Trade liberalization and patterns of strategic adjustment in the US textiles and clothing industry

Some Ricardian models would predict a fall in unemployment with trade liberalization. In contrast, the Heckscher-Ohlin model (Stolper Samuelson Theorem) would predict trade liberalization would cause a fall in wages for labor scarce countries, resulting in greater unemployment if there are wage rigidities. The choice of which theoretical model is used affects the empirical results obtained. This paper produces estimates of the change in unemployment due to a change in imports that are not model dependent. The estimates produced are total derivatives that capture all the ways that imports and unemployment are correlated. I find that unemployment increases with increased imports for Austria, Greece, Japan, Portugal, South Korea, Slovenia, and Sweden, but that unemployment decreases with increased imports for Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, the UK, and the US.

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Resisting Openness

Trade Policy in Multilevel Government ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198856122.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 51-90

Author(s):

Christian Freudlsperger

Keyword(s):

Trade Liberalization ◽

Historical Development ◽

State Governments ◽

Best Value ◽

Short Period ◽

The Us ◽

Canadian Provinces ◽

Run Up ◽

Municipal Level ◽

The Eu

The third chapter of Trade Policy in Multilevel Government introduces the field of procurement as a hard case of trade liberalization. Contracting in line with the principle of ‘best value for money’ curtails public actors’ ability to rely on procurement as a directed means of redistribution. Nevertheless, this principle has served as the rallying cry of an international regime of procurement liberalization that has gradually evolved since the 1970s and whose historical development is described here. In a second step, the chapter elaborates on the patterns of openness and resistance to procurement liberalization among the three multilevel polities chosen for analysis. Over the entire period of observation, the US states’ openness has been comparatively low. Intermittently, their resistance had decreased in the run-up to the 1994 GPA. In recent years, however, the number of states willing to be bound by international procurement disciplines plummeted to virtually zero. As for the Canadian provinces and territories, the picture shifted in recent years. Especially in the negotiations on CETA, they permitted the EU wholesale access to their procurement markets. Within a short period, the Canadian provinces’ position on international procurement liberalization thus witnessed a veritable sea change. Finally, in the EU case, openness on part of member state governments has consistently proved highest among the three cases. Already within the scope of the 1979 GATT Code, all EC members’ central procurement was covered, albeit modestly. In the 1994 GPA and its 2012 revision, the EU covered its procurement on the national, regional, and municipal level.

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Backwards into the future: new technologies and old work organization in the US clothing industry

Rethinking Global Production ◽

10.4324/9780429444548-3 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 41-59 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ian M. Taplin

Keyword(s):

New Technologies ◽

Work Organization ◽

Clothing Industry ◽

The Us ◽

The Future

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Collaboration in achieving sustainable solutions in the textile industry

Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing ◽

10.1108/jbim-01-2020-0041 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu ◽

Fabiana Nogueira Holanda Ferreira ◽

João F. Proença ◽

Domenico Ceglia

Keyword(s):

Value Chain ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Business Models ◽

Clothing Industry ◽

Manufacturing Companies ◽

Ecological Value ◽

Society Business ◽

Content Type ◽

Sustainable Solutions ◽

Textiles And Clothing

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how sustainable solutions in the textiles and clothing industry are decided through business-to-business collaboration. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative and inductive study of the Brazilian textiles and clothing industry is carried out, an industry in which sustainable denim products are increasingly being recognized as subject to competition. The paper adopts a focal net perspective to understand the collaborative arrangements through which firms combine the products they offer as a sustainable solution. Documentary data were collected and in-depth interviews conducted with the top managers of one of the world’s largest denim-manufacturing companies present in the Brazilian market, which is involved in providing sustainable solutions in cooperation with its partners. Findings The authors describe the factors that reflect the conditions for generating a sustainable business performance, including a corporate policy that assumes and articulates the responsibility for social interest, core-business stakeholders and regulatory requirements; a sustainable product-service system (S.PSS) based on innovative interactions between the stakeholders in the value production system; relations between stakeholders that promote business sustainability through a dependable value chain characterized by a sense of collaboration and collective actions; and a business model for sustainability that combines economic with social and ecological value creation. These factors help a business establish a more strategic position in the value network, enabling it to capture more value. Practical implications Sustainable solutions are developed dynamically and collaboratively within an S.PPS. Managers need to focus not only on tangible products but also on intangible services designed and combined so that they are jointly capable of fulfilling customer’s needs and creating social and ecological value. Managers within the solution provider must develop business models for sustainability that are continually evolving to satisfy the interest in resource-efficiency by actors in civil society, business and government. Originality/value The research contributes to the existing literature by applying approaches involving corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategic nets to the study of the implementation of an S.PSS. Sustainable initiatives and offers developed by an S.PSS are not isolated phenomena but result from collaboration in finding solutions among different actors linked in a strategic net. In this sense, companies need to adjust their business models for sustainability to generate positive economic, social and ecological value and gain credibility for their missions.

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