Productivity, Technology, and Industrial Development: A Case Study in Textiles

Abstract

A realistic assessment of productivity in a particular country is essential in determining the least-cost technology for an industrial project. Yet the large differences in productivity between industrial and developing countries are rarely taken into account. This book investigates productivity differences in technically similar cotton textile mills in Kenya, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom and places these comparisons within a larger international context. It examines the concept of best practice, derives measures of the total factor productivity of plants in the developing countries relative to best practice, and uses economic and engineering information to identify the reasons for the measured differences in productivity. Those reasons include differences not only in the skill of the work force but also in the technical competence of managers and in the range of products manufactured. The book suggests economic policies for achieving greater productivity from existing plants and draws implications for the transfer of technology and the design and implementation of industrial projects in developing countries.

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