Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Alcorta, Ludovico
Author-Workplace-Name: United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies
Title: Flexible Automation and Location of Production in Developing Countries
Abstract: This paper analyses and assesses the potential impact of microelectronics-based
	 forms of flexible automation (FA) on the location of industrial production in
	 developing countries. It suggests that for developing countries as a whole the
	 diffusion of FA does not favor the establishment of a local engineering industry.
	 The converging production and cost conditions worldwide, the higher optimal scale
	 plants and the growing infrastructure requirements arising out of FA demand cost
	 reducing, quality enhancing, learning, investment, research and development,
	 marketing and increasing market share efforts beyond most local firms'
	 possibilities. Yet, possibilities for location in specific countries may arise out
	 the skill and possibly capital saving characteristics of the new technologies, the
	 high labor costs of simple assembly processes in developed countries, the available
	 technical and financial capability of very large domestic firms, the size of the
	 respective market and the capacity of each country to introduce creative and
	 innovative policies.
Keywords: Automation, Location of Industry, Developing Countries
Series: Discussion Paper
Creation-Date: 1998
Number: 1998-05
File-URL: https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/discussion-papers/9805.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 107 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unuint:199805