New Technology and the Economic Organisation of the Clothing Industry

Wyatt, G. (1988). New Technology and the Economic Organisation of the Clothing Industry. IIASA Collaborative Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: CP-88-004

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Abstract

Apart from being an important determinant of general living standards, the state of technology determines many important features of the economy, such as the cost of transforming inputs of factors of productions into output, and the extent of substitution between outputs and between inputs. It also strongly influences the demand for factors of production, the location of production and the appropriate economic organization of the industry. When technology changes, therefore, there is a substantial catalogue of economic consequences to be anticipated.

This essay attempts to provide a framework for a coherent discussion of the economic effects that might be expected to follow from impending changes in technology used in the clothing industry. Needless to say, it is not possible to discuss the details of the technologies and changes in technology as well as their economic effects. Instead, these are given a rather broad-brush treatment in the account that follows. It will also soon be apparent that the economic effects of certain supposed broad changes in technology can only be sketched out as speculations of a rather general type at this stage. Rather, what the essay attempts to contribute is a drawing-together of various strands of economic analysis that appear to have particular relevance to the topic in hand.

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