Costs and Productivity in Automobile Production: The Challenge of Japanese Efficiency

Abstract

Preface 1. Introduction 2. International differences in output, productivity and wages in the automobile industry: the 1950s to the mid-1980s 3. The cost-function approach to the analysis of cost and total factor productivity differences 4. Data base sources and method of construction 5. Empirical results: estimation of the cost function 6. Productivity growth in the automobile industry, 1970-84: a comparison of the United States, Japan, Germany and Canada 7. International comparisons of automobile industry cost and productivity levels: Japan, Germany and the United States 8. International comparisons of automobile industry cost and productivity levels: Canadian with US, Japanese and German production 9. Summary and conclusions References Index.