ADJUSTMENT TO GLOBALISATION: A STUDY OF THE FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY IN EUROPE

In terms of the absolute levels of labour productivity important differences are apparent
between these industrial countries. At the start of the period in 1970, labour productivity
was highest in the US with each worker on average producing 4229 pairs of shoes each
year. Italy and Spain also recorded relatively high initial levels of labour productivity
of 3886 and 3473 pairs of shoes per person employed followed by Portugal with 2562
pairs. The UK and Germany commenced the period as low productivity producers of
footwear with around 2000 pairs of shoes per person employed being produced in 1970.
Throughout much of the period productivity in Italy and Spain converged towards that
of the US and then exceeded it. In 1994 average productivity in Spain was 65 per cent
higher than that in the US whilst the average worker in Italy produced almost 23 per
cent more shoes than the average US footwear worker.

Productivity in the UK, Germany and Portugal also converged towards that of the US
but at a slower rate than in Italy and Spain. Hence large gaps in productivity compared
with the US in 1970 were not an indicator of subsequent growth in productivity. At the
both the start and at the end of the period the UK and Germany were the lowest
productivity countries in this sample of footwear producers.

4.2 Technological Change

Measuring technological change is obviously very difficult. One simple approach is to
look at the share of equipment in total investment and to check, as one might suspect,
that the share of equipment increases substantially during periods in which
technological change transforms the production process. Table 9 shows that, in general,
the share of investment devoted to machinery has not changed substantially when the
1990s are compared with the early 1970s. Although the data for certain countries show
quite high volatility from year to year.

Table 9 Index of the Share of Investment in Machinery in Total Investment in Footwear
(1970=100)

Source: ISIS (1998)

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