Changes In Manufacturing Employment Research Articles

Exporting unemployment? Assessing the impact of German import competition on regional manufacturing employment in France

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the extent to which German import competition has contributed to the observed differential decline in manufacturing employment across French regions. The study employs an exposure research design that exploits differences in regional manufacturing specialisation across French départements combined with an instrumental variable strategy. The analysis does not establish a connection between German import competition and differential changes in regional French manufacturing employment. This result suggests that German import competition has neither driven nor halted the overall decline of French manufacturing employment. It also indicates that the sizeable and long-lasting negative regional employment effects of trade between China and developed countries do not necessarily generalise.

An Evaluation of Competitive Industrial Structure and Regional Manufacturing Employment Change

Drucker J. An evaluation of competitive industrial structure and regional manufacturing employment change, Regional Studies. This paper examines the relationship between regional industrial structure and employment change in the manufacturing sector and nineteen subsectors in the United States from 1987 to 1997. The relative associations of economic diversity, industrial specialization and competitive structure with economic performance are assessed using a non-causal regression framework. Multiple facets of industrial structure at the regional scale, including competitive structure, are considered together by exploiting confidential microdata to construct and evaluate detailed metrics across broad geographic and industrial ranges. The findings suggest the importance of industrial competitive structure for understanding regional employment change, economic performance and industrial development.

Changes in Tennessee's Secondary Hardwood Processing and Sawmill Industries from 2005 to 2009

Tennessee is in the center of the Eastern hardwood region and has experienced large declines in employment by primary and secondary hardwood processors since 2005 in a pattern similar to the one these processors have experienced nationally. The objective of this article is to examine changes in national hardwood processing industries between 2005 and 2009 and compare these changes with changes in secondary manufacturing employment and hardwood lumber production in Tennessee. The decline in employment in Tennessee's furniture industry was caused by increased imports of wooden furniture from Asia and reduced domestic furniture demand as the result of the 2009 recession. Reduced employment in Tennessee's flooring and kitchen cabinet industry was a function of the decline in home construction, large firms shifting production to other states, and the 2009 recession. Employment in the millwork industry was less affected perhaps because of shifts in production by larger firms from northern and western states to Tennessee. Declines in hardwood lumber consumption caused most large and very large sawmills in Tennessee to downsize and several medium and small mills to go out of business. The short-term outlook for Tennessee's secondary and primary hardwood manufacturers continues to be bleak except for pallets, crossties, and exports.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Weaker: Prenatal Pollution Exposure and Educational Outcomes

I examine the impact of prenatal total suspended particulate (TSP) exposure on educational outcomes using county-level variation in the timing and severity of the industrial recession of the early 1980s as a shock to ambient TSPs (similar to Chay and Greenstone 2003b). I then instrument for pollution levels using county-level changes in relative manufacturing employment. A standard deviation decrease in TSPs in a student's year of birth is associated with 2 percent of a standard deviation increase in high school test scores for OLS and 6 percent for IV. I also consider how migration and selection into motherhood relate to my results.

Évolution récente de l'emploi industriel dans les territoires ruraux et urbains : une analyse structurelle-géographique sur données françaises

Résumé On propose une analyse structurelle-géographique (analyse shift and share) de la croissance locale de l’emploi entre 1990 et 1999 et s’appuyant sur l’évolution sectorielle des emplois industriels dans le Zonage en Aires Urbaines. Nous mettons en évidence que l’augmentation de la part de l’emploi industriel dans l’espace rural peut être imputée à des avantages spécifiques aux territoires de faible densité, communs à tous les secteurs. Ces avantages « ruraux » sont loin d’être négligeables puisqu’ils compensent le fait que ces territoires ruraux attirent des firmes appartenant plutôt à des secteurs ayant fortement subi la crise industrielle. À l’inverse, les pôles urbains, surtout ceux de grande taille, combinent un effet structurel positif (i.e. une localisation plutôt urbaine des secteurs les plus dynamiques) avec un effet géographique négatif (i.e. une tendance à la chute de l’emploi industriel urbain quel que soit le secteur considéré). Les espaces périurbains qui les entourent offrent des caractéristiques favorables à l’implantation de tout secteur industriel, sans que la structure des secteurs présents ne joue de rôle significatif ni positivement, ni négativement.

The Effect of Absentee Ownership on Local Employment Change

To determine whether absentee-owned firms destabilize local economies, we examine the relationship between absentee ownership of manufacturing companies and employment change in manufacturing for 109 Pennsylvania towns. This issue arises because some earlier studies find that corporate connections through absentee-owned firms are positively related to local employment growth, whereas other work claims that locally owned operations are more stable. We attempt to reconcile these findings by arguing that absentee ownership is destabilizing only in the case of non-conglomerate firms. Our results show that absentee ownership in fact increases the closure rate of firms, thereby negatively affecting manufacturing employment change. Yet, this relationship differs by the parent company's organizational structure. Employment in branches of non-conglomerate firms is more detrimental than employment in branches of conglomerates — an important qualification of the argument that the “conglomeratization” of advanced industrial societies negatively affects communities.

Manufacturing Employment Change, Output Demand, and Labor Productivity in the Regions of Britain

This article presents an analysis of manufacturing employment change in the regions of Britain between 1987 and 1994 achieved through the implementation of a labor demand shift-share model. It develops and estimates a model that is capable of determining the parameters of a labor demand function in the absence of capital data. The principal focus is on the regional results generated, which quantify and compare the employment consequences of region-specific change in industrial output, wage rates, the price of capital, and the level of technology. The authors draw implications from these results for regional manufacturing output and labor productivity performance. The article demonstrates that output, price, and technology effects have been instrumental in creating regional differences in employment and labor productivity change in British manufacturing industries.

Shift‐Share Analysis and Changes in Japanese Manufacturing Employment

Shift‐share analysis is used to examine the role of spatial structure on changes in regional manufacturing employment, in contrast to the traditional focus of shift‐share studies on the role of industrial structure. It is argued that changes in a region's space‐economy can be understood not only in terms of the economic subdivisions of the region but also in terms of the contribution of its spatial subdivisions. The latter is illustrated by means of a case study of the contribution of different types of local area to changes in regional manufacturing employment in Japan. Each region was subdivided into four types of local area based on population density. The analysis covered the period from 1981 to 1995, a time of major transformation in Japan's space‐economy. The shift‐share model was also used to estimate the impact of local area output and productivity on changes in regional employment. In general, the results show that there was a progressive underdevelopment of the core regions, associated with falling output and productivity. The country's peripheral regions were characterized by development, associated with rising output and productivity. Atthe local scale, however, the picture is far more complex. Types of local area contributed to regional employment change in very different ways, with respect to both time, region, and output/productivity. The contribution of local spatial structure to the regional space‐economy of Japan is fundamentally fragmented and uneven.

Discussion of The Effect of the Formula Apportionment System on State-Level Economic Development and Multijurisdictional Tax Planning

Lightner (1999) explores the relation between cross-sectional differences in state income apportionment formulae and corporate income tax rates, and the changes in state-level manufacturing employment. The research uses the common methodology of computing a statutory income tax rate applicable to each of the three apportionment factors. The percentage change in employment is regressed on each of these factor income tax rates separately. Additional tests determine if the statutory rate, overweighting the sales factor, and employing the throwback rule are also correlated with relative changes in employment. I analyze this research in three components. First, an overview of the multijurisdictional tax research is provided to set this paper into this growing literature. Next, an evaluation of the contributions of Lightner (1999) is presented. Finally, some suggestions for improvement are given. The conclusion includes a suggestion for future research in this area.

Wage Dispersion in the 1980s: Resurrecting the Role of Trade through the Effects of Durable Employment Changes

This paper finds that changes in durable manufacturing employment and investment in computer equipment can explain rising wage dispersion in the United States, measured in terms of the education premium. Reduced employment opportunities in durables production drive down the average wage for workers with only a high school education, thereby increasing the wage premium for college education. An innovation in this paper is the inclusion of investment in equipment as a proxy for skill-biased technical change. The rise in the technical skill premium could alone explain all of the rise in the college premium since 1979 were there no offsetting effects.

Wage Dispersion in the 1980's: Resurrecting the Role of Trade Through the Effects of Durable Employment Changes

This paper finds that changes in durable manufacturing employment and investment in computer equipment can explain rising wage dispersion in the United States, measured in terms of the education premium. Reduced employment opportunities in durables production drive down the average wage for workers with only a high school education, thereby increasing the wage premium for college education. An innovation in this paper is the inclusion of investment in equipment as a proxy for skill-biased technical change. The rise in the technical skill premium could alone explain all of the rise in the college premium since 1979 were there no offsetting effects. This is a Paper on Policy Analysis and Assessment and the author(s) would welcome any comments on the present text Citations should refer to a Paper on Policy Analysis and Assessment of the International Monetary Fund, mentioning the author(s) and the date of issuance. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Fund.

Wage Dispersion in the 1980s: Resurrecting the Role of Trade Through the Effects of Durable Employment Changes

This paper finds that changes in durable manufacturing employment and investment in computer equipment can explain rising wage dispersion in the United States, measured in terms of the education premium. Reduced employment opportunities in durables production drive down the average wage for workers with only a high school education, thereby increasing the wage premium for college education. An innovation in this paper is the inclusion of investment in equipment as a proxy for skill-biased technical change. The rise in the technical skill premium could alone explain all of the rise in the college premium since 1979 were there no offsetting effects. This is a Paper on Policy Analysis and Assessment and the author(s) would welcome any comments on the present text Citations should refer to a Paper on Policy Analysis and Assessment of the International Monetary Fund, mentioning the author(s) and the date of issuance. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Fund.

Manufacturing Employment Change in the American Midwest, 1977–86

In this paper, the changing pattern of manufacturing employment within the American Midwest for 1977–86 is examined as a function of four hypothesized trends in the US space-economy: national decline of industries concentrated in the Midwest; interregional shift in the focus of production within the USA; intraregional shift in the focus of production within the Midwest; and demetropolitanization of manufacturing. The degree to which each of these processes affects manufacturing employment change is treated here entirely as an empirical question and is examined by using an extended probabilistic shift-share model along the lines suggested by Theil and Gosh, and Knudsen and Barff. Results of the analysis indicate that change in manufacturing employment within the Midwest can be accounted for by interregional shift, intraregional shift, and the national decline of industries concentrated in the region, in that order. Once these other factors are accounted for, demetropolitanization of manufacturing played only a negligible role in changes in manufacturing employment within the region during the study period.

Patterns of manufacturing employment change within multinational enterprises 1977–1981

The extent of job loss has ensured a high level of interest in the corporate strategies of large firms in the UK. This study examines the employment record of a sample of leading UK-based multinational enterprises over the period 1977–81. In contrast with multinational enterprises from other nations, the UK companies were unique in combining significant domestic employment reduction with considerable overseas employment creation. While the pattern of employment change did not support the hypothesis of a direct substitutability of overseas for domestic production and employment it was consistent with a decline in the locational advantage of the UK.

Manufacturing employment change within rural areas

Manufacturing employment change within rural areas

The changing spatial distribution of socio-economic groups employed in manufacturing in Great Britain, 1971–1981

In this paper an attempt is made to study the spatial division of labour in Britain, through an investigation of the changing structure of employment in the manufacturing sector between 1971 and 1981. The separate impacts of loss in the volume of manufacturing employment, change in the balance between production and non-production activities in the occupational structure and the spatial shift of the population employed in manufacturing upon spatial variations in manufacturing employment change are tentatively identified. Data on the socio-economic composition of the population employed in manufacturing from the Small Area Statistics of the Censuses of Population for 1971 and 1981 are used to measure the impact of these processes at the local labour market area (LLMA) scale and to draw conclusions for the future employment prospects of different parts of Britain.

Industrialization and Income Change

Bluestone and Harrison's Deindustrialization of America (1982) focuses on the consequences for communities of industrial change. We explore this concern by examining the income implications of the dramatic shift in American industry from urban to rural settings. Using data from all existing counties in the United States, industrial change is examined during the 1960s—a historically important decade of unprecedented affluence and unprecedented change in rural-urban manufacturing employment. Regression analysis of shifts in median family income shows that although small towns benefit somewhat from the migration of industry or the expansion of existing facilities, these benefits are less than the income lost from a decline in manufacturing jobs in large metropolitan areas. The findings are consistent with Bluestone and Harrison's contention that industrial change results in a net loss of income to American workers. A major conclusion is that at the same time many American sociologists were celebrating alliances between business and labor, forces were at work undermining worker income and prosperity. Importantly, these forces were at work during a decade of widespread prosperity and prior to the recent difficulties in the American economy.

An industrial and spatial analysis of new firm formation in Ireland

O'Farrell P. N. and Crouchley R. (1984) An industrial and spatial analysis of new firm formation in Ireland, Reg. Studies 18, 221–236. This paper analyses the rate of indigenous new firm formation in Ireland over the period 1973–81. Evidence is presented concerning temporal trends and new firm formation, entry rates at regional and county level, and inter-industry variations in openings. Irish new firm formation rates when compared with international evidence suggest a relatively buoyant new firm sector. New firm entry rates at industry level are related to the size structure of each industry, the age of the existing plant stock, and the extent to which employment is controlled by multi-plant organizations. Spatial variations in entry rates are related to sectoral mix, the proportion of small plants in an area, the degree of urbanization and the rate of manufacturing employment change.

Components of Manufacturing Employment Change in Ireland 1973-1981

Employment change in Irish manufacturing industry is disaggregated into its basic components of openings, expansions, contractions and closures over the period 1973 to 1981. The components of change are cross-classified at plant level by ownership, grant type, size and sector and this shows that rates of indigenous new firm formation are higher in Ireland than in either of the UK regions. Comparisons of employment change by plant size with the US and the UK reveals that although the direction of change is the same for Irish manufacturing with only plants of below 100 employed recording net increases, the rate of net gain achieved by small plants in Ireland is greater than in either the US or the UK.

Reviews: Transport, Location and Spatial Policy, the Economics of Labor Migration: A Behavioral Analysis, An Economic History of the British Building Industry, 1815–1979, the Built Environment Series. Theories of Planning and Spatial Development, Flexibility and Commitment in Planning: A Comparative Study of Local Planning Developments in the Netherlands and England, Community Planning and Conceptions of Change, Geothermal Energy Development: Problems

Reviews: Transport, Location and Spatial Policy, the Economics of Labor Migration: A Behavioral Analysis, An Economic History of the British Building Industry, 1815–1979, the Built Environment Series. Theories of Planning and Spatial Development, Flexibility and Commitment in Planning: A Comparative Study of Local Planning Developments in the Netherlands and England, Community Planning and Conceptions of Change, Geothermal Energy Development: Problems