in supplying relatively small orders. China on the other hand is considered as a place of
cheap shoes of reliable quality. China is also seen to be strong in responding to massive
standardised orders.
Assessing the extent of quality upgrading is difficult. Data on production is collected at
too aggregate a level to be useful. Given this, Brenton and Pinna (2000) look at
upgrading of the exports of European countries as reflecting possible strategies by
domestic footwear producers to increase the quality of their output. Using detailed (8-
digit) trade data these authors take quality upgrading to be a shift within the bundle of
commodities exported towards higher value products. This analysis provides little
evidence of a marked upgrading of the bundle of footwear products exported by EU
countries in the 1980s and 1990s when import competition has become more intense. In
fact exports of most of the EU countries, including Italy, to other OECD markets were
downgraded after 1988.
Brenton and Pinna (2000) find no evidence of more intense import competition from
low-wage countries in the footwear sector being statistically associated with export
upgrading. The only significant correlation that they find suggests a positive relation
between movements in the pure price of imports (after correcting for quality upgrading)
and changes in pure price of exports. Thus, where import competition has been
strongest in terms of pure prices there appear to have been smaller pure price increases
of exports.
Thus, to date, despite much survey and anecdotal support, there is no comprehensive
evidence from industry or trade data of quality upgrading being used as a response to
globalisation in the footwear sector in Europe. However, the approach above will not
pick up increases in quality which occur for all of the most detailed product categories.
Hence, the Italian advantage in innovation in design could result in a higher quality of
all the footwear produced in Italy. This will not appear as quality upgrading in the
export bundle unless there is a shift to products which have a higher value at the start of
the period under investigation.
23