as well, if these were available. Corrections for price changes can be made to four of the sectors, for the period 1957-59 to 1962; the consequential changes in growth-rates are not substantial. The main difference is that the output of special purpose tubes, which during this period rose a little faster than the output of consumer products when measured in value terms, rose a little more slowly when measured in volume terms :

note (1) page 96 Views of the United States Electronics Industry, op. cit., Washington, March 1964, page 135.

note (2) page 96 US Bureau of Labour Statistics, Employment Outlook and Changing Occupational Structure in Electronic Manufacturing, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1963, page 5.

note (3) page 96 US Business and Defense Services Administration, The United States Industrial Outlook for 1963, ER-63, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1963.

note (4) page 96 Views of the United States Electronics Industry, op cit., page 12 : A high proportion of non-production workers is engaged in research and development’.

note (5) page 96 W. Leontief, Domestic Production and Foreign Trade; the American Capital Position re-examined’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1953.

note (1) page 97 M. Tatemoto and S. Ichimura, ‘Factor Proportions and Foreign Trade, the case of Japan’, Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1959.

note (2) page 97 Views of the United States Electronics Industry, op cit., tables II and V.