The Changing Firm and Country Boundaries of US Manufacturers in Global Value Chains
中文摘要
本文记录了美国企业如何跨越企业边界和国家边界组织产品生产。2007年，大多数利用外国制造工厂在企业内部完成实体转化任务的美国企业同时也拥有美国制造工厂；此外，制造业是其主要的国内活动。相比之下，“无工厂商品生产商”将所有实体转化任务外包给独立承包商，将其内部努力集中在设计和营销上。这种独特的企业类型在对制造业的标准分析中是缺失的，其重要性日益增加，并且越来越依赖外国供应商。因此，“企业内部”的实体转化与大量的“国内”实体转化相一致，而其在“企业外部”的执行通常也意味着在“国外”。尽管存在这些差异，无工厂商品生产商与拥有外国和国内制造工厂的企业都雇用了相对较高比例的美国知识工作者。这些模式呼吁新的模型和数据，以捕捉外国生产支持国内创新的潜力，而美国企业正在全球范围内利用这一点。
Abstract
This paper documents how US firms organize goods production across firm and country boundaries. Most US firms that perform physical transformation tasks in-house using foreign manufacturing plants in 2007 also own US manufacturing plants; moreover, manufacturing comprises their main domestic activity. By contrast, “factoryless goods producers” outsource all physical transformation tasks to arm's-length contractors, focusing their in-house efforts on design and marketing. This dis tinct firm type is missing from standard analyses of manufacturing, growing in importance, and increasingly reliant on foreign suppliers. Physical transformation “within-the-firm” thus coincides with substantial physical transformation “within-the-country ,” whereas its performance “outside-the-firm” often also implies “outside-the-country.” Despite these differences, factoryless goods producers and firms with foreign and domestic manufacturing plants both employ relatively high shares of US knowledge workers. These patterns call for new models and data to capture the potential for foreign production to support domestic innovation, which US firms leverage around the world.