The Diffusion of Modern Manufacturing Practices: Evidence from Retail-Apparel Sectors

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Working Paper Number: CES-97-11

Abstract

As in many industries, firms in the apparel industry exhibit substantial heterogeneity in the adoption of "modern manufacturing" practices. Based on detailed business-unit level data, we show that this heterogeneity can be explained firm inputs. We show that the interaction between these explanatory factors means that complementarities between inputs may emerge over time rather than all at once as is often assumed in other studies of complementarities.

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