The contribution of technology and regional factors to production and productivity growth: The cases of United States textile-apparel and computer-electronics companies

This dissertation develops a micro growth model and investigates the contribution of technology and regional factors to production and productivity growth.; An analytical framework is developed to assess the direct and indirect impacts of embodied technology, technology related inputs, and regional contextual factors on production and productivity growth. The direct contribution is examined in production and labor productivity growth equations, while the indirect contribution is estimated in technological efficiency equations and technological input demand functions.; A random sample of companies in two technologically distinct industry groups, textile-apparel and computer-electronics, is selected from across the country to empirically estimate the contribution of technology and regional factors to production and productivity growth. The comprehensive investigation yields the following findings. (1) Technological progress embodied in new equipment is a significant contributor to production and productivity growth for both industry groups. Advanced fundamental knowledge carried by professionals is also important to computer-electronics manufacturers, while professional experience is significant for textile-apparel producers. (2) R&D contributes to production and productivity growth positively in both industry groups.(3) Besides R&D, adoption of advanced technology affects productivity growth in textile-apparel, but not in computer-electronics. (4) Regional business environment has a stronger direct in impact on production and productivity growth in computer-electronics than in textile-apparel. (5) Technological efficiency measured as total factor productivity (TFP) and scale economies can partly be determined by producer technological inputs and regional factors, but, clearly, computer-electronics companies are affected more by these inputs and factors than textile-apparel producers. (6) Conventional inputs, embodied technology, complementary/substitutive technological inputs, and regional factors are all closely related to the level of technological inputs in the two industry groups. (7) Returns to conventional inputs, capital and labor, are higher in computer-electronics than in textile-apparel, and the divergence from producer equilibrium appears to be increasing over time. (8) Technological progress is tested to be neutral over the 1985-1990 period for the two industry groups.; Theoretical and policy implications are drawn from the research, and further research is proposed.