Cars, Carriers of regionalism?


Book Description

This highly topical book brings together some of the world's leading specialists on the global car industry who discuss the ins and outs of the faster lane of regionalism at a time that the world is reassessing the ins and outs of globalization. It provides a thorough and up-dated mapping of the worldwide geography of the car industry, in the triad regions (Europe, North America and Japan), and in the emerging countries and regions.







Handbook of Industry Studies and Economic Geography


Book Description

This unique Handbook examines the impacts on, and responses to, economic geography explicitly from the perspective of the behaviour, mechanics, systems and experiences of different firms in various types of industries. The industry studies approach all




Hybrid Factories in Latin America


Book Description

Explores the Latin American economy and management through the study of Japanese companies in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Based on detailed case studies, this volume offers a bird's eye view of foreign investments in Latin America.




Relocation of Economic Activity


Book Description

This timely volume provides a thorough analysis of current trends in location and relocation of economic activity globally, regionally and locally. Using robust empirical material this book offers a multidisciplinary, comprehensive overview, critique and extension of long-established theories underpinning patterns of firm (re)location. It explores dominant trends in the mobility and relocation of industries and firms, examines the factors guiding such trends and evaluates their consequences in both developed and emerging economies in Europe, Asia and Latin America. This book will be appreciated by diverse audiences. Geography and regional science researchers of ‘economic activity location’ can engage with the critical appraisal of key theoretical concepts and an analysis of recent empirical data. Students of human and economic geography, planning, regional development, and global supply chain management in senior years of undergraduate programmes and completing postgraduate degrees will appreciate the accessible language, multiple examples and graphical illustrations of theoretical frameworks underpinning location and relocation of firms and industries, and its consequences. Practitioners, including local and regional policy makers and location consultants will enjoy the comparative discussion of solutions and practices adopted in localities, regions and countries as diverse as China, Brazil, The Netherlands and Poland.




Competitiveness and Death


Book Description

Competitiveness and Death examines the increase and reduction of regulatory barriers to trade across three industries: environmental, labor, and safety rules on automobiles, consumer protection regulations on meat, and intellectual property regulations on medicines. The fundamental negotiation in trade and regulatory policymaking occurs between businesses, activists, and government officials. Gary Winslett builds on new trade theories to explain when and why businesses are most likely to lobby governments to reduce these regulatory trade barriers. He argues that businesses prevail when they can connect with broader concerns about national economic competitiveness. He examines how activist organizations overcome collective action problems and defend regulatory differences, arguing that they succeed when they can link their desire for barriers with preventing needless death. Competitiveness and Death provides a political companion to new trade theories in economics, questioning cleavage-based explanations of trade politics, demonstrating the underappreciated importance of activists, suggesting the limits of globalization, providing in-depth examination of previously ignored trade negotiations, qualifying the California Effect (the shift toward stricter regulatory standards), and showing the relative rarity of regulations used as disguised protectionism.




The North American Auto Industry since NAFTA


Book Description

The auto sector is North America’s most iconic of industries. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement came into existence in 1994, the sector has undergone tremendous change: escalating concerns around climate change, advances in electric and automated vehicles, deindustrialization/reindustrialization, and the rise of low-cost locations as hubs for manufacturing. The North American Auto Industry since NAFTA examines the issues that have preoccupied the development of policy associated with the manufacture of automobiles in North America. The collection addresses the punctuations that have afflicted the industry since NAFTA’s implementation as well as the slower, incremental evolutions that have also occurred. Several aspects of automobility and the industry are explored, including but not limited to the Canadian, American, and Mexican automotive sectors and their evolution and interaction under evolving trade regimes. The book analyses issues surrounding labour, technology, trade policy, regional development, the environment, and broader societal impacts of the automobile. It also draws on the expertise of a wide cross-section of industry experts and scholars to provide readers with a deeper understanding of the automotive industry and its central role in North America’s economic, business, and political landscape.




NAFTA to USMCA: What is Gained?


Book Description

The United States – Mexico – Canada Agreement (USMCA) was signed on November 30, 2018 and aims to replace and modernize the North-American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This paper uses a global, multisector, computable-general-equilibrium model to provide an analytical assessment of five key provisions in the new agreement, including tighter rules of origin in the automotive, textiles and apparel sectors, more liberalized agricultural trade, and other trade facilitation measures. The results show that together these provisions would adversely affect trade in the automotive, textiles and apparel sectors, while generating modest aggregate gains in terms of welfare, mostly driven by improved goods market access, with a negligible effect on real GDP. The welfare benefits from USMCA would be greatly enhanced with the elimination of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico and the elimination of the Canadian and Mexican import surtaxes imposed after the U.S. tariffs were put in place.




Flexibility at Work


Book Description

An examination of the form and character of recent transformations in the international automobile industry. Using comparative and national-based case study analysis, it explores the nature of such recent developments (outsourcing, modularization, high performance workplaces, etc.) and their impact on issues in the sector on a world scale.