Technology absorption is critical to emerging market growth. To study this process I exploit fuel economy standards, which compel automakers to either acquire fuel efficiency technology or reduce vehicle quality. With novel, unique data on the Chinese auto market between 1999 and 2012, I evaluate the effect of China’s 2009 fuel economy standards on firms’ vehicle characteristic choices. Through...

Heterogeneity among firms is quite prevalent in industries. Using the random coefficients model, this paper aims to measure productive efficiency of firms allowing heterogeneity of firms. Firm level data from the Bangladesh food manufacturing are used for empirical estimation. The results show that there are wide variations in efficiency across firms attributable to firms’ heterogeneity. Furthe...

This paper studies the location choices of Japanese manufacturing and service firms in Europe between 1970 and 1995. We examine whether the presence of Japanese manufacturing (service) firms attracts other Japanese manufacturers (service providers), whether there exist interindustry linkages between the two sectors, and how such intraand interindustry agglomeration effects have evolved over tim...

Lean manufacturing is an extended version of the Toyota Production System (TPS). It was highlighted as the best practice in the 21st century. Therefore, top and senior management in manufacturing firms are encouraged to adopt and adapt lean principles and practices in running their respective firms. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the extent of lean manufacturing perception a...

One of the goals of the government is to increase the competitiveness of domestic firms to export goods and services. Moreover, the role of exports in many economic sectors has been emphasized. There are two essential requirements for developing non-oil exports: first, the presence of firms in export markets and increasing their competitiveness; second, the survival of them in international mar...

*This Report has not been formally edited. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its fr...

Mass customization capabilities enable firms to design, produce, and deliver a high volume of differentiated products that meet specific customer needs in a timely manner and at close to mass-production prices. A critical part of mass customization is simultaneously achieving customer responsiveness, cost efficiency, and high volume production in the manufacturing system. This research describe...

This paper explores the issue of whether strict liability imposed on polluters has served to reduce uncontrolled releases of toxics into the environment. Strict liability should create additional incentives for firms to handle hazardous substances more carefully, thus reducing the future likelihood of uncontrolled releases of toxics. However, the size of these incentives may vary according to t...

This paper examines the impact of competition from Chinese imports on innovation by U.S. public manufacturing firms. Exploiting cross-industry and over-time trade variations from 1991 to 2004, I find that when Chinese imports surged into the U.S. market, U.S. public manufacturing firms increased their number of patents as a response. In addition, U.S. public manufacturing firms appeared to adop...

Input-output relationship, marginal productivity and marginal rate of technical substitution provide a useful insight about the potentiality of manufacturing firms. This study analyzes these important issues to describe the optimality in resource utilization of the manufacturing firms in the south-west region of Bangladesh. A translog production function has been estimated to describe the input...