Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology, Management, and Policy Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-216). / This dissertation addresses the issue of performance standards in developing nations, focusing on the role of local content requirements. It proposes a theoretical framework to understand the impact of this policy on the decisions of firms and the welfare of the domestic economy, and offers a methodology to apply the analysis to the context of the automotive supply chain. The central conclusion of the thesis relates to the existence of a gap between private and social opportunity returns and costs, an aspect that has been overlooked by previous literature. In a developing country, resources employed by foreign investors and their local suppliers often generate spillovers and learning effects that are not accounted for in the valuations of private economic agents. This creates an externality-from-entry, whereby positive economic effects of new domestic suppliers are overlooked in the sourcing decision of the foreign firm. This dissertation proposes a model to illustrate how this gap between social and private valuations justifies the enactment of domestic content requirements, which become welfare enhancing. The analysis also reveals that content requirements are a preferable policy to tariffs and subsidies as a means to increase domestic purchases and discusses the use of subsidies and requirements as incentive mechanisms to align firm decisions with government objectives. A case study of the automotive industry, where content restriction policies are extremely active, is used to demonstrate the applicability of the model. This entailed the development of a new methodology, called Systems Cost Modeling (SCM), which uses simple metrics and rules to build bottom-up cost structures where estimates for large number of components have to be considered. Detailed empirical data from a particular car is then used to build a sourcing cost structure. / (cont.) These costs are integrated with the domestic content model to show how, for existing market and policy conditions; there can be value to the enactment of modest levels of domestic content requirements in the auto industry. It also explains that the impact of the policy is very sensitive to project characteristics and that this should be factored into national decisions. / by Francisco Veloso. / Ph.D.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29601 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Veloso, Francisco, 1969- |
| Contributors | Alice H. Amsden., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Technology, Management, and Policy Program., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Technology, Management, and Policy Program. |
| Publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | M.I.T. Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 216 leaves, 11574921 bytes, 11574729 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 |
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